I normally stay at a local boutique hotel on the Buda side but the day I am arriving, most hotels are sold out/extremely pricey. I have stayed at the big Marriott facing the Danube in an excellent location and believe these Marriott apartments are a 4 minute walk per Rome2Rio.
It will only be for 2 nights. Anyone recently stay here and can help me on your experience?
Haven't stayed there, but Marriott rarely lets me down.
Thank you and I agree. This is their executive apartments in a good location and my normal local hotels are booked due to a Formula One Race going on.
Kathy, I have stayed in a number of Budapest hotels over the years, but except for a few nights at the Corinthia a few years ago, I havent stayed in a hotel in a decade. So all I am good for on the subject is location.
The forum use some good recent reviews and none better than when someone has stayed several times in the same place. So please, if you can find a moment, post a review of the local boutique hotel on the Buda side.
I am happy to report on where I have stayed in the past and after my trip, I will post about the Marriott apartments. I certainly appreciated the post about the 2 great Lebanese restaurants and will be looking for them.
Last time I stayed at the Gellert Hotel and visited the baths. The hotel was very outdated and my room was dismal at best. But they moved me and it was better. I am hoping they refurbish the rooms as the staff and baths are fantastic. Bring your own swim cap and slippers or you can buy them.
The other small hotel is Hotel Orion. A small, inexpensive hotel but a nice breakfast and a great location. But very basic which was all I needed and very nice staff.
Kathy, THANK YOU!
Tthe once famous Gellert has been a run down victim of communism since the end of WWII. Here is a little history: https://www.danubiushotels.com/budapest-guide/the-100-year-history-of-the-gellert-hotel-spa
But good news about the Gellet Hotel. A few years ago it was purchased by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. These are they guys that run some of the finest 5 star hotels all over the world. The Gellert is closed now for renovations and is slated to reopen, fully renovated and upgraded in 2027. https://hungarytoday.hu/renovation-of-budapests-hotel-gellert-starts-to-restore-it-to-its-former-glory/ and https://edition.cnn.com/travel/hotel-gellert-restoration-budapest-hungary
The bath house remains open. https://www.hasta-standrews.com/features/2023/3/5/soaking-in-history-the-gellert-baths-of-budapest
But having stayed there you stayed in great history and in the footsteps of great (or at least interesting) individuals. From one of the links above:
"The virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin was the first famous hotel guest after the war, and enjoyed the Gellért’s hospitality on a number of occasions. Statesmen such as Richard Nixon, the Austrian chancellors Julius Raab and Bruno Kreisky, the Iranian shah Pachlavi and his family, the Dalai Lama, the Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casarolli, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg, American medical researcher Albert Sabin, the world-famous actors Kirk Douglas, Antony Quinn, Marina Vlady, Alberto Sordi and Jean Fonda, the cellist Pablo Casals, the violinist Isaac Stern and pianist Arthur Rubinstein, the conductors Carlo Zecchi, Gábor Carelli and Roberto Benzi, the violinists Igor and David Ojsztrah, the operatic tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, the Soviet film director Grigory Naumovich Chukhray, composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and, more recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Hungary’s own Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmost Zsigmond have all stayed at the Gellért."
Oh and I read in a biography of Oscar Schindler that he stayed in the Gellert when he came to Budapest to try and warn the Jewish population.
Kathy the Orion Hotel looks nice. https://www.hotelorion.hu/
For those that might be interested its a post war building mixed in among some of the survivors of Buda's oldest buildings. This is common on the Buda side as Buda was the last Nazi hold out. With orders from Hitler to not surrender the seige lasted 48 days and as a result a lot of Buda was destroyed. https://maps.app.goo.gl/NrqWeHsB33kpoYJFA
The hotel is nicely pearched just above and less than a 10 minute walk from the recently renovated Várkert Bazár https://maps.app.goo.gl/8Q6cgm97DCXjweJG9 which has interesting shops and some really nice restaurants. From the Bazár you can also walk up the stairs (many, many, many hundreds of steps - makes a more enjoyable walk down) to the castle https://maps.app.goo.gl/A3rKPFsHEbdBk55fA. Along the way is some interesting new and old architecture and a lovely courtyard. The 19/41 tram stop is less than a 5 minutes walk and with it and one change to the metro or a bus or another tram you can be in the center of pest in under 20 minutes .... or you can walk it in under 30 minutes.
Kathy, finally (I think):
The Lebanese by the hotel is https://maps.app.goo.gl/z5uM8CvzwKrUmXRA7 The other Lebanese restaurant that I like is https://maps.app.goo.gl/ojhdpXGUrFVTMyjX8 and this one a few feet away is owned by the same people so I suspect it is equally as good, but I haven’t been yet. Maybe today? Hmmmm https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jzor68YNbFvdXE9g7
Also around the corner from your hotel is Kiosk which is nice especially in good weather https://maps.app.goo.gl/d8tgJTGukW72XzKV7
Then for a real treat if you want home cooked Persian, https://maps.app.goo.gl/MEhAxHJqSHNDuqPw5 I have a few Persian friends in the U.S. that have come to visit and they think this is some of the best Persian food outside of Tehran. I enjoy it and the staff is sweet.
Being right off Vaci utca, the tourist backbone of District V, means you have a KFC, Burger King and a Lucky 7 Burger too. Seriously, don’t eat on Vaci utca. Walk it once so you can say you did. Then go elsewhere.
