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Report: Four Seasons Gresham Palace - Budapest

Report: Four Seasons Gresham Palace - Budapest

Old Dec 31, 2014, 12:07 pm
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Report: Four Seasons Gresham Palace - Budapest

Four Seasons Gresham Palace

Map| 5 Reviews | 80% Recommended

Four Seasons Gresham Palace

Széchenyi István tér 5-6 Budapest, HU 1051

Report: Four Seasons Gresham Palace - Budapest (0 Photo)

Four Seasons Gresham Palace

Checked out today after a great holiday stay. The Christmas spirit is in full swing here, and it was the perfect base for our Budapest trip.

Thanks toTRAVELSIGandLondonjetsetterfor their advice on the hotel in advance.

Property and Check-In

The beauty of the property strikes you immediately as you approach it. My camera cant do justice to it, but photos of the facade and the grand, beautiful lobby are all over the internet.

The hotel was decked out in lights and decorations for Christmas. There was a huge tree:



And even a small Christmas market inside the lobby:



While festive, the lobby market was nothing like the ones outside (this one had stalls selling furs, perfumes and high-end chocolates). Not really for us, and did more to draw crowds from outside than anything. One of the (very) few things we didnt love about the hotel.

At check-in, our FSPP benefits were explained and special requests noted. This is where Ill mention my only two remaining gripes about an otherwise-fantastic hotel and stay:

- The amenities of the hotel werent well explained at check-in. We didnt know there was a hot tub (didnt see this mentioned in the in-room booklet either) until our third day when we finally went to the spa. Not a huge deal, but we probably wouldve gone earlier had we known.

- Wifi, as mentioned in this forum before, was quite slow throughout our stay. I didnt get much of a boost from plugging into ethernet either. Not bad enough to spring for the 30eur/day premium access, but bad enough to be a little annoying at times.

Room

On the advice of FTers, we booked a Danube River View room. It was large enough for two without feeling cramped.





The bathroom was pretty big, with LOccitane toiletries.





The furnishings are nice enough, but the wow here comes from the view of the Chain Bridge, which is stunning at any time of day.





Service

The service was generally excellent, starting well before our stay and continuing until checkout.

A few highlights:

- Prior to arrival, I requested extra water bottles and bath towels to be placed in the room. This was noted at check-in, the additional items were already in the room, and we were given extras every day both during regular housekeeping and at turndown. Thats 8 bottles of water per day.
- Each night at turndown, there were treats placed in our room:



I mentioned to one of the staff that we loved the coconut balls (received at turndown our second night). The next day, another team member emailed me the recipe, and on our last night, we received a big plate of them:



- The spa lent us workout shoes and clothes to use in the gym, delivered on arrival.
- On on our last night (the night before Christmas Eve), we got many treats. In addition to the coconut candy, they left gingerbread cookies, another plate of fruit tarts and madeleines, as well as a nice FS-branded box of Hungarian Christmas candy.

Location

Directly across the street from the Chain Bridge, I cant think of a hotel that we saw with a better location, though many of the better Budapest hotels (IC, Sofitel, Le Meridien) are in this general area. It was a perfect HQ for sightseeing, tours, Andrassy Ave and the Opera, as well as a short walk to many of the superb restaurants we tried (Borkonyha, Aszu and Klassz were our favorites).

Dining

We had breakfast via room service every day. It was always well prepared and tasty:





The Hungarian Scrambled Eggs and Scottish Smoked Salmon Bagel were particularly good. Probably due to drinking bottles of Hungarian wine followed by Unicum each night, I never felt up to trying the foie gras omelet.

We also enjoyed the hotel bar a couple of times, where the staff is very pleasant and brings around tasty canapes while you drink. The setting is quite cozy and relaxing.

Didnt get a chance to eat at Gresham, the hotel restaurant. Ive heard that it was very good, but nothing on the menu particularly excited us and we ended up canceling our reservation and heading to Klassz instead (which we loved).

Spa / Gym

The spa and gym are on the top (5th) floor, and the infinity pool stands in front of massive sloped windows with beautiful views. The pool is quite small and feels crowded with more than a couple of people in it, but the spa was mostly empty during our stay.

Tasty complimentary drinks (different types of iced teas each day), fruits and snacks were available by the pool.

The facilities are excellent, including a sauna and steam room, and a gym complete with plenty of machines and a Concept2 rower which certainly helps sweat out the wine a bit.

We also got a couple of treatments which came with some sticker shock given the market, but were well worth it.

Overall

A stellar wintertime stay in one of the most beautiful buildings in Budapest. This hotel deserves all of the praise that it gets. Despite being the (probably) most expensive hotel, bar and spa in the city, its an excellent value, especially compared to FS properties in the rest of the world.

Report: Four Seasons Gresham Palace - Budapest

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