sleeping in Budapest

We just returned from Budapest this wk. To walk across the chain bridge takes about 6min. Our hotel while great did not have view of chain bridge but was 1 min from state opera theatre. You might try expedia or some other consolidator for gd hotel rates nr chain bridge. We did well w/ expedia for our Prague & Vienna portions.
hope this helps.

This is all pretty subjective. I have stayed at the Art'otel and it was okay. If you get a river facing room on one of the top 2 floors the view is pretty spectacular. But i don't recommend it. The view is just as spectacular from the Pest embankment and 100 times better from the top of Gellert Hill. Maybe you can get across the bridge in six minutes but getting to and from each end of the bridge is going to take significantly longer. A trip from the Art'otel to the Vaci utca will take you something less than 30 minutes. . If its your first time in town i think the best value in a hotel is the K&K Opera. No matter what, i would stay in Pest. If you want, look up some hotel choices and send them to me and if i know anything about them or the neighborhood they are in i will let you know. Also check out the Marriott as the have rooms with good views of Castle Hill and the rivet at reasonable prices. James

A hotel in Buda would have to be VERY inexpensive for me to choose it over a Pest hotel. The Buda side has the Castle and Gellert hill - and not much else of interest. The Pest side really is where you will spend almost all of your time. Walking over the Chain bridge was something I enjoyed - one or two times. I wouldn't want to do it all the time. There are buses over the bridges (sometimes quite full), and there's the 4/6 tram (very handy) and line 2 (red) of the Metro. If I were staying in Buda and was not near a tram, bus or Metro line, I know I would have been quite unhappy. Just my two cents - my sister stayed in Buda, and liked it.

Many thanks to all of you. We will definitely stay on the Pest side.

As others have pointed out, most of the sights are on the Pest side. If you are out late and staying in Buda, be sure to know the tram and bus timetable - and make sure you are in time for the last one back. It's a helluva climb. On the other hand much of Pest is walkable.

On both our trips to Budapest we stayed at the Marriott which overlooks the Danube and the Chain Bridge. Sitting in bed at night and looking at the bridge lit up along with the castle is a truly memorable sight. I'm not sure if this is in your price range or not. One thing is that this you may be able to get this hotel on priceline for a reasonable price (check out biddingfortravel on what to bid if this is something that interests you).

I was 33 when I visited Budapest......And I stayed in the Buda side. And I loved it. I loved the sites on the Buda side just as much as the Pest side. Wine tasting in the cave was awesome; mmmmmmhhmmmm Bulls Blood. St Stephen's church, fisherman's bastion, the castle, beautiful parks, lovely walks, a thermal bath, a nice residential feel. I loved the work out I got getting back to my B&B; multiple blocks of uphill and stair side walk walking. I loved the views that I had of Pest from the Buda side. I loved the restaurants and bars that I frequented that were on the Buda side more than what I had on the Pest side. I also found it very simple to get to the Pest side from Buda; the metro station was easy to get to.