I visited this cultural landscape during a car trip to Hungarian town Sopron some 10 years ago, and we did a loop around the lake visiting thus both Austrian and Hungarian part. Further, I could observe the lake from a plane during a flight from Italy to Prague/Vienna, I do not remember.... Even though all cultural landscapes are a bit problematic to understand, I do think that this landscape deserves the WHS status.

The lake is fascinating and beautiful "from above", but from the ground it is quite difficult to enjoy and recognize its qualities. From Austrian side, one can spot the lake from Burgenland hills covered by wineyards, but if you go closer you enter the total plane with the lake surrounded by dense reeds. There was a corridor from the village of Illmitz directly to the lake, and I could enjoy a swimming in this shallow lake with milky water. I was not alone there, since the lake is very popular for locals to enjoy water sports. On the Austrian side, we further enjoyed the old village Rust, but one can find simmilar sites in almost every corner of Austria (Wachau etc.). What I liked the most was the salt marches ans stepe-like lanscape (PHOTO - nearby Illmitz). On the Hungarian side, the lake is almost inaccessible. From the inscribed sites, we could see the Szechenyi castle from outside, but I was not very impressed because it looked like ordinary baroque chatteau.

The combination of the stepe-like lake and Central European cultural landscape is unique and it is worth-visiting even though it is not a world class.