Back in November, Jade and I booked a trip to Budapest for a long
weekend of exploring, eating new things and learning about the history
of Hungary…

The Prestige Hotel Budapest

We did a little searching on Tripadvisor and found a beautiful hotel called Prestige Hotel Budapest which was no more than a 2 minute walk from the river Danube and Széchenyi Chain Bridge, and pretty central to all the touristy things, including the funicular, Budapest Parliament and Budapest Castle.

We checked back a week later and the prices had soared by over £100, sob.

We checked lastminute.com and managed to find the hotel, and ended up booking the 4* hotel, baggage and return flights from Stansted for just £220!

 

It took a half an hour taxi journey to get to Prestige from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport which went pretty quickly. I’ll explain the currency in the next few posts but, it came to around 10,000 HUFF, around £30, which wasn’t as bad as we thought it might cost! Budapest is super cheap, I couldn’t get my head around the currency but at the current rate, around 300 HUFF equals a £1. And I saw a slice of pizza for like 200HUFF which is like… 28p! MADNESS. Delicious-looking cheap madness, though.

 

As soon as we stepped into the reception, we knew we’d made a great decision for a hotel.

The floors and walls are made of marble, and the reception is adorned by gold interior and decor, with a chandelier hanging over the 6 floor grand hotel. There were plush sofas and chairs in the reception too, and a snazzy lil glass elevator; we just instantly knew we’d picked the right place.

We stayed on level 5 in a twin sharing room. It literally felt like a princess’s room – the beds were made up with various throws and cushions, the decor was elegant and our roof light had delicate netting draped around it. The floors were heated and the beds were super comfy – the pillows even came with a menu to select which pillow you’d prefer to use!

There were some lovely little touches too, like chocolate, water and a coffee machine, as well as a coffee machine. Not forgetting free Wi-Fi, of course!

The hotel over all was incredibly pristine and well kept, and the staff were friendly and super helpful, especially when it came to pointing us in the right direction of places to visit!

On the first night, we explored the hotel. We found a gym and relaxation room, so we donned on our robes and slippers and *ran down to jump into the jacuzzi for the last 40 minutes before it closed. (*We didn’t run but, we got there pretty quickly!).

We didn’t pay for breakfast as we were only there for 2 mornings and fancied exploring the city instead, but we did order room service on the Saturday morning as we were feeling lazy after all the walking we’d done. (More on this soon but, we clocked up almost 50K steps each other in 2 and a 1/2 days!)

I ordered a ham and vegetable omelette and Jade went for the waffles with chocolate sauce. It definitely had us fuelled for a day of exploring. The restaurant in the hotel is a Michelin star one, and it was packed throughout the day for business lunches, guests and people popping in. I would have loved to try the Michelin star food but, as we were there for a flying visit, we didn’t have time to relax and indulge. But, there’s always next time!

We checked out Sunday morning at 3:30am, dreary eyed and lacking sleep, but Prestige Hotel kindly booked a taxi from the hotel to the airport for us and off we went. Sob.

The hotel is beautiful and I can’t recommend it enough, it’s extravagantly decorated and is oh-so worthy of its 4 shiny stars. I’m longing to visit already, but next time I’d like to visit Budapest in the summer time – I’ve never been so cold before!

If you’re booking a city break in Budapest and want a hotel that’s beautifully decorated, welcoming and central to all the touristy hotspots, then Prestige Hotel Budapest is the one to go for. (Seriously though, there’s a reason why it’s in the Top 10 Best Budapest Hotels list on Tripadvisor!)

Keep your eyes peeled for a 72 Hours In Budapest guide!