The best hotels in Budapest include the Maverick City Lodge, Bohem Art Hotel and Four Seasons Gresham Palace. These seven Budapest accommodation recommendations cover the top hotels in the Hungarian capital for different needs.
Planning a stay in Budapest
Budapest is a strong, strong contender for the title of Europe’s best all-rounder city break. It’s indisputably beautiful on either side of the Danube, has a solid range of often rather weird attractions and has lots of thermal baths to splash around in. It’s also great fun – the gamut of ‘ruin’ bars sprawling across shabby old buildings and courtyards is hugely enjoyable, while craft beer pubs and street food truck/ stall clusters are popping up to open arms. By the standards elsewhere, Budapest is pretty cheap for a three day city break, too, if not perhaps the stone cold steal it was ten to 15 years ago.
It works for families, it works for couples on a dirty weekend, it works for stag and hen dos. And it’s big enough for these groups not to get under each other’s skin too much.
Budapest is also far better thought of as a glorious Habsburg city than a former Soviet Bloc outpost. Many hotels are in grand old buildings from the era of Austro-Hungarian Empire pomp, and this leads to the ratio of bland cookie-cutter options being pleasantly, remarkably low.
There’s also a strong apartment scene, and if all you want is cheap and relatively spacious, then it’s worth looking into several options that fall somewhere between aparthotels and Airbnb.
In some ways, location is important – there’s a vast gulf in personality between pretty-but-quiet Buda and energetic, unashamedly urban Pest. But on the whole, the city is supremely walkable, so it is by no means crucial.
Best Budapest accommodation for backpackers: Maverick City Lodge
Perky hostel-hotel hybrids are all the rage in Central Europe these days, and the Maverick pulls it off, keeping the dorms on one floor, and private rooms on another. The latter look weirdly incomplete, largely due to it being rails and open shelving rather than chunky wardrobes, while bedside tables are built into the bed base. Bathrooms, surprisingly, come with heated towel rails and free-standing basins.
The communal kitchen, where the walls are covered in post-it notes from previous guests, is a little short on cooking space. But this is compensated for by the complimentary social events, which happen four times a week, and range from a good feed on spag bol or Hungarian tapas to wine tasting sessions.
Best Budapest hotel for art: Bohem Art Hotel
The name isn’t an oversell. Walk into this converted stationary factory, and you get a full blast of big wall murals, bold paintings and weird alien-like sculptures. Giant artworks behind the beds are accompanied by the individual artist’s name painted next to it on the ceiling, while the pictures of former workers in the factory give a nod to the past opposite the lifts.
The Bohem Art Hotel somehow manages to be that rare thing – a design hotel that doesn’t reek of pretentiousness. Rooms are modest, but highly likeable, and free snacks, teas and coffees are doled out in the bar between 2pm and 5pm.
Best Budapest accommodation for nightlife: The Casati
Very close to the marvellous ‘ruin’ bars’ and, frankly, several equally excellent non-ruin bars around Kacinzky utca, but just far enough away to not be affected by the noise, the Casati is in a great spot to enjoy a rowdy weekend.
But it has so much more to offer than just location. There are plenty of rather likeable design quirks, such as the TV mounted on a pole so it can be turned either towards the bed or the sofa. Or the entrance hall almost entirely filled with an art installation that appears to be a forest of giant tulips. Or the pop art-esque faces painted on the bedroom doors.
It’s fun, and friendly too – free tea, coffee, cakes and fruit until 4pm is a welcome offering – while the climbing plants absolutely everywhere give it a back to nature vibe.
Best Budapest hotel for rooftop relaxation: The Continental
Very few Budapest hotels do the rooftop thing, but the Continental is a marvellous exception. Weird, almost leaf-shaped sun-loungers look out over the Buda Hills, the Citadelle and St Stephen’s Cathedral, while an eight metre pool is just long enough for laps. If it’s a little chilly, there’s an identically-sized pool under a roof inside.
Come down from the roof, though, and what makes the Continental so appealing is that everything about it is furiously interesting. Half of the lobby is under what looks like a barrel-vaulted glass tunnel, the entrance door is made of copper, the wallpaper looks like it’s basket-woven, there are mosaics under the bathroom mirrors and there’s a giant Old Budapest street scene mural clambering several stories up a wall in one of the courtyards.
Best Budapest hotel for food: The Prestige
A common theme amongst Budapest is lobbies built into former courtyards under audacious glass roofs, and the Prestige arguably pulls this off more spectacularly than anywhere else. Bulging white walls, gorgeous iron railings, grandstanding shimmery lights and a monster chandelier bring the wow factor.
In the rooms, there are more than a few Arabic hints, including rather spectacular blue velvet and gold print sofas.
But the real star is downstairs. Costes Downtown is the first branch-off of Costes – Hungary’s first Michelin-starred restaurant. And the new boy, focused heavily on trad Central European dishes with a twist, has recently been awarded a star in its own right.
Best Budapest accommodation for Grand Budapest Hotel fantasies: The Corinthia
Don’t expect the quirky, morally dubious staff of Wes Anderson’s Central European caper, but the Corinthia was formerly known as the Grand Hotel Royal, and comes with the eye-popper lobby, wide corridors and enormous ballroom you might expect.
It’s actually three buildings brought together by two audacious glass ceilings, turning former passageways into atriums. The rooms are calming – neutral colours, big comfy beds and bedside lamps that have little mirrors built into them – but the spa’s the star.
A separate lift heads down there so you can go in your bathrobe without doing the walk of shame through the lobby. A huge pool awaits, with two bubbling spa pools, and a gorgeous stained glass roof.
Best luxury Budapest hotel: The Four Seasons Gresham Palace
Right opposite the landmark Chain Bridge over the Danube, the word that springs to mind time and time and again with the Gresham Palace is “sumptuous”. It’s a pitch-perfect piece of reined-in art nouveau – never going overboard with the flourishes, but managing to pull off something truly dreamy. Peacock-emblazoned iron gates, beautifully curving archways leading to stained glass roofs and endlessly pleasing specks of Mackintosh or Lloyd-Wright-esque detailing add up, while rooms come with rich red marble bathrooms, sink-in superking beds and soaringly high ceilings. There’s a grace and splendour about the place that never feels OTT.
There’s a thoughtfulness about it, too – as typified by providing carry-on friendly plastic toiletries bags in the bathrooms.
More Budapest travel
Other Budapest articles on Planet Whitley include:
For a range of Budapest tours, activities and experiences, snoop around here.
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