Atrium Hotel - Budapest, Hungary     

Spent 2 nights at the Atrium this November and throughly enjoyed the experience. The room was large and comfortable, with a lovely bathroom and top spec shower. Breakfast was plentiful and very tasty and the staff friendly and helpful. Excellent all round.

There are a lot of reviews for this hotel and I think most things have been said already. We both loved the bright, modern, airy interior and we found the staff to be very helpful and great English speakers. To pick up on some of the previous comments:- Breakfast - As far as we were concerned, the buffet breakfast was superb. I'm not sure exactly what others found, but for us, all the food was fresh, there was a variety of breads, meats, cheeses, quality orange and pineapple juice, nice coffee and a choice of teas. I tried the spicy Hungarian sausage and loved it (my wife found it too spicy) and there was bacon and scrambled egg on offer as well - can somebody tell me whats missing from that lot? Oh... and they serve breakfast up till 11am! Rooms- Our room was small but beautifully clean. We were lucky enough to get an outside room. Most rooms open onto the atrium. If you are claustrofobic and need to see outside - stay somewhere else - if you like a nice tasteful room and dont care about the view, you are unlikely to find a nicer hotel. You could see on the fire escape plan that the rooms are of different sizes since the hotel is an irregular shape. Temperature:- Bearing in mind that it was November and cold outside, our room was a comfortable temperature. We did however speak to someone else who had an "atruim view" room and found it too hot. She claimed to have had some difficulty in getting the hotel to turn on the air conditioning in November. Location:- If you are using the public transport system, the hotel is brilliantly located. (Buy a 7 day ticket at the metro station, even if you are only there for 5 days - it will cost you about 15EUR and is valid for all forms of transport - even out to the airport). One slight anomaly is that you cant actually buy it at the airport - you have to buy single bus tickets to the metro station (at the newsagent) and buy the seven day pass when you get to the station. Going back, its valid for both the metro and the connecting bus - strange but true! The hotel is on the 4/6 tram route (one of the main routes) and is only 2 metro stops from the centre. I can see what some others mean about it not looking like the best location. We stayed for 4 nights though and once you get used to the city, you realise that its actually ok. There is a large drab music college opposite the hotel which you walk past to get to the trams. Because its not floodlit at night, it looks a bit scary but we had no problems at all and its a very busy area with people going in all directions so you never feel alone. The metro station is inhabited with a number of homeless people who make it look a bit seedy but they are generally harmless and keep themselves to themselves. Bar:- I thought it looked pretty cool but it was empty most of the time. The couple of beers I had were a bit overpriced, but you come to expect that in a hotel catering to foreigners. The trouble is that anybody wanting more than just a quick beer before bedtime, will head into the city centre where they will find every kind of bar to suit their tastes and budget. Restaurants:- As others have said, there are not many restaurants in the area - I'm glad to see someone found a good one. On the other hand, you'll not starve. There is a McDonalds straight across from the hotel and for a varied diet you can have Burger King round the corner. There is even a late night kebab shop nearby. For snacks etc there is a small supermarket (Match) nearby who will also sell you an excellent bottle of Hungarian Reizling for around £1 (1.5EUR) or a half litre bottle of beer for less than 50p (75 cents). The hotel even told us where to find it. I hope the info I've given is helpful to others. Will we be back? You bet!