The best hotels in Budapest
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Forget the “Little Paris” moniker that has haunted Budapest for decades. The majestic capital of Hungary, from the wooded and sedate hills of Buda with its old town and royal castle, to the buzzing ruin bars, grand palaces and shopping streets of downtown Pest across the broad Danube that divides the city, is so much more than just another pretty central European city. Here contemporary cool and old-school grandeur mix effortlessly, and all with a distinctly Hungarian flavour. To use another tired phrase, here there is something for everyone, whether you want to admire the most astonishing art nouveau and secessionist architecture in Europe, party all night at a grand 19th-century thermal bath, sip cocktails on a rooftop bar or eat dinner while cruising down the moonlit Danube. And with several exceptional hotels opened in the last couple of years, you may just find yourself falling in love.
What is the best part of Budapest to stay in?
While the Buda side of the Danube may be the smartest part of town for wealthy residents looking for peace and quiet, Pest is where the action is and is packed with historical buildings and great places to eat, drink, shop and stroll, and this selection of the best new openings and old classics for you to lay your head down to rest in concentrates on the central Pest districts, where reaching the central landmarks is easy.
Corinthia
Of all the hotels on this list, the Corinthia is the only one, bar the Kempinski, that began its existence as a hotel. The Grand Hotel Royal Budapest, as it was called, in its heyday of the early 20th century, hosted stars such as Josephine Baker, who performed in the hotel’s Orfeum cabaret. It has served more recently as the inspiration for Wes Anderson’s Oscar-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel. A vast establishment created from three adjacent 19th-century buildings with the original side streets between them transformed into lofty glassed atriums, the Corinthia is perhaps most famed for its beautifully restored Royal Spa. The spa was originally opened in 1888 and was saved from the ignominious fate of being converted into a multi-storey car park. Guests can swim or bask in saunas and hot tubs surrounded by columns and period tilework. Equally impressive is the huge cream and gilded ballroom, once the venue of Budapest’s first cinema. For gourmets, the hotel has two fine-dining restaurants.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £165.
W Budapest
W Budapest is an exploration of duality. Housed in the Drechsler Palace, a building designed by architects Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos and previously home to the headquarters of the Hungarian State Ballet Academy, this is a hotel that firmly modernises the W brand while drawing deep influence from Hungary's past. A chessboard theme runs through the interior design, a homage to the city's national pastime: black-and-white tiles decorate every bathroom and elevator, and the two most splendid suites – the all-black Extreme WOW suite and all-white WOW suite – call back to both sides of the board, as well as the duelling black and white swans from Swan Lake. The Extreme WOW suite also houses a sculptural chessboard designed by artist Ronan Mckenzie, so you can practise your game while exploring the shops of glamorous Andrássy Avenue. Downstairs, the Away Spa is a veritable hall of mirrors inspired by Houdini's great illusions, and even a contortionist's sore muscles would be soothed by the clever massages. In the evening, enjoy refined Asian dishes at Nightingale by Beefbar, and then head down to Society25 for a nightcap. A speakeasy-style basement bar accessed through a bathroom mirror, it serves up a selection of intriguing cocktails, each inspired by the city's history: the Brew Bop is a coffee martini inspired by Budapest's 19th-century café culture, and the fun, frothy Strawberry Plié harks back to the era when trainee dancers rather than travellers roamed these halls. Cassie Doney
Price: Standard doubles from about £300 per night
Address: Budapest, Andrássy út 25, 1061 Hungary
GEORGE FAKAROSMatild Palace
One of a matching pair of neo-baroque fin de siècle palaces built on the orders of Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the wife of Archduke Joseph Karl, and protected by UNESCO, the Matild Palace, which opened in 2021, is an exceptional addition to the Budapest hotel scene that marries award-winning contemporary design with beautifully restored heritage elements. Home to the first Spago restaurant by Wolfgang Puck in Europe, already recommended for a Michelin star, the Matild also features a rooftop bar with panoramic views, and its beautiful galleried, art nouveau café offers seasonal cabaret performances and a fabulous Sunday brunch with live music and bottomless Champagne. Rooms have soaring four-metre ceilings, herringbone parquet flooring and contemporary furnishings that combine sumptuous bursts of rich colour with high taste. For a unique experience book the extraordinary three-storey tower suite, with 360-degree views of Budapest and the Danube that will stay with you.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £390.
Address: Budapest, Váci u 36, 1056 Hungary
Adrienn PucherPárisi Udvar Hotel Budapest
An expression of the golden age of early-20th century Budapest in stained glass, ceramics and endlessly intricate patterns and sculptural details, the vertiginous and breath-taking atrium of the Párisi Udvar or “Parisian Court” is a masterpiece of art nouveau extravagance that was reopened to the public as a luxury hotel in 2019 after over 85,000 hours of painstaking restoration work. Rooms are a model of restrained modern elegance mixed with classical lines, where cool colours provide respite from the riot of detail of the historic building’s public areas. In the evening, the ÉTOILE Champagne bar offers over 50 bottles, with 20 available by the glass, and when you are suitably infused with bubbles, the Párisi Passage Restaurant offers delicious Hungarian and international classics with wine pairings. Or, for the more adventurous, just step outside to find yourself in the very centre of Budapest’s pedestrian central shopping and tourist district.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £385.
Eric d'HerouvilleKozmo Hotel Suites & Spa
The Kozmo, which opened in 2021 in what was in the 1920s Europe’s second-largest telecommunications centre, is a hit for lovers of contemporary design. On a leafy square just outside Budapest’s Palace District and within walking distance of the Dohány Street Synagogue and Great Market Hall, behind the hotel’s façade with its original 1920s monumental sculptural reliefs, guests discover a contemporary haven of spacious, beautifully designed spaces. The tallest building in the area, expansive terraces furnished with sofas to sprawl on offer panoramic views of the tiled rooftops of Budapest from the hotel’s many suites, where glass, black metal and crisp whites, greys and cool blues are married with warm parquet floors and toe-warming, thick cream rugs. The stylish bar is a relaxing spot for an evening cocktail before heading out to the elegant courtyard bistro, which provides a peaceful haven for delicious dinners.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £180.
Aria Hotel Budapest
Just 100 metres from the towering cupola of St Stephen's Basilica and arranged around a glass-roofed 19th-century courtyard, the Aria Hotel is hands-down the place for music-lovers in Budapest. Placido Domingo, Lennie Kravitz and Rita Ora are amongst those who have enjoyed the hotel’s music-inspired hospitality, and the walls of the Mirror Bar are covered in the signatures of other famous musical guests. The four musically themed wings contain 49 rooms, either with private terraces onto the courtyard, or views onto the elegant surrounding streets. Each room is inspired by an individual composer or musician, decorated with fabulous original art by Czech caricaturist Josef Blecha, and has its own marble fireplace, with décor ranging from the voluptuous and extravagant purples of the opera wing to the more restrained palette and lines of the classical wing. After a day of sightseeing guests can unwind each day from 4-6pm over complimentary cheese and wine in the courtyard, which from Thursday to Sunday is accompanied by live music from the best local performing artists.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £300.
Jerome GallandFour Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest
Named for the founder of London’s Royal Exchange and originally built for the London-based Gresham Life Assurance Company as their headquarters, the Gresham Palace is the hotel that set and continues to maintain the gold standard for the restoration and conversion of historical Budapest buildings into luxury hotels. Opened in 2004 after a $110M restoration and considered one of the finest examples of art nouveau architecture worldwide, the hotel occupies an enviable position by the landmark Chain Bridge, with views from rooms of the Danube and the Buda hills, old town, and castle beyond. A repeated motif of the building’s interiors is a love-heart, reputedly because the original designer was in love when he created his masterpiece; and this love is reflected in the attention to detail of the modern-day hotel, from the exquisite Múzsa cocktail bar to the refined and elegant rooms and suites.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £560.
Kempinski Hotel Corvinus
Among the first international luxury hotels to open in Budapest, the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus celebrated 30 years last year, and a testament to its appeal are the many staff members who have been there since its debut. Unlike newer hotels that have made their home in exquisitely restored period buildings, the Kempinski is purpose-built, but its curving interior shapes, filled with the hotel’s Hungarian art collection, still feel contemporary, while the luxurious spa has just undergone a complete redesign and will be offering a new menu of treatments from this autumn. For dining, guests can choose from the hotel’s signature ÉS Bisztró for Hungarian classics and specialities from the grill, Asian fusion from Nobu or four more restaurants, bars, and cafes, while Budapest’s iconic shopping street, Fashion Street, is just a step away. Recently renovated rooms with cool, contemporary colours and brass, gold, and rich wood accents look out onto the Budapest Eye and, beyond it, the dome of St. Stephen’s Basilica.
Price: Standard doubles start from £200.
Anantara New York Palace
Just across the boulevard ring from the buzzing party district, muscular stone atlases support the grand entrance porch from Budapest’s busy downtown, leading, via a circular lobby of honey-coloured columns, into the cool, calm, classical harmony of the five-storey collonaded white-marble-paved courtyard that the New York Palace is centred about. A gem of the Budapest Belle Époque, the hotel is best known for the fabulous excess of rococo columns, chandeliers and frescoed ceilings that is its New York Café, where guests can enjoy a truly exceptional breakfast in a private section of what is often called the most beautiful café in the world. Rooms are comfortable and well-appointed, and in the hotel’s brand-new spa, guests can enjoy massages, saunas and a 15-metre pool in an ambience with echoes of the whitewashed walls of the Greek archipelago, while the White Salon restaurant offers dining in an elegant white and gold gallery set high overlooking the riotous splendour of the New York Café.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £240.
Matthew ShawThe Ritz Carlton
Facing the pretty Erzsébet Square in the buzzing centre of downtown and built during WWI to house an insurance company and luxury apartments, and subsequently the headquarters of the Budapest police, the Ritz-Carlton had a ten-year stint as Le Méridien Budapest until being reborn as the Ritz-Carlton in 2016. Comfortable rooms with clean, contemporary styling in crisp whites, cool blues and greys and a swimmable indoor pool offer a pleasant sanctuary from the buzzing downtown location. Breakfast is taken under a soaring circular stained-glass cupola, while the keenly priced Ottimo restaurant, with its tan leather banquettes and mirrored columns, serves a selection of Italian cuisine and a delicious grilled balsamic marinated octopus that makes you doubt that you are in a landlocked country.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £250.
Verno House
Part of the Hungarian luxury hotel group, Botaniq Collection, and a notable addition to the boutique hotel scene in Budapest, Verno House opened last December in an elegant 19th-century building facing the leafy avenues and grand buildings of the Liberty Square Park, and just a two-minute walk from the iconic Hungarian Parliament building. Previously an Iberostar, the hotel has undergone a total rebirth. Luxurious yet laid-back, rooms in a soothing natural palette of soothing forest greens, ochre and earth tones are punctuated with photography commissioned from Zoltán Tombor, and feature floor-to-ceiling windows, glass-walled bathrooms with freestanding tubs, and comfy, Nordic-flavoured contemporary furnishings. In the basement, a giant red-lit jacuzzi feels like the underground launch-pad in a James Bond villain’s lair, while the excellent Flava restaurant, with its tranquil terrace bordering the park, offers an imaginative fusion menu of North African, Latin American and Middle Eastern-inspired dishes, delicious cocktails and chilled beat-driven tunes from a resident DJ at the weekends.
Price: Standard doubles start from about £210.