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Lovely boutique hotel in Budapest. Almost don't want to post this as want to keep it for myself but ... great rooms, good location, fab breakfasts and cheap!
In late March of this year, I paid a visit to the Kikelet winery in the Tokaj region. Through a melange of English, French and Hungarian, I learned about how the wine was made in this enchanting region from the winemakers, Stéphanie and Zsolt Berecz. The wines were sublime, both dry and sweet. Given the small family nature of the winery, the wines were charming and outstandingly complex and showed a definite sense-of-place. Completely off the map and relatively unknown at home, I think Kikelet are part of the quiet revolution in the area led by a few passionate individuals.
www.tokajkikelet.hu/
Tarcal, Könyves Kálmán street 62 (behind Andrássy Hotel). Trains run daily from Budapest to Tarcal.
The wonderful Neszmely Vineyard is now Hungary's most successful wine producing estate with 560 hectares of grape vines.
It still retains the family business atmosphere and we stayed in the delightful 'Borhotel and etterem' (wine hotel and restaurant) with views of the mighty Danube.
The Hilltop company only started in 1991 but already produces some of the best whites in Hungary. The Neszmely Irsai Oliver 2006 is an absolute classic: crisp, fruity, all those cliched white wine flavours really do come true with hints of straw, spice and summer.
The Irsai Oliver grape is a relatively new hybrid and a relative of the Muscat grape.
It's eminently quaffable and very good to drink on hot summer evenings by the Danube!
Also recommended are the:
Neszmely Olaszrizling 2006(Italian riesling) and the Premium Neszmely Grigio 2006
Situated 75km east of Budapest, near Tata.
Contact through:
1024 Budapest
Ady Endre utca 11-13
Tel +36 1 336 2220
Web: www.hilltop.hu
The biggest and best festival in Europe. Dirt cheap and everyone friendy. I went travelling with a few mates after GCSE's and ended up at Sziget because I read about it in the travel section. The times we have had at Sziget and in the city of Budapest were the best ever. I returned to Sziget this year and it was just as good. The line-up on the main stage was brilliant but there are about 30 other big stages, with every type of music and a laid-back atmosphere which make it so much better than British festivals. And it's a week long! I cannot go this year as I'm saving up for my gap year.
The City Park in Budapest is a marvellous green spot behind Heroes' Square (www.budapestinfo.org/herossquare.html). The most attractive building is the Vajdahunyad Castle (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajdahunyad_Castle), a replica of a gothic castle in Transsylvania. It is really spectacular, especially when the small boating lake beside the castle is filled with water during summer time. In the City Park you can find the Széchenyi Spa, the biggest bath in Budapest. The building is very old and looks terrific from the inside. The Zoo, the Circus and the Budapest luna park are also located here making the park a popular amusement spot.
Kali Art Inn is an idyllic rural retreat in Hungary, near Lake Balaton. Nestled between rolling poppy fields you could be in Tuscany, but for half the price. Activities aplenty are on offer and I divided my stay between painting in the art studio, horse riding, cycling, and lazing by the pool. The owners homemade truffles and garden-grown dinners rounded off each day to perfection. Although the hotel is completely secluded, it is a stones throw from the healing sulphuric waters of Lake Balaton, well worth a day trip.
Káli Art Inn
H-8274 Köveskál, Fö u. 8
phone: (36) 87 / 70 60 90
or: (36) 30 / 92 28 715
fax: (36) 87 / 46 84 12
mail@kali-art.com
The hotel is incredibly easy to get to from the ludcriously cheap low cost airport of Balton, which Ryanair flies to. Alternatively the hotel offers transfers from Budapest.
Stylish minimal like bar with top quality spirits and liqueurs. Try the Boutiq'specials from their list, and you won't drink cocktails anywhere else while in town.
Paulay Ede.u.5, Downtown,VI.distr. Two minutes walk from Deak square.
Fabulous cafe and cake shop with all the usual Hungarian gooey cakes. Plus prices are half those of the well know cake shops. Always full with locals.
Cafe Europa
Szent Istvan Korut
(Between Vigszinhaz Theatre and Margit Island)
The best hostel I have EVER stayed in anywhere (and I've been around...)
Amazing in every way possible; really cozy, clean and comfortable hostel in a beautiful listed building on the doorstep to everything and the staff are so friendly and welcoming and really want to help you explore and enjoy a city that they love.
If you're a single traveller or small group who really wants to have a great time in Budapest (day and night) then this is the place for you.
Tiny, cosmopolitan New York City-esque cocktail bar with foreigner friendly service. Always crowded by models and hip people.
Anker koz 3. Kiraly u corner. Downtown, 5th district Budapest. Near metro station "Deak Ter".
They have plenty of well-equipped apartments for rent in Budapest downtown. Prices are not very low but still OK and the service is excellent.
I stayed in a flat near Octogon and I had a great time there.
If you go to Budapest, the baths are a must-do. Seven different temperature baths in the one building, mixed sex of all ages. Suitable for families.
Nice restaurant with a lot of delicious traditional and traditional-style dishes. Good prices and big portions.
Casual atmosphere - even pool tables inside! - and nice outdoor sidewalk dining area.
Corner of Baross Utca and Jozsef Utca (in Jozsefváros district)
Wonderfully ornate cafe which captures the opulence and splendour of early 20th century Budapest.
Now part of a five-star hotel and not cheap but certainly worth a visit.
VII Erzsebet korut 9 -11
Metro M2 Blaha Lujza ter
www.boscolohotels.com/photogallery/hotel_new_york_palace/photogallery_nwy_eng.htm
This is a great place to have a drink. Very cosmopolitan and yet laid back. Seems to be very popular with young people and expats.
Not bad value either - a large glass of wine set us back about £1.30.
On the main square in the heart of the what was once the Jewish ghetto.
District VII, Klauzal ter 1-2, Around Kiraly utca, Budapest
Metro M2: Blaha Lujza ter
This is the hotel we stayed in in Budapest. Really central and great value. You can book it on a number of websites such as the accommodation site of Ryanair.
IX. Ferenc körút 19-21
tiny.cc/oV0Fx
An open-air bath on Margitsziget on the Danube. In a very beautiful green park with many nice and fun pools and thermal water.
If you visit Heroes' Square, I strongly recommend to pass by this small and cosy wine store on the nearby Damjanich Street. It has a wide range of Hungarian and Italian wines, and absolutely not a rip-off like other wine stores in the centre. The staff speak German and Italian, but no English - yet.
1071 Budapest
Damjanich u. 25/A
(on the corner of Damjanich and Nefelejcs Street
It's a self-catering apartment. I stayed there for one week and I just loved it, because it's really nice with a cute garden view. It's in the very centre, pretty close to everything.
It's in Veress Palne utca, right next to Vaci utca in district 5. Nearest metro is Kalvin ter. However you mostly need to walk only.
www.budapestapartments24.com/Apartment_Cosmo/apartment.php
If you've done the Budapest basics, you should absolutely take an afternoon and visit Bela Bartok's house museum in the Buda Hills. This is a hymn of praise not only to the conductor, but his passion for Hungarian folk culture.
Among the highlights: his oversized, primitive recording device which he dragged all over historic Hungary, having local residents sing their songs into it, and his furniture, most of which is handmade from various parts of Transylvania. The ladies who staff the museum can give you a tour in English and are very nice and accommodating.
While you are there, make sure you walk through the Napraforgo ut. housing estate, built in 1931 to house refugees from areas cut off from Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon. Architecture fans will delight in the display of creativity there, from Bauhaus to Arts and Crafts. Unfortunately, rich Buda residents are now buying all of them out and restoring them according to their own tastes, so the results of that could harm the ensemble, but you should go there anyway.
This is a great doubleheader excursion well off the well-trodden tourist paths.
It's best to go to Ferenciek Tere (metro blue line), look for restaurant Karpatia and wait for bus #5 just outside there. You go to the end of the line, i.e. Pasareti Ter, and look for the signs. The way to both is actually marked.
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