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Hungary Hotels Rundown: Danubius Thermal Spa Hotels on Margitsziget Islands

Where: 1138 Budapest Margitsziget, Budapest, Hungary

HotelChatter Contributing Editor Tim Leffel recently completed a sojourn to Hungary the other week and has dutifully reported back to us on the hotel scene in Budapest. This week we'll be running all of his stories so if you have any questions about Hungary accommodations, hit us on the tipline, or just comment below, and we will do our best to get you some sort of answer.

Like most big cities, Budapest can be loud, crowded, and polluted when you're in the center of it all. An island in the middle of the Danube River is this city's equivalent of Central Park: a green oasis where trees far outnumber cars.

Most of Margitsziget Island is filled with green space and recreational facilities, but there are two sister hotels that allow you to relax and spend the night there.

Danubius Grand Hotel Margitsziget is the more aesthetically pleasing choice, built in 1873 and containing a restaurant that spills out onto a terrace blending into the park. All the baths and spa facilities are at the Danubius Thermal Spa Hotel next door though, where we took this killer view shot from room 720.

Guests have free reign of the various baths, saunas, steam rooms, and outdoor pool and terrace. The spa here is not your typical seaweed wrap and new age music place though: this is spa therapy in the traditional sense, with treatments and mineral baths prescribed to deal with specific conditions. A full medical facility on site does a brisk business.

Which brings us to the main downfall of this hotel complex: the average age of the guests staying in the two hotels is probably 65. Part of this is due to the thermal spa, but the hotel also caters to group tours hitting Europe and most of those seem to consist of gangs of retirees.

We liked being able to get up and walk for miles in the morning on paths along the river, but we're still cranky about paying the usual Budapest hotel WiFi rates: $17.50 for a grand total of 2.5 hours.