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Tags: Reader Reviews / Four Seasons Hotels / Budapest Hotels / → All Tags

The Four Seasons Budapest Soothes and Relaxes But Still Needs Free WiFi

Where: Roosevelt Ter 5-7, Budapest, Hungary, 1051

Every so often we feature a hotel review from one of our readers that we feel should be shared with the rest of you dear hotel guests. These reviews are highlighted because they are timely, about cool hotels in cool places and are relatively level-headed. Think you can submit one just like this? Send it in.

This review comes from a longtime HotelChatter tipster who recently saw the swankier side of Budapest. Enjoy.

Four Seasons Gresham Palace is on the Pest river front, right opposite the historical Chain Bridge connecting the two parts of the city. A gorgeous Art Nouveau building, it is beautifully lit up at night and worth a stop even if you are not staying here to admire the lobby and have a drink in the cosy bar. Next door is the Sofitel, InterContinental, and a little further down the river the Marriott, all of them in various degrees of awful boxy concrete hotel architecture.

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Tags: Killer View / Copenhagen Hotels / → All Tags

The View From Hotel Bethel Looks Like a Disney World Ride

Where: Nyhavn 22, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1051

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

When you look out the window of the Hotel Bethel, don't you see, like, such a pretty picture that it reminds you of a certain Disney World ride? Perhaps a certain Disney World ride involving boats and a song that will never, ever leave your head long after the ride is over?

Sitting right in the heart of Copenhagen on Nyhavn, this former Seaman's Hostel offers spectacular views of the canal and harbor and is within walking distance of all sorts of shopping and attractions. We've heard the cool thing to do is to sit outside at the restaurants along the harbor (Nyhavn literally means "New Harbor") and drink beers. Right behind the hotel is a cute little church, which the website promises is the "only seaman's church in Denmark."

And this view and kickass location can be yours starting at only 595 DKK -- that's just about 100 USD per night. For this quintessential Denmark postcard-esque view, that's really, really not a bad deal after all. Not a bad, bad, deal...

[Photo: subpace100]

Tags: Budapest Hotels / Le Meridien hotels / → All Tags

Chocolate Yule Logs for All at Le Meridien Budapest

Where: Erzsebet Ter 9-10, Budapest, 1051, Hungary, 1051

Christmas and the New Year is barefly over but we are already contemplating where to go next year. Perhaps the post-holiday-season isn't the best time to start planning the next time where we will eat far more than we need to, but keep in mind a stop in Hungary's capital, Budapest. Not only is there a chance of a white Christmas, and more than enough heavy wintry food to chow down on, but there are a lot of friendly people around.

Here's an example from last week: for the second year running, the nice folks at Le Meridien Budapest invited 25 local homeless people to a special Christmas lunch in their Le Bourbon Restaurant. A lovely gesture in itself, and even more impressive when you read the menu:

Terrine de sanglier aux pruneaux, gelée de prunes aux Cognac, Poitrine volaille fermicre façon, coq au vin , pâtes fraîches and chocolate Yule log with black chocolate sauce.

That sure beats what we served up over the holidays.

[Photo: Herbert Harper]

Related Stories:
· Le Meridien Budapest reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Dining in Style [Budapest Sun]

Tags: Anti-View / → All Tags

Room with an Anti-View: 71 Nyhavn Hotel

Where: Nyhavn 71, Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark, 1051

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

We know how unreliable those European hotel star ratings can be, but one traveler gives us the scoop on the supposed four-star 71 Nyhavn Hotel in Copenhagen:

The absolute worst 4 star hotel I have ever been in. This is the view out my skylight, cause there are no windows, in a room smaller than any dorm room or suburban home closet in the USA with 1972 battered furniture and a WW2 surplus war mattress

Related Stories:
· Ken Anderson photostream [Flickr]
· 71 Nyhavn hotel reviews [TripAdvisor]

Tags: Killer View / → All Tags

Room With a Killer View: Le Meridien Erzsebet Square

Where: Erzsebet Ter 9-10,, Budapest, Hungary, 1051

This is the view from the Le Meridien Hotel in Budapest overlooking Erzebet Square.

The lake is artifical, and underneath it is a parking garage. We argued about that for days before asking the doorman. We hoped it was a military bunker, or an art museum.

So this might be the only Killer View photo with a parking garage in it.

Related Stories:
· Savage Pink photostream [Flickr]
· Le Meridien reviews [TripAdvisor]