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About this spot
Sailors call the stretch between the Balatonföldvár marina and the Szántód ferry Szántód bay, and its special feature is depth — or rather the lack of it. Where the south shore normally drops off 100–150 m from the bank, here your feet still find bottom 300–400 m out. That shapes everything about the spot: beginners can stand up almost anywhere, waves break far out and stay smaller than you'd expect over the shallows, and with a big enough kite you can ride straight across to the north shore — the lake is only about 1.5 km wide here, which is the legal limit for how far off the bank you may go anyway. Formula sailors do exactly that when they want flat water and the wind is steady.
The working launch is the Keleti (East) strand in Balatonföldvár, or the Szántód beach a bit further east; the private holiday houses and the narrow ramps cut through the reeds between them are not for public use. The beach itself has free parking, a toilet and showers, and the local surf school keeps boards in storage on the sand with a place to leave valuables and its own ramp down to the water. Wind follows the general Balaton pattern — south-westerly, westerly, north-westerly, northerly and north-easterly all work — with a local quirk on hot summer days: a fresh easterly to north-easterly often blows here early in the morning while other parts of the lake are dead calm, usually only force 2–4, so it is big-board and big-kite water. In a strong north-westerly the water stays flat for freestyle work by the reeds beside the marina — a freestyle event was run there in 2010 — and near the Szántód mole.
Two things sit under the water and on the water that you cannot see from the beach. The Tihany–Szántód ferry lane runs along the bay, and riding across it is not something to test; the water police are based in Siófok and do patrol, even if they rarely come into the bay itself. And about 200 m south-east of the Szántód ferry pier there is an underwater stone pile — said to be the remains of an old pier or a Roman road, visible on satellite images and marked for boat traffic by a buoy — which is a genuine hazard when the lake is low. As everywhere on Balaton, the storm warning lights decide whether you are on the water at all: yellow flashing 45 times a minute means small craft and water-sports equipment stay within 500 m of the shore, and 90 times a minute means you are off the water.
3-day forecast
Speed / gusts in knots. Colour = rideability for this spot. Bottom row = recommended kite size for your weight — not recommended outside this spot's 11–30 kn range.
Conditions
- Water
- flat, choppy
- Depth
- Exceptionally shallow — standing depth up to 300–400 m from the shore
- Seabed
- sand, silt, reeds along the edges
- Skill
- beginner, intermediate, expert
- Beginners
- Beginner friendly
- Wind range
- 11 kn – 30 kn
Access & parking
About an hour and a half from Budapest on the M7 (Balatonföldvár exit); the launch is the Keleti strand on the eastern side of town, between the marina and the Szántód ferry. Szántód beach is the alternative a kilometre further north-east.
Parking: Free public parking at the Keleti strand, with toilets and showers on the beach.
Amenities
- Free beach with parking, toilets and showers at the Keleti strand
- Local surf school on the sand with board storage, a valuables store and its own ramp, plus lessons in the waist-deep water
- Marina, cafés, bakeries and shops in Balatonföldvár, all within walking distance of the beach
- Szántód ferry to Tihany, and direct trains to Budapest and Pécs from Balatonföldvár
Needs local verification: Compiled in October 2026 from Hungarian kiting-club spot lists, the national kiting association's own rules and venue pages, lake-regulation summaries and the meteorological service's storm-warning pages; launch points, gated access, fees and on-water zones still need checking on site. Water temperature is a seasonal lake estimate — the marine model has no inland-lake data.
Local hazards
- The Tihany–Szántód ferry lane runs along the bay — do not ride across it
- An underwater stone pile about 200 m south-east of the Szántód ferry pier (old pier or Roman road remains), marked by a buoy and dangerous at low water
- Storm warning lights govern the water: 45 yellow flashes a minute means stay within 500 m of shore, 90 means water-sports craft stay off
- Early-morning easterlies are often only force 2–4 — you need a big kite and a big board, and offshore wind from the south quarter should be left alone
- Private ramps, holiday houses and reed channels line the shore between the two beaches — rig only on the public beaches