Leandra’s grandmother was born in Budapest, and that has fueled her interest in visiting Budapest for several years. This past April we made our first trip, spending most of our time exploring districts 1,5,6 and 7. Some of our findings:

• the Hungarian language was just as hard to comprehend as we thought it would be. Luckily, most everyone spoke at least a little English, and we never too much of an issue.
• wow traffic! Budapest is a city on the move via all kinds of transport- car, bike, bus, boat, train and more. At times it was hard to get away from all the noise, so quiet spots were appreciated.
• It was sunny and near 80 every day at the end of April. More surprising was the heat retention at night- it took a while for things to cool down, so our long sleeves were mostly neglected on this trip
• Maps of the city are deceptive – Budapest is quite large, so we walked miles each day.

There are a number of sights around town, but 2-3 days would have been enough to see the sights of interest to us. Overall we felt it was somewhat like Brussels– the city is much more interesting at night, and we especially liked the food and wine places that we found. Through the next few posts we’ll detail where we went and what we tried.

Hotels:

Our original plan had us spending some time in another part of Hungary, Tokaj. When those plans fell through we tried to add night to our reservation at our main hotel but the price was simply too high. Instead, we spent our first night at the K+K Opera based in part on our good experience with the London location. This hotel has a good location just 1 block from the opera house and one street off the main thoroughfare. Our room faced a courtyard making it blessedly quiet for our first night.

comfortable beds

The bathroom was a little small but otherwise clean and manageable.

The remaining four nights in Budapest were spent at the Casati Budapest Hotel. Due to a great Cyber Monday deal in November we were able to reserve a junior suite at about half the normal price, and lower than their standard room rate. Switching hotels was easy as this was just three blocks away!

Our room had a fun owl mural and a large amount of floor space. Definitely one of the larger rooms we’ve experienced. Unfortunately, the room lacked storage space for clothes with a tiny closet and no drawers. Rather odd given the size of the room overall.

our room – not pictured is the black leather couch on the close wall.

The beds were very comfortable– combined with the quietness of the courtyard and thick wall, one morning we slept till just before 11a!

large bathroom (sans toilet, which is in a smaller room with real door on the other side)

We enjoyed the art in the lobby and murals in the hallways too.

 the unusually long hallway to our room

The Casati is a fairly small hotel with a single person at the front desk. Occasionally we could not find that person, possibly because they were doing something elsewhere in the hotel. The K+K is a larger hotel with a more standard check-in desk. In fact, their front desk was quite helpful and proactively recommended restaurants that would take reservations.

Both hotels included breakfast with the room rate, and both had a nice selection including scrambled eggs, a variety of meats and cheeses, pastries, granola, etc.

Overall both hotels were good options and we would consider them again on a future trip.