kymbakitty
Nov 11, 07, 9:35 am
This is a trip report for the hotels in Amsterdam and Budapest. Our bodies are still trying to figure out where to put the extra 8 hours, so I hope I make sense. I'm getting a photo album together in the very near future and I have some pretty good pictures of the hotels and surrounding areas--so email me and let me know if you want to see it. It will be sent via kodakgallery.com and you will NOT have to sign in to view the pictures.
AMS Hilton
We had a very long flight from SMF. Five hours to ATL, a 3 hour layover and then to AMS, 8 or so hours. Because we were starting our vacation in Budapest, I decided that if we were going to "waste" our first night trying to get acclimated to the new time zone, we may as well do that at the airport Hilton in Amsterdam and catch a flight out to Budapest the next morning. Besides, I got a pretty good rate (105 E) and there were only two hours to get our bags, go through customs, and find Skyeurope, and there were way too many unknowns, so this worked out great. Since this was Skyeurope's LAST trip to Budapest (didn't know that when we first booked), I couldn't take the chance and arrive in AMS late and miss a flight!
We got through customs, got our bags, found out where the Hilton was and we walked over because it was relatively close--especially with the help of people-movers. It was a seemingly nice place....relatively plain, but what do you expect at an airport. You have to expect that if you are a hotel at an airport, you get folks from all different times of the day/night. There were only about two couples waiting for a room, and we were the third. We were told there would be a wait as our room was not ready. I had asked if there was a possibility that we could wait in the Executive Lounge and "Kelly" told me, "oh no....our Executive Lounge is packed full. You can't even walk around up there. It is very small and there is no room for you to even sit." I said, "okay" and walked over to the couches, which was just fine. We waited for about an hour. During this time, I had gotten pretty bored and asked if I could check out the exercise room. "Kelly" told me that I could and that it was on the first floor. I went up there and don't ask me how she did not know I needed a KEY to get in, but I told her I could not access it w/out a key so she gave me one. I went back up, checked it out....checked out the sauna....then, just to have something to do, I thought I would at least "walk by" the crowded Executive Lounge....just to look at see. I was rummy anyway from the very long flight and time change. Much to my surprise--no a single soul was in that place! I couldn't believe it! The only company the lady that worked there had were two goldfish! I walked in, just walked around, and told her we were just waiting for our room and I was just taking a walk to stay awake. I didn't touch anything....but everything was out and you could tell no one had been there for quite some time. There wasn't even a dirty table! That really irritated me. Why would "Kelley" tell me that the place was so busy that there was no place to sit down! She could have told me flat out "no" and I would have been fine with that...but to just straight out give me a line of bull, well, I thought that was ridiculous.
Okay....finally. To the room. It was fine. Nothing special. We only wanted a place to lay our weary heads and take a shower and get up in the a.m. and catch our flight to Budapest. Lee said he was very thirsty and I told him to go up to the executive lounge and get a cup of tea or some water. He wasn't ready to fall into bed, so he went upstairs. He came back down rather quickly and told me, "the woman said that we just checked in and since we just checked in today, I would have to pay for anything I wanted." He told me he told her that he was just walking around...didn't need anything. I couldn't believe it. Never once have I heard someone say that. What if we were leaving so early the next day that we wouldn't be able to go the next day? It wasn't that we even wanted to eat any of their food!!! But to be told (again, remember--there is STILL not a SOUL in this lounge) that we are only allowed access tomorrow morning, or wait until after 2:00 p.m. and then we could get some water/soda, etc. was just ridiculous. Have we just been incredibly lucky in the past or does this happen often? Anyway, we went to bed and basically, woke up a few hours later. The lounge was offering a few "mexican" specialities...chips/salsa, taquitos. I think I had a beer and we called it a night and went back into our room. The room was on 5th floor (I believe) at the end of the hallway and everytime the toilet was flushed, there was a horrible sewer smell that lasted for hours (I blamed my husband at first, then I found out it had nothing to do with him). We woke up for our morning flight to Budapest. It was leaving at 10:00 a.m., which was nice, but our bodies were so confused on the time, it could have left at midnight and it wouldn't have mattered much.
BUDAPEST HILTON - Castle District
Even though I had read how much the Hilton charges for taxi pickup/drop off (nearly $100), I went ahead and opted to reserve the service. It was very nice. Customs was a breeze (very small airport) and we landed at noon and were picked up by a Hilton representative @ 12:15 p.m.! I couldn't believe how quickly we got through and were well on our way.
We opted to stay at Budapest for 9 days and Amsterdam for 5 and I'm really glad we did. The Hilton Budapest was just a wonderful experience. The staff were fabulous, the folks at the Executive Lounge could not have been nicer (I wanted to take Tibor home with me). We loved the location as we walk all over the place anyway. We have made it a rule that we now book private tour guides and for us, there is no better way to go. You learn so much about the history and at your own pace. We had booked "Gabriella" for the four days, in total, and learned more about Budapest than we could ever have learned on our own.
Our room was awesome. The first night, we had a great view...I think it was room 383...nice enough, but we actually like a little more room, and, we were going to be there for 9 days. I called down the front desk to check to see if there were any other rooms that may have had a little more "elbow room" and that we would be glad to pay additional monies. We were most definitely willing to give up the view since it was at our fingertips 24/7 anyway...and unless you perch yourself on the bed and look out the window, we both would take space over view, just about any day of the week (unless of course you get the space AND the view).
We were given a room on the 4th floor....just a couple rooms down from the exercise room (more on that later). It was AWESOME!!!! We couldn't have been happier! You walk in the door and to the right is a closet and to the left is a small room with a microwave, refrigerator, stove top, sink, all the dishes you could use--you basically could live here! Then, you walk into a very nice living room....there is a curio cabinet (locked for obvious reasons) that had some beautiful pieces on display, a secretary which was great for keeping all of our "stuff" together and not out in the open, then you walk up about 4 stairs to a landing which had a table/4 chairs and a HUGE window that opened up to the front of the hotel. We actually loved this window and loved to listen to the city sounds. Trust me, we are in bed a lot earlier than we like to admit, and we kept it open all of the time and were just fine. It is very quiet in the Castle District. Then, you take another 5 or so steps to the bedroom. There was a tv in the living room and bedroom and the bathroom was upstairs with another closet. This is probably one of the nicest rooms we have ever been given and we just loved it.
The Hilton is very expensive, and if you have a clue about the dollar, you know that it has basically sunken to new lows each and every day for the last couple of months. So, 1 USD used to be worth about 244 Forints and now it is worth about 173. Lee sent out 3 dress shirts to be laundered/pressed like he does at home (home is $1.25 a shirt) and didn't even bother looking to see what the cost was...not that it would have precluded him from doing that anyway. But we had a good laugh when we figured out that he had just paid $36 US to have 3 shirts laundered! Ha! We got some mileage out of that one.
We ended up having our Anniversary Dinner @ the Dominican Restaurant at the Hilton. It was fabulous. We got a great view and had a wonderful dinner. We also visited the Faust Wine Cellar and that was pretty cool too.
We loved the Hilton Budapest and would return in a second. The Hungarians are about the friendliest bunch of folks that you would ever want to meet and there is so much history there, it is just hard to take it all in and see that these folks are so happy. Probably happy to be alive, but happy just the same.
The only really funny thing about this place is what they refer to as their "exercise room." It was so funny, I actually took a couple of pictures. Apparently, exercising is not a real big priority there. It is to bad because they have a beautiful space for it--should they ever want to turn it into a real exercise room. There is a (decent) treadmill, a stair stepper that looks just like the one I purchased from Montgomery Wards in 1988, working out to Paula Abdoul's "Straight Up" (seriously) and some sort of rowing machine that I really didn't recognize. It reminded me of that movie that came out about 10 or so years ago about the early 1900's and the exercise places they would go to (wish I could remember the name). On the 2nd level (yes, there was a second level), there was a weight machine. Now, I've been working out with weights for some 20 years, but I have never seen a weight machine where you actually have to add specific weights in order to change the weight for the particular exercise. Hard to explain...but it is very funny, and I took pictures because I knew I would not be able to explain it. On the 3rd level (yes, third level), there was a really nice sauna. But I was never able to turn it on and I just decided that I would take the week off (other than one day when I used the treadmill) because we had walked so much of the time. No biggie--I had access to a really great exercise room at the Amsterdam Hilton and it wasn't going to kill me to not exercise for a week. Although I do feel much better when I do.
Staff were great....couldn't do enough for us. They all seemed to address us by name, as if it were a B&B. Lee lost his wedding ring on our anniversary....and he looked everywhere. I'm surprised he hasn't lost it sooner but now I finally have a chance to buy him a nice one and get him something he WANTS for Christmas! I even got a nice follow up email from one of the managers when we got home checking in to see if we arrived home safely and to inform us that, unfortunately, no wedding band had been found. What a nice touch. Incredibly fond memories of that stay at the Budapest Hilton.
I will do a follow up trip report for our stay at the Hilton Amsterdam as this went on a lot longer than I had expected.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Dawn
AMS Hilton
We had a very long flight from SMF. Five hours to ATL, a 3 hour layover and then to AMS, 8 or so hours. Because we were starting our vacation in Budapest, I decided that if we were going to "waste" our first night trying to get acclimated to the new time zone, we may as well do that at the airport Hilton in Amsterdam and catch a flight out to Budapest the next morning. Besides, I got a pretty good rate (105 E) and there were only two hours to get our bags, go through customs, and find Skyeurope, and there were way too many unknowns, so this worked out great. Since this was Skyeurope's LAST trip to Budapest (didn't know that when we first booked), I couldn't take the chance and arrive in AMS late and miss a flight!
We got through customs, got our bags, found out where the Hilton was and we walked over because it was relatively close--especially with the help of people-movers. It was a seemingly nice place....relatively plain, but what do you expect at an airport. You have to expect that if you are a hotel at an airport, you get folks from all different times of the day/night. There were only about two couples waiting for a room, and we were the third. We were told there would be a wait as our room was not ready. I had asked if there was a possibility that we could wait in the Executive Lounge and "Kelly" told me, "oh no....our Executive Lounge is packed full. You can't even walk around up there. It is very small and there is no room for you to even sit." I said, "okay" and walked over to the couches, which was just fine. We waited for about an hour. During this time, I had gotten pretty bored and asked if I could check out the exercise room. "Kelly" told me that I could and that it was on the first floor. I went up there and don't ask me how she did not know I needed a KEY to get in, but I told her I could not access it w/out a key so she gave me one. I went back up, checked it out....checked out the sauna....then, just to have something to do, I thought I would at least "walk by" the crowded Executive Lounge....just to look at see. I was rummy anyway from the very long flight and time change. Much to my surprise--no a single soul was in that place! I couldn't believe it! The only company the lady that worked there had were two goldfish! I walked in, just walked around, and told her we were just waiting for our room and I was just taking a walk to stay awake. I didn't touch anything....but everything was out and you could tell no one had been there for quite some time. There wasn't even a dirty table! That really irritated me. Why would "Kelley" tell me that the place was so busy that there was no place to sit down! She could have told me flat out "no" and I would have been fine with that...but to just straight out give me a line of bull, well, I thought that was ridiculous.
Okay....finally. To the room. It was fine. Nothing special. We only wanted a place to lay our weary heads and take a shower and get up in the a.m. and catch our flight to Budapest. Lee said he was very thirsty and I told him to go up to the executive lounge and get a cup of tea or some water. He wasn't ready to fall into bed, so he went upstairs. He came back down rather quickly and told me, "the woman said that we just checked in and since we just checked in today, I would have to pay for anything I wanted." He told me he told her that he was just walking around...didn't need anything. I couldn't believe it. Never once have I heard someone say that. What if we were leaving so early the next day that we wouldn't be able to go the next day? It wasn't that we even wanted to eat any of their food!!! But to be told (again, remember--there is STILL not a SOUL in this lounge) that we are only allowed access tomorrow morning, or wait until after 2:00 p.m. and then we could get some water/soda, etc. was just ridiculous. Have we just been incredibly lucky in the past or does this happen often? Anyway, we went to bed and basically, woke up a few hours later. The lounge was offering a few "mexican" specialities...chips/salsa, taquitos. I think I had a beer and we called it a night and went back into our room. The room was on 5th floor (I believe) at the end of the hallway and everytime the toilet was flushed, there was a horrible sewer smell that lasted for hours (I blamed my husband at first, then I found out it had nothing to do with him). We woke up for our morning flight to Budapest. It was leaving at 10:00 a.m., which was nice, but our bodies were so confused on the time, it could have left at midnight and it wouldn't have mattered much.
BUDAPEST HILTON - Castle District
Even though I had read how much the Hilton charges for taxi pickup/drop off (nearly $100), I went ahead and opted to reserve the service. It was very nice. Customs was a breeze (very small airport) and we landed at noon and were picked up by a Hilton representative @ 12:15 p.m.! I couldn't believe how quickly we got through and were well on our way.
We opted to stay at Budapest for 9 days and Amsterdam for 5 and I'm really glad we did. The Hilton Budapest was just a wonderful experience. The staff were fabulous, the folks at the Executive Lounge could not have been nicer (I wanted to take Tibor home with me). We loved the location as we walk all over the place anyway. We have made it a rule that we now book private tour guides and for us, there is no better way to go. You learn so much about the history and at your own pace. We had booked "Gabriella" for the four days, in total, and learned more about Budapest than we could ever have learned on our own.
Our room was awesome. The first night, we had a great view...I think it was room 383...nice enough, but we actually like a little more room, and, we were going to be there for 9 days. I called down the front desk to check to see if there were any other rooms that may have had a little more "elbow room" and that we would be glad to pay additional monies. We were most definitely willing to give up the view since it was at our fingertips 24/7 anyway...and unless you perch yourself on the bed and look out the window, we both would take space over view, just about any day of the week (unless of course you get the space AND the view).
We were given a room on the 4th floor....just a couple rooms down from the exercise room (more on that later). It was AWESOME!!!! We couldn't have been happier! You walk in the door and to the right is a closet and to the left is a small room with a microwave, refrigerator, stove top, sink, all the dishes you could use--you basically could live here! Then, you walk into a very nice living room....there is a curio cabinet (locked for obvious reasons) that had some beautiful pieces on display, a secretary which was great for keeping all of our "stuff" together and not out in the open, then you walk up about 4 stairs to a landing which had a table/4 chairs and a HUGE window that opened up to the front of the hotel. We actually loved this window and loved to listen to the city sounds. Trust me, we are in bed a lot earlier than we like to admit, and we kept it open all of the time and were just fine. It is very quiet in the Castle District. Then, you take another 5 or so steps to the bedroom. There was a tv in the living room and bedroom and the bathroom was upstairs with another closet. This is probably one of the nicest rooms we have ever been given and we just loved it.
The Hilton is very expensive, and if you have a clue about the dollar, you know that it has basically sunken to new lows each and every day for the last couple of months. So, 1 USD used to be worth about 244 Forints and now it is worth about 173. Lee sent out 3 dress shirts to be laundered/pressed like he does at home (home is $1.25 a shirt) and didn't even bother looking to see what the cost was...not that it would have precluded him from doing that anyway. But we had a good laugh when we figured out that he had just paid $36 US to have 3 shirts laundered! Ha! We got some mileage out of that one.
We ended up having our Anniversary Dinner @ the Dominican Restaurant at the Hilton. It was fabulous. We got a great view and had a wonderful dinner. We also visited the Faust Wine Cellar and that was pretty cool too.
We loved the Hilton Budapest and would return in a second. The Hungarians are about the friendliest bunch of folks that you would ever want to meet and there is so much history there, it is just hard to take it all in and see that these folks are so happy. Probably happy to be alive, but happy just the same.
The only really funny thing about this place is what they refer to as their "exercise room." It was so funny, I actually took a couple of pictures. Apparently, exercising is not a real big priority there. It is to bad because they have a beautiful space for it--should they ever want to turn it into a real exercise room. There is a (decent) treadmill, a stair stepper that looks just like the one I purchased from Montgomery Wards in 1988, working out to Paula Abdoul's "Straight Up" (seriously) and some sort of rowing machine that I really didn't recognize. It reminded me of that movie that came out about 10 or so years ago about the early 1900's and the exercise places they would go to (wish I could remember the name). On the 2nd level (yes, there was a second level), there was a weight machine. Now, I've been working out with weights for some 20 years, but I have never seen a weight machine where you actually have to add specific weights in order to change the weight for the particular exercise. Hard to explain...but it is very funny, and I took pictures because I knew I would not be able to explain it. On the 3rd level (yes, third level), there was a really nice sauna. But I was never able to turn it on and I just decided that I would take the week off (other than one day when I used the treadmill) because we had walked so much of the time. No biggie--I had access to a really great exercise room at the Amsterdam Hilton and it wasn't going to kill me to not exercise for a week. Although I do feel much better when I do.
Staff were great....couldn't do enough for us. They all seemed to address us by name, as if it were a B&B. Lee lost his wedding ring on our anniversary....and he looked everywhere. I'm surprised he hasn't lost it sooner but now I finally have a chance to buy him a nice one and get him something he WANTS for Christmas! I even got a nice follow up email from one of the managers when we got home checking in to see if we arrived home safely and to inform us that, unfortunately, no wedding band had been found. What a nice touch. Incredibly fond memories of that stay at the Budapest Hilton.
I will do a follow up trip report for our stay at the Hilton Amsterdam as this went on a lot longer than I had expected.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Dawn