Well priced, clean hotel in good location

Exceptionally clean hotel, breakfast was plentiful and provided lots of variety. Good location for access to Old Town where there are some lovely restaurants. Also try Hunyadi Restaurant a few minutes walk from the hotel on Hunyadi Ut. Found Hungarian people to be very friendly and helpful, would definately visit again and use this hotel again.

Excellent Carlton

We stayed at this hotel for 3 nights in March 2006. The room was warm and comfortable and extremely clean. The breakfasts were excellent - lots of choice.

Staff in the hotel were very helpful.

We were particularly delighted with the location - close to Chain Bridge and the funicular and also only a few hundred yards from Fisherman's Bastion. Close to the Danube although no views.

For a good comfortable base in Budapest at a fair price the Carlton is exceptional.

Great location

The hotel was ideally situated. Very close the chain bridge on the buda side of the city.

The hotel iteself was very clean, beds very comfortable and bathrooms nice. Worth the money, considering it was very reasonable to stay here. The breakfast was a typical continental but you had lots of choice, and there was something for everybody.

The hotel reception staff were very nice and would help you with booking trips or general advice.

As a city I liked it but would not return, everything is too spread out.

On a cute little street

I stayed at the Carlton Hotel in Budapest for four nights in November with my 23 year old daughter. I found it to be a nice neat little hotel. We were on the third floor and there was only a view of the facing building but it was a very good location with the Chain Bridge around the corner and the Castle area just across the road. The staff were very friendly and recommended some excellent eateries literally all 5 minutes walk away. The breakfast at the hotel is excellent with something for everyone - health conscious or not!! All the major attractions of Budapest are easy to get to on foot from the Carlton. We had also bought a 3-day travel card which with some extremely basic map reading, you could get to anywhere in Budapest very easily on the excellent trams, underground and buses.

The Carlton is not luxurious but is extremely good value for money, in a fab location with good easy access to the whole city. It is very clean and the staff were friendly and helpful. Everyone gives you a map of Budapest with all the tourist sites marked on it clearly. Would definately stay there again if I find myself in Budapest at some future time.

We found the hotel to be a wonderful deal for our vacation!

We were travelling with our five children and some friends. We found the hotel location to be excellent, the rooms were of good size (our daughters' room had two bedrooms) and, since we had our rooms on the seventh floor, we had a wonderful view of the Castle from our room and from the other room we had a sweeping view of the Parliament. The breakfast was above average, the staff helpful with restaurant suggestions. Avoid the lobby bar - cross the pathway and go to the cafe in front, the staff is very friendly and the prices reasonable. We could walk up Castle Hill or cross the Chain Bridge into Pest so we did all our sightseeing by foot. Sunday night the Chain Bridge was for pedestrians only and they had jazz bands playing all night long - great entertainment! The a/c in our rooms was perfect and we found no noise reached us. We would definitely stay here again.

Honest appraisal

The travel directions could have been clearer - Red Metro to Batthany then follow the yellow tram signs to the 41 or 91 tram (terminus) - a nice ride along the Danube, I think 2 stops, to right by the chain bridge - follow the small footpath up around the old building, then right and the hotel is up the steps on the other side of the road. Position is OK though down a side road - no real views. Rooms comfortable, staff helpful and friendly. Room service and quality fine. Only two gripes - one was the micky mouse cups for drinks in the room (tea and chocolate) and secondly the astronomical prices of the reception bar. Breakfast well prepared, fresh and good variety. Location is fine for accessing the town. Get a 7day travel pass - very economical. Apart from needing to take your own room mugs and avoiding the bar drinks I was very happy with the hotel.

Found the Belgium cafe brilliant for food but staff grumpy and seemed to resent serving Brits!

Take the cog railway, two stops from the top - brilliant cafe-cake shop there - worth going to Budapest just for that mmmmm!

Horrendous customer service

I stayed at this hotel for three days, and I have to say that I have NEVER had such horrible customer service. Friends who tried to leave important messages for me at the hotel were told that I wasn't accepting messages (!) When I approached the hotel staff about it, the denied doing so and began *arguing* with me about it. I didn't receive my wakeup call the morning of my flight back to the US. When I asked them if they could tell me how to lookup the phone number of my friend's hotel, they told me the hotel didn't exist and hung up on me. The list goes on and on.

Avoid

After reading favourable reviews for the Carlton (Opera) Hotel I decided to stay in this four star hotel. What a disappointment, it really is a basic two star hotel (how it got four star beats me)situated in buda, which you would think would be a quiet, restful hotel as buda is much quieter and prettier than the city of pest - wrong, the hotel rooms are either facing or side to the main road. This main road means all day and all night, you can hear traffic from your room and was anything but peaceful there!

If it was cheap and cheerful I would not complain but it was neither and would recommend the Kempinski next time which for twenty pound extra gives you pure quality four star hotel which this sadly lacked.

A Great Deal

We chose this hotel for its "summer package" deal, which included a 48 hour Budapest Card, giving free transport. It was a bargain. The hotel itself was comfortable, with good beds, air conditioning, friendly staff, and a great breakfast selection. Unspectacular location, so don't expect sweeping views of the city, but as a great base foe exploring Budapest, it's a winner. I would use this hotel again without hesitation.

Good location for Buda

The Carlton Hotel is nothing special but it has clean, decent sizes rooms and serves an average buffet style breakfast. The 2 male receptionists were very different - one very helpful and the other saying as little as possible! It's main attraction is the location - steps just over the road take you up into the Castle Hill area or just around the corner, opposite the magnificent Chain bridge, is the funicular railway. We would also recommend the Belgian Restaurant at the bottom of the steps - great selection of beers and a very friendly atmosphere and open late.