Hotel Bacchus - Keszthely, Hungary     

We have just returned from a two week stay at the Bacchus Hotel The Hotel is very well located in fact just off the main street. The room was clean and spacious with lots of storage for your clothes. However the bathroom was dated and had only a small shower cubicle and no bath. There wasnt many facilities at the hotel and most people seemed to stay for only one or two nights.The staff were all pleasant and helpful even though there was a language barrier. The restaurant was in the basement and was very nice. The food was excellent and had some unusual dishes to be chosen. The portions were very large and we were never able to eat three courses. We were on an Inghams holiday and the meal deal gave us half a carafe of wine with dinner included. The wine was very good and one evening we had a wine tasting by the owners, which was very interesting. There was live music in the restaurant on most evenings which was okay. However for us the Lake Balaton area was a little too quiet and Keszthely in the evenings was closed and nothing to do. There were some bars down near the lake but if you went down there you were bitten by mosquitoes. Keszthely has many museums a high street and not much more. It was a very interesting holiday but I do not think we will holiday in that area again.

Well, my guidebook (Lonely Planet) made it sound like the perfect choice for my overnight in Keszthely, giving it a high rating, and mentioning its having a good restaurant AND housing the Wine Museum. Considering that the price was in league with some of the major resorts in nearby Heviz, I assumed that the quality of the rooms would be comparable. My goodness, was I mistaken. No Air Conditioning. Windows that offer little ventilation. Paper-thin curtains. The carpet was of the thin, industrial office variety, and the furniture (what little there was) was of the cheapest thinly veneered plywood. The beds were small, and hard, and pretty much everything radiated the aura of an old 70's-era camp resort in the Ukraine (at least based on the pictures my Mother used to show me). Things were clean -- but that by itself hardly justifies the price, when there's no TV, no internet, and no shower curtain! Now, you'll note I did give the place two stars -- as I said, it was clean... and you'd be hard pressed to find a more central location in Keszthely. Also, the restaurant was indeed of good quality, and the staff was helpful, pleasant, and proficient in English. The Wine Museum was somewhat of a bust -- more like a cellar of curios than a real serious MUSEUM museum. Nonetheless, the descriptive cards of various wines and regions made for a great lesson in Hungarian wines, and you can buy almost any bottle you see in the place (something I took full advantage of). They're off to a good start with this place -- good location, nice staff, restaurant, and added bonus of the wine cellar/museum... but to justify anything other than a budget/motel price, the rooms are in serious need of upgrading!