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More than any other European capital city, Budapest is horribly easy to get wrong. Stay in a dreary part of Pest (i.e., most of it), eat as you go along, find no shops of any interest, get ripped off by a taxi driver on your way to being scammed by a nightclub, and you’ll quickly end up hating the place long before you leave it! But get Budapest right and it will offer an experience every bit as good as the Gothicana and Grolsch of Prague. You might even, like me, end up preferring it. What follows is a “what to know” guide to avoiding disappointment in a city of possibilities.

The Best of Budapest

- Budapest is a spa city, full of historic remedial baths like the grand old Gellert and the open-air, chess-playing Szechenyi, both worth trying out.
- Budapest serves fantastic Pinots, Merlots and ersatz Clarets from the likes of Gail Tibor and Joseph Bock, to say nothing of Hungary’s world-famous Tokaji dessert wines, available in bistros, bars and a handful of restaurants Egon Ronay would come back for.
- The Danube doesn’t look better in any other city, especially on a flood-lit night cruise.
- The view from Gellert Hill is truly one of the highlights of Europe, an urban equivalent to the bella vista from Capri’s Monte Salario.
- The Hungarian State Opera is an inexpensively classy night out, at £14/$27 for a good ticket, which you should let the concierge deliver to your room for an extra £3/$6 (rather than go through the time-wasting hassle of getting it yourself).
- The Statue Park is a unique and hilarious send-up of Communism. A public bus runs round-trip to the park from outside the hotels Meridien/Kempinski (next door to each other).
- The Hungarian Parliament is one of the best in Europe (on par with London and Vienna) but as WWII destroyed only four buildings in Prague and 75 percent of Budapest, sightseeing is necessarily limited to restored 19th and 20th-century buildings and reconstituted medieval. Budapest may show a wider span of architecture in the loveliest setting on the Danube, but it doesn’t have the immediate Gothic ‘wow’ factor of Prague. Its appeal sets in more slowly.
- Prague has nothing like Budapest’s Central Market Hall, the place to go for one-stop shopping. Abuzz with food, drink, clothes and souvenirs, only Riga in Eastern Europe has something comparable.
- Excursions to Szentendre and Skanzen or Eger are far superior to anything on the outskirts of Prague.

Choosing the Right Hotel

Your choice of hotel location is absolutely crucial in Budapest. Of course, if you’re a high-society slave to Tatler then you’re just going to have to stay in the newest, most expensive place in town because they’re invariably going to recommend it - regardless of whether it’s in Buda’s 25 percent or Pest’s 75 percent. The distinction matters hugely. To put it briefly: bed down in Buda, party on in Pest. Pest is the untidy Big City, more modern, of Stygian murk, and thoroughly flat - but it does have casinos at £1.50/$3 a hand of blackjack and nightclubs where it pays to read the small print. Buda, by contrast, is a hill-top community – all cobbles and alleyways, painted houses and wall lanterns, reminiscent of a cosy, Viennese heuriger village, but dishing out the freshest air and the finest views of Budapest from the oldest part of the city. This really is a tale of two cities where, on any objective basis, the convenience of Pest is dwarfed by the sheer, almost rural charm of Buda every time. Perhaps my fondest memories of Budapest is wandering around Buda’s Castle Hill district - either photographing by day or strolling its quiet streets to some of Budapest’s top restaurants by night. NB: Best Pest hotels are 500 plus Euros for one night’s DB&B; best Buda hotels, with far better views, are only 200 plus or minus a few Euros a night. I rest my case.

When to Go

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter are the best times to go, pretty much in that order, with a no-no around August when too many Hungarians just shut up shop and go off on holiday. Also avoid the Hungarian Grand Prix (July29th-31st) when available rooms are like gold dust and you’ll need a bar of the stuff if you’re lucky enough to find one.

Plugs, Cash, Cabs, and Clubs

- Electricity is 220V in standard European 2-prong round-pin style.
- The tap water is safe to drink.
- The Hungarian currency is Forints (approximately 350 Ft/£1; 180 Ft/$1) which, if you have travellers cheques, are best exchanged in a Budapest bank, although in an annoyingly communist hangover, not every bank will accept them. Avoid changing at your UK airport of departure unless you want a rate every bit as ruinous as the cowboy exchange kiosks which await you when you get there.
- Throughout Eastern Europe, taxi driving is seen as the simplest of lucrative scams to any chancer with the ethics of a crocodile. Budapest is no exception. Pre-calling numbers like 211 1111 will generally result in a cheaper fare from taxis whose meters don’t go unusually fast. Hailing on the street is fine too, so long as you avoid ‘taxis’ with no liveried accreditation and a primitive ad hoc beacon stuck on the roof, often driven by a prototype of mankind in a bob hat and black leather jacket.
-The nightlife in Budapest is delectable or disreputable (depending upon your view), and as lively as any in Prague or Riga, but not quite as flagrant as Amsterdam or Barcelona. If you’re planning a stag weekend there’s no shortage of bars or escort girls.

Flying There

With so many airlines fighting to sell cheap flights to Budapest it’s worth checking out the best deals beforehand from airlines like Sky Europe, Easy Jet, Malev and the like via sites like www.cheapflights.com. And don’t worry, all flights go to the one and only Ferihegy International Airport, about 28km/18ml south-east of the city. Airport transfers, however, are an altogether more difficult subject. Admittedly, the Airport Shuttle Bus at £6/$11 per person one way to your hotel (or £10/$19 per person return) at first appears the best option. But there’s a hefty queue for the tickets and delays of a half hour or more for the bus which is then going to do a round of all the hotels, of which yours might just happen to be last. In terms of prompt convenience and depending upon the number of you travelling together, a taxi at £17/$32 might well be a better option. NB: the Budapest Hilton is the only upmarket hotel to include free airport transfers. All the others will try to sell you a limo if you fancy taking out a second mortgage.

BUDA HOTELS

The Budapest Hilton
My favourite and first port of call whenever I return to Budapest, this Hilton must rank in the Hilton’s top ten. Even 007 lost his cool here; that is, Roger Moore, who in a moment of implausible generosity, gushed over “this wonderful hotel – the prettiest in Europe.” So what’s all the excitement about? Well, it’s not about the usual Hilton plethora of tagged and jolly functionaries, attracted to its 21 Function Rooms, nor is it about the predictably bland livery, however spacious and comforting, of wherever you’re going to sleep. It’s all about the hotel’s location, its intriguing architecture, and having the best panoramic views of Budapest, bar none, through your bedroom window. Built in 1977, renovated in 2001, from this hotel you really do feel on top of the world, as you look down over the neo-Romanesque Fishermen’s Bastion onto the massively stately neo-Gothic Parliament Building (undisputed alpha male of the Budapest skyline), and of course the full urban sweep of the Danube. All six stories of the hotel itself have been painstakingly integrated into their Unesco World Heritage surroundings, to the extent of actually incorporating the remains of a 13th-century Dominican Monastery and a 17th-century Jesuit College, originally on the site. It probably works better in situ than looking up at it from the Pest side, but such altruism is hardly going to concern you as you savour and relish having on your doorstep the 13th-century Matthias Church, the Royal Palace and the finest after-dinner walks in Budapest. Note too that some of Budapest’s finest restaurants lurk down those medieval alleyways. You can always taxi to Pest for a casino, nightclub or restaurant but you’ll never feel so cosily ensconced anywhere in Pest as you do on Castle Hill. When you bear in mind that this is the only upmarket hotel to offer free airport transfers, lays out one of the best buffet breakfasts in town, and will most likely have some promotional offer on the £180/$340 a night Double Bed and Breakfast for a Danube-side room (obligatory or you lose 50% of being there), and you’ll appreciate why I’m recommending you try the Budapest Hilton first of all.

The Burg Hotel
This should be your three-star hotel of choice, primarily for its Castle Hill location, with aspects over the St. Matthias Church and the Hilton, to which it stands opposite by some hundred metres (but inland, so you don’t get the Danube views). The hotel, both inside and outside, is stark, simple and modern – almost to the point of being clinical – but the staff are multi-lingual and make a point of being friendly, the heavily-windowed breakfast room brightly superintends a panorama of Trinity Square, and the rooms are all air-conditioned and have satellite TV. What’s more, because the difference between a Standard Room DB and B at £73/140$ a night and a Suite with the best outlook at £82/156$ a night is comparative peanuts, why not treat yourself to a Suite? NB: This hotel has only 26 rooms, so book early.

The Art’otel
This four-star hotel represents both good value for money and a unique concept. The value comes in a high-up, Danube-side Standard Double Room (the only one in Budapest where I could enjoy looking over the river, the Parliament Building and Pest from lying in bed), with air conditioning, satellite TV and free access to the Internet for 30 minutes a day and a sauna/fitness room in the basement for not much longer, clocking in at a mere £117/$222 a night for DB and B. The unique concept part is more open to debate. But at least it’s a debate worth having. Art’otels are an ever-expanding niche of the Park Plaza Hotels Group and seeks to showcase the Weltanschaung of chosen modern artists, who not only display their sculptures, murals and prints around the premises but also design the carpets, furniture and dinnerware, so that you are effectively entering into their version of the world. By the time you leave an Art’otel you will have learnt about and come to an opinion of a modern artist of whom, before, you probably knew nothing. It’s an interesting and worthy idea which, to lovers of modern art, will prove an irresistible temptation. Personally, I didn’t much care for Donald Sultan, the American artist of this Budapest Art’otel. Too much use of blobby petals and gambling gimmickry, with an obsession for simple contrasts involving the colour black for my liking, even if he does do a nice line in butterflies. I was, however, grateful for the unusual experience of being provoked to think about a modern artist when I thought I was just going to be staying at a hotel. Certainly a hotel worth considering (and already sold to you perhaps) if modern art is your bag.

The Gellert Hotel
I’ve embroidered the title of this place by two extra words – as the hotel itself feels that ‘GELLERT’ alone, albeit in capital letters, is quite sufficient to let you know that you’ve arrived at the doors of a legend. Sadly, however, this erstwhile Grande Dame of Budapest hotels, one time host to Emperors and below, is now prone to some crotchety moods. Sometimes still gracious and atmospheric, the Gellert is at other times penny-pinching and dilapidated. On first sight, the scruff exterior was a bit of a shock, as was finding that my room had a very narrow bed with just a simple duvet and one useless pillow (no re-enforcements in any of the cupboards) and no air-conditioning. It must be said, too, that whilst the façade (1918), the lobby, the bar and the Baths (1934) are historically appealing, too much of the rest is starkly reminiscent of 1950s communism - e.g. the ‘gift shop’ being no more than a glass case in a corridor. Take a Superior Room, again high-up on the Danube side for £127/$240 a night DB and B and the Gellert might work for you, especially if the nostalgic attraction of staying in a fabled institution is going to draw you to it, like a moth to a flame. Entrance to the famous Baths is included in the price – but, overall, too many moths and not enough flames. I so wanted to fall in love with the Gellert but felt I ended up with an on-off affair. Still can’t forget it, though. And maybe you’ll want to stay here just to say you have.

PEST HOTELS

The Hotel Kempinski Corvinus
Despite the arrival on the scene of the Four Seasons Gresham Palace (brilliant exterior but impersonal railway station meets shopping mall interior, equipped with a grimly snooty staff and mega expensive), the Kempinski, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, winner of a hatful of awards since opening in 1992, host to endless rock stars and Heads of State, is still the finest five-star hotel in Budapest. Name me a hotel that can match its buffet breakfast, or its brand new 500 square metre spa stuffed with enough state-of-the-art machines, massages and therapies to sort out even the Elephant Man. What’s kept the Kempinski Corvinus at the forefront (founded in 1897, the Kempinski hotel group is the oldest luxury hotel collection in Europe) is its desire to offer you an experience greater than your expectations. From the classical trio constantly serenading the enormous split-level lobby/coffee shop patisserie (a little bit like going on board an ocean liner), to the front of house staff for whom nothing is too much trouble and without being asked, right down to the finicky detail of an overnight complimentary shoeshine service, this is a hotel that desperately wants to please, to impress and to be remembered – even if the metal, marble and glass excrescence that is the modern façade of the Kempinski paradoxically belies the warmth of welcome awaiting you inside it. Should my financial fortunes change at the same time as the Budapest Hilton blows up, then put me straight back into the Kempinski. My voluminous Standard Double Room had much that I liked: a large writing desk, under floor heating in the marble bathroom, and enough IT to challenge the most happening of businessmen - all in a blended pastel décor that was both comforting and timeless. DB and B is £360/$684 a night, but you won’t feel a more cosseted vibe from any other hotel in Budapest. Watch out for promotional packages, often over a weekend and/or around a theme of golf, opera, horse riding etc. which can drastically reduce the normal tariff.

Le Meridien
Insisting on being known as Le Meridien, the Meridien is a similarly five-star member of the Leading Hotels of the World and right next door to the Kempinski. What, you may ask, is the difference between the two? Well, the Meridien’s Standard Room DB and B at £347/$660 a night is slightly cheaper than the Kempinski but also somewhat smaller in a hotel with narrower corridors and a less impressive lobby. But if you like the striped upholstery, high ceilings, polished dark wood and bendy wrought-iron work of French Imperial styling, you may well prefer it. The Meridien is a hotel that makes more of its historical side, although the exterior is blandly box-like and quite what Bourbons like Louis XIV ever had to do with Hungarian history I’m not sure. More arch and formal in its demeanour than the Kempinski you may well find, conversely, that the Meridien will stoop lower to offer you an even better promotional deal. And it does have a splendid health club, suffused with natural light, on the roof of the hotel.

Hotel Erzsbet
Unusually for the Hungarian language, it’s pretty clear this hotel was named after someone called Elizabeth; in fact, after Sissi, the contemporaneous and alluring empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire when the Erzsbet first opened up as a hotel in 1872. She wouldn’t be staying there now. Mainly because the 123 recently refurbished rooms and common parts of this hotel offer the best three-star value in Pest. And, try as I might, I was unable to find any serious opposition to the Erzsebet. It’s the most central of the easily affordable hotels and has air-conditioned rooms of decent size with both Satellite and Pay-TV compensating for the décor being a bit on the dowdy side of posh – but coming at you, all-in, for only £60/$114 a night DB and B. Enough said.

RESTAURANTS

Interesting things to look for beyond the epidemic of goulash and chicken paprika are spicy fish soup, pike-perch, grilled goose liver and game dishes, especially duck. For desserts, think Austrian pancakes and pastries but forget about the passing of cheese for the time being. Only the Hungarian smoked cheese was worth the wait. Wines (mentioned before) are surprisingly excellent with Pinots and Merlots the world should definitely know more about. For after your meal, Palinka is a common apricot brandy with more spirit than fruit, but one won’t kill you. One Unicum might. The national drink of Hungary is a bitter herbal digestive, not to everyone’s taste and probably better understood by Italians used to Amaro, Fernet Branca etc. Don’t leave money on the tables in Hungary – it’s considered rude here – tip the waiter in person. Perhaps try an aperitif beforehand at Gerbeaud, since 1858 Budapest’s smartest rendezvous, and the café world’s answer to the Gellert. Expect to pay £40/$76 a head for a 3-course meal with wine in the top restaurants, now listed in order of priority.

Gundel
Opened in a palace in the city park in 1894, inspired by Karily Gundel in 1910, and rebirthed to all its former glory by George Lang in 1992, the first restaurant in Budapest to employ a sommelier and still the only one in town to offer a Tasting Menu with wines to match each course, Gundel is the most famous restaurant in Hungary and one of the great dining experiences of Europe. But not primarily for the food. The Winter Sonata Tasting Menu (£96/$183) went from Beluga Caviare and Champagne to Coffee, Chocolates and Remy Martin XO via St. Peter Fish, Goose Liver, Roe-Deer and Soufflé in a way that was perfectly capable rather than ultimately memorable. The thing about Gundel is the atmosphere. It transports you right back in time to the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the turn of the last century. All is magnificently well in the dining room – crystal chandeliers lord it over thick carpets, dark-wood panelling, oil paintings and Zsolnay porcelain, waiters in full black and white regalia whip silver lids off every course, the orchestra plays on defiantly – but at the same time you just sense that another vital battle on the front line is being lost somewhere up the road. The mood evoked, reminiscent of a Grand Ball on the eve of Waterloo, is quite unforgettable. There’s a candle-lit Garden in summer and the1894 Food and Wine Cellar for wines by the glass and deluxe nibbles under more candles, barrels and bare brickwork every night. In whatever guise, Gundel is an institution not to be missed – although you should note that gentlemen are required to wear jackets in the Main Dining Room (Tel: 0036/1/4684040 at Allakerti ut, 2).

Vadrozsa
From a small dining room on top of a hill in Buda’s most exclusive suburb, Rozsadomb (“The Hill of Roses”), Vadrozsa (“The Wild Rose”) has been serving up some of Budapest’s finest food for over 35 years. Housed in a romantic Baroque villa, the restaurant only has 60 covers (120 when their Garden Terrace is open in summer) so booking is essential. With plenty of white linen, crystal and roses, a tooled tome of a wine list and a concert pianist with a pleasingly soft touch, the ambience here is both antique and plush, but also cosy and club-like. Their piece de resistance is grilled goose liver, so don’t resist it, with maybe a pike-perch for starters and anything involving sour cherries and cream to finish off with. You won’t be disappointed (Tel: 0036/1/3265817 at Pentelei Molnar utca 15).

Alabardos
Across from the Matthias Church in the Castle Hill District of Buda, Alabardos (“The Halberdier” or “Beefeater” to Brits – anyway he’s got a big axe on a long pole) is set in a 400-year-old Gothic house and for over 40 years as a restaurant has proved itself to be a reliable stalwart, trusty cohort etc. of Budapest eating. Alas and alack the day, I’m afraid chivalric clichés continue on into a dining room that was a bit too kitschy for my liking. The brightly modern yellow interior, anally tidy, trendily uplit, reproductionly furnished and ‘serenaded’ by an electric guitar pretty much made the odd medieval armour effect (usually a big axe on a pole) look out of place. I’d much rather have come across a candle-lit den, ramshackly over-crowded with real antiques. But the food was superb, technically the best meal I had in Budapest. I even went to thank chef Biscar Attica. ‘Amuses bouches,’ cheffy plates, dishes imaginatively spiced, intriguingly combined and willing to incorporate things like polenta made for a top experience, even if the female sommelier knowledgeably steered me to the most expensive wines. Again, like Vadrozsa, Alabardos is a small venue so book early (Tel: 0036/1/3560851 at Orszaghaz utca. 2).

OTHER PLACES TO TRY

Bock Bisztro (Tel: 0036/1/3210340 at Erzsebet krt. 43) is a modern wine bar/brasserie beside the Corinthia Hotel, specialising in a wide range of wines by the glass, particularly those from its own illustrious wine-growing owner, Joseph Bock. Probably more of a lunchtime venue.
Kiraly Etterem (Tel: 0036/1/2128565 at Tancsics Mihaly utca. 25) near the Hilton is done out like an upmarket country house, cooks dependably and with the added advantage, if you’re up for it, of a gypsy/operetta musical programme performed every night.
Should you feel like a change from Hungarian cuisine then walk down a cobbled alleyway close to the Hilton into Arany Kaviar (Tel:0036/1/2016737 at Ostrom utca. 19). I particularly liked this intimate Russian restaurant, below street level and so faithfully staging the interior of a 19th-century nobleman’s home – all tassels, swathes, faded gold and tablecloths like carpets – you feel you’ve somehow wandered into a Chekhov set. Vodka is dispensed through a block of ice, after which the typically Russian misspellings on the menu become positively hilarious. I still occasionally giggle about ‘Drought Beer!’ although I didn’t much care for it.
I can see why others, notably Hungarian yuppies, think Tom George (Tel: 0036/1/2663525 at Oktober 6 utca. 8) is the place to be. The staff are as up themselves as any of the guests and the suspiciously long menu of international fusion food with an Asian twist excites all sorts of notions badly let down by their execution – or should I say, defrosting. Tom George is there to be fashionable and to make money, but it’s the best place in Budapest without a doubt if a dose of people-watching is what you crave.

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