PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

After a severe makeover completed in late 2005, the Sofitel Budapest (formerly the Hyatt) is unrecognizably chic and more business-friendly. Although from the outside the place still looks like a big box with windows, the brand-new lobby feels like a Parisian fashion boutique, with lush pink and purple accents -- it's a welcome change from the drab old foyer filled with hanging plants. The lobby's former Italian restaurant is now the swank Paris-Budapest Café and serves French food from an open kitchen (still a rarity in Budapest). While rooms and hallways look a bit tired compared to the snazzy rest of the hotel -- they'll be renovated by the end of 2006 -- they have been fitted with luxurious new bedspreads (actually layers and layers of them) and huge pillows. Bathrooms are a good size and have marble countertops. Rooms on the eighth-floor executive level have separate showers and bathtubsand access to the executive lounge. Executive guests also get complimentary massages daily in the fitness center, which has one of the largest indoor pools of any Budapest hotel, and access to some of the most high-tech conference rooms in the city. One floor is smoke-free.

Facilities: 2 restaurants; bar; cafe; indoor swimming pool; sauna; exercise room; casino; baggage storage; concierge; car rental; business center; conference facilities; secretary services; 24-hr. room service; massage; wireless Internet throughout hotel; laundry service; executive lounge; rooms for those w/limited mobility.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Budapest & the Best of Hungary, 7th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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