Budapest is an ideal place where one can enjoy excellent hotel for moderate price so it is pity that we made a mistake and stayed in Golden Park Hotel for two days in January 2012. The hotel was so not to our taste that we wondered the streets of beautiful Budapest up to the latest hours just to postpone going back into our room.
Positive side is that the hotel is on a good location near the main railway station, metro, bus station and tram station so going to the city center is very easy. Public transport in Budapest is effective and cheap (1 EUR for metro/tram/bus ticket). Walking distance to the heart of the city is 30 minutes straight down the big avenue. For shoppingholics, there is a huge mall Arena just 200 meters from the hotel.
Golden Park Hotel is formally a 4-star hotel (see my photo) but in reality it is a 2-star up the most. Hotel facilities are used up and the whole hotel needs a complete renovation immediately. There are a lot of really small rooms so we insisted on changing the first room they gave us. Bathroom was bearable if you don't mind yellow spots on towels (?) and black fungus along a bathtub. Of course, there weren't any slippers, robes, soaps, shampoos and other things a 4-star hotel must have. Bed mattresses were deformed although we were so tired walking the whole day that we could sleep on a rock. Rooms do not have a mini bar but they have small refrigerators which can be filled up by food&drinks from surrounding shops. Air-conditioning was functioning OK which was pretty important during cold January nights.
Breakfast was the lamest I've ever seen: everything was in whole-sale packaging. Honey, marmalade and butter were placed in joint pots and not in small retail packages. It is normal in private homes but it's really not appropriate for a hotel. Variety of food&drinks was among the poorest I've ever seen.
The other positive side is the English speaking staff. It seemed to us that they were very aware in what crappy hotel they work so they tried to help us as much as they could.
My recommendation is to stay in this hotel only if you are on extremely tight budget - everything above 35 EUR for a night is an overpayment. Feel free to check our photos of the hotel so make your own conclusions. But next time we come to Budapest, we'll stay in some other hotel, maybe in some new 4-star hotel where the price is 50-70 EUR per night. Because it is a pity to spoil the visit to fascinating Budapest with a lousy accommodation.
- Golden Park Budapest
- Hotel Golden Park
- Golden Park Hotel Budapest
