Hotel Papillon - Budapest, Hungary     

Family from Dublin. Grandmother, Brother and Sister-in-law My son and I. We found the place very friendly and clean. the dark haired receptionist was lovely and efficient. The lady in the restaurant was extremely friendly and made us feel very welcome, any time of the day. Karoly the barman was the best I have come across on my many travels. he would look after us day and night. Our overall experience at this hotel was very posiitive and made our holiday complete.

We stayed at the Papillon in mid-December 2007 for 3 nights. We’re 2 adults and a 15-year-old boy so we opted for a superior triple room. We were very impressed by the size of the room and it had a fantastic balcony looking over the rooftops down to the Danube. Some aspects of the room were not quite right such as the cracked washbasin and the ill-fitting curtains but overall it was excellent value. If you are looking for a huge fry up for breakfast you will be disappointed but to us it was pretty standard for a European budget hotel – ham, salami, cheese, eggs, cereal, yoghurt, toast, etc. We didn’t try the restaurant but the menu looked alright. The bar was a little awkward and it felt like you were sitting in a corridor. We didn’t venture into the garden because it was mid-December but it looked like it could be a quiet little retreat. The hotel is in a very quiet area with little traffic noise but is a fair way from the centre if you are going to walk all the way. There are tram stops within 5 or 10 minutes but you will have a bit of a walk at the other end because they skirt round the town rather than go into it. The metro is 20-25 minutes walk and was what we used most of the time. We’d strongly recommend you use both tram and metro at least once. They are great fun and cheap. Eating out wasn’t as inexpensive as we have found in other places such as Prague but food was generally very good. Coffee and cakes at the Gerbeaud was a highlight. We were there when the Christmas market was on and tried the rolled barbecued pastries. Very good and very filling but don’t know whether you can get them all year. Don’t go specifically for the Christmas market though. It’s very small. We had pre-booked a walking tour through Viator before we arrived and we were the only ones on it so we got a personal guide. If you’re up to a few hours walking you get to see just about everything and we’d recommend it. All in all it was a good long weekend but we won’t be rushing back. There are so many other places to see.