Best Western Hotel Art - Budapest, Hungary     

We stayed here using Best Western points accumulated over the past few months So really it was booked based on the number of points we had and not in the hope of anything special. The Hotel has just been refurbished so all the rooms are modern and clean. Our room was large with a sitting room and two new TV's. Everything was of an excellent quality. It is relatively cheap, around 70 Euro's, especially when we paid ?110 at the Radisson Carlton in Bratislava for a basic room which was no better than an Ibis! The included breakfast was of a good quality with plenty of choice. I would stay here again if I were ever to come back to Budapest.

The room itself was dark (not much sunlight gets there) and the decoration tired and worn. I.e. poor lighting, dark brown carpets, walls that needed a fresh coat of paint and the TV was a bit on the tiny side and old. The bathroom at first glance seems small and tidy but on closer inspection needed some further cleaning. The street below seems to echo every sound made on it (cars passing, people talking loudly). There is no safe in the room but rather behind reception. Breakfast was nothing exciting but enough to get you started in the morning. Only warm dishes are some unattractive scrambled eggs and small sausages. All coffee's and hot water are dispensed from an automatic machine. Not much staff to be seen anywhere. When going out during the day you leave your key at reception. I didn't try the hotel restaurant but it looked quite empty and in tune with the lack of atmosphere of rest of the place. On the plus side, the ceiling in the room was quite high and the staff behind reception were always friendly and helpful and had a selection of free city maps and brochures. However I think the only real selling point of this place is the location. It's pretty close to a metro station (KALVIN, Blue Line 3) and there are 2 restaurants next door which seem interesting. It's only a 2-3 minute walk to "the Big Market" (Vásárcsarnoklong) an attraction in itself, as well as the pedestrian tourist road (Vaci utca) with shops and restaurants leading to the centre (about 20 minutes walking to get to the chain bridge). Also, if you're going bathing at the Gellert it's only a 6-8 minute walk away over the Danube on the Szabadság bridge. I don't know if this place is worth 80 or more euro a night (with breakfast) but I'm sure there something more interesting to be had elsewhere so I would only recommend this place if you won't be spending much time in the room and aren't fussy about getting a very average uninspiring accommodation.