A Hotel As It Should Be - in Budapest

Budapest hotel scene gets mentioned as a bit of a cautionary tale in hotelier circles as Budapest hotel prices are on the low side.

From a guest's perspective you can do incredibly well at reasonable rates. On a recent trip on a cold days in December we drove from Bratislava for work.

For the one night in Budapest I chose Best Western Premier Hotel Parliament. The reviews were quite positive (an impressive 9.2 on Booking.com) and everything seemed right including the under EUR 60 price on a Double.

We parked easily in the street in front of the hotel (it was free on a Sunday evening but paid from 8 am).

Check in was smooth and soon we were on our way to a large room (in the corner tower with large windows).

The room was initially cold as the heating was through a combination AC in the ceiling. But it was elegant, comfortable and with a relatively luxurious bathroom with a nice bath tub, toilet and bidet.

We walked a few minutes to get dinner, passing by a supermarket open late.

We slept very well in the hotel and looked forward to a breakfast served down in an atrium restaurant. The breakfast was great - well stocked and re-stocked, with a little bit of everything from pastries, through veggies, cheese, meats, yogurt, fresh fruit (including juicers for grapefruits and oranges). Two fully automatic coffee machines serving good quality coffee (Nespresso), fruit juices, cereal, eggs, sausages...

In the afternoon when we returned after a busy day to collect the car we were able to freshen up with free water, tea and coffee in a wonderful lounge.

Everything seemed offered generously with not a moment when we would have felt that they were trying to charge us for a senseless extra. Everyone on staff was professional, unobtrusive, spoke good English.

In fact the only extra I paid was for parking: the reception offered as standard service to keep updating street parking every three hours during the day. They asked only for the cost of tickets (reasonable street parking rate).

The short stay did not leave time to visit the wellness area but we did note the highly positive reviews all around.

I could go on about details but you probably get the picture. Best Western Parliament Budapest is a city hotel as it should be, an honour to its genre.