Myself and my husband stayed here in August. We first spent 3 nights in beautiful Budapest before taking a direct train from Budapest Deli station to travel to Balatonalmadi train station - about a 2 hour journey. We paid around 7 euro each way for a 1st class ticket and while its not compared to 1st class back home, it meant we had a comfortable enough carriage to ourselves each way. The 2nd class ticket is cheaper and also safe - but for such a little difference its worth it to go 1st class. When we arrived in Balatonalmadi we were pleased to see the Ramada hotel from the train station already and indeed it was only a short 5 minute walk to the hotel so no need for taxis. We booked this hotel on hungarybookings[-] and got an excellent rate indluding breakfast. On 1st glance the hotel does look rather like a concrete tower, however as you walk into the hotel grounds there are pleasant gardens and trees all around it and inside the hotel is nice and modern. Our check in was efficient and staff speak good English. Our room was on the 4th floor and was of average size and was clean and comfortable with a decent size bathroom - again very clean. The best thing about our room was the absolutely beautiful view of lake balaton from the large panoramic window, lovely to wake up to, every morning. One odd thing about the hotel however is that the windows in the rooms have no handles, so it is not possible to open the window unless you sign a security form at reception and than they open the window for you. I'm not sure if the handle goes on the window than, so that you can close the window - so when we had to ask a porter to come and close the window in our room (which had been left open for our arrival), we decided not to bother having it opened again in case we would have to ask someone up again. The breakfast was fine with a good choice. A number of guests had booked the half board option and had a meal every night there and we were told the food was delicious and varied every night - we did eat twice at night in one of the hotel restaurants (the Sirocco) and the food was delicious and we were able to listen to a wonderful musician who plays keyboard and sings in english and hungarian every night in the bar - very nice. The staff in the hotel, while not being overly friendly are very efficient.
There is a lovely spa at the hotel with an indoor pool, jacuzzi, steam rooms and sauna and they are free for guests. Any treatments are extra but are well worth it. We treated ourselves to a facial and 80 minute all body massage each and the treatments were excellent and quite cheap compared to home. We did think they should install a 2nd jacuzzi as the one that is there is small enough and can get very busy and we thought the extra jacuzzi could be instead of the stone pool - we came at off peak times to use it so we could have it all to ourselves (early in the morning or around 6/7 pm). It was lovely to start each day with a refreshing jacuzzi.
The hotel has access to its own part of a beach (a lakeside green grassy area with deckchairs) and its possible to access it for free and swim in the lake.The water is warm enough on a good day and is shallow with a sandy bed and the lake itself is beautiful with swans and ducks swimming on it. This was a very relaxing holiday - Balatonalmadi is a VERY quiet, very safe and is a nice town with lots of small cafes and restaurants (the food isnt exactly gourmet but is fine) and they are all surrounding the lake which has a small harbour where fishing boats and pleasure boats leave every day. We had a wonderful day when we took the boat from the harbour (about 3 mins walk from the hotel!!) and journeyed across the lake to Tihany - an old medieval hungarian village with beautiful old Abbey - we took lots of pictures that day and had a lovely beer and glass of wine in an old hungarian farm yard listening to hungarian music - this trip to Tihany is a must if visiting Balatonalmadi. Really Balatonalmadi is for those seeking a restful, quiet peaceful vacation rather than those looking for action packed days. Apparantly we stayed just after the high season at the lake (before aug 20th) so maybe there are more activites than.Reception told us we had just missed the wine tasting !. I would say this hotel is comparable to a good 3 star hotel at home and I would stay here again if returning to Balatonalmadi as it is a very cheap vacation in a relaxing area and was a lovely rest and alternative from busy Budapest, so we had the best of both worlds I guess. Next time, I think we would return to lake balaton but possibly stay in Keszthely and/or Heviz which are apparantly more popular.