This is a corporate hotel

Hotel best for business and NOT for sight seeing in Budapest as the hotel is way out of the centre.

Best option is to experience the executive club, where drinks are free through Happy Hour. This way the hotel takes on a far better perspective, when really it is only worthy of four stars. The young staff were great - the older ones were" grumpy old men."

You would have to pay ME to stay at this hotel again!

Superb time at the Aquincum !

We arrived at the Aquincum hotel having caught the very efficient shuttle bus from the airport. The check-in was very quick & the staff were excellent. We decided to upgrade to 'The Executive Club' which cost £10 per night per room. We had a room overlooking the river & had a huge 6' x 7' waterbed which proved to be a lot more comfortable than i expected.

Although the hotel isn't in the city centre, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to get there. Public transport is so easy & frequent giving you a choice of train, bus, tram or metro. Exit the hotel, walk 150 yards to the left and go under the bridge and you will find the nearest train station. This will take you alongside the river where you can choose one of the many stops & catch the trams to your destination. There is also a tram stop on the bridge outside the hotel, so getting around is simple.

As we had upgraded we could use the 'Executive lounge' upstairs. This served afternoon tea with selection of nibbles & drinks at no extra charge. From 5pm - 7pm there were also complimentary drinks as part of the happy hour. There was a good selection of drinks including champagne, wine, beer & spirits.

The hotel also has a spa area in the basement with a swimming pool, spa pools, jacuzzi, steam room & sauna. This is a great place to unwind & relax. I also tried the Thai massage which was first class.

The food in the hotel was very good. We ate breakfast there each day & found there to be a good choice. We also ate in the restaurant downstairs a couple of times. The service was excellent as was the food.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here & would happily go back to this hotel again.

More 4 star than 5.......

We stayed in this hotel for a long week-end in April 2005. We had a reasonably pleasant stay but do not think the hotel merits a 5-star rating.

The rooms were ok but did not have that "luxury" feel : for instance, the bath-robes and towels were white but certainly not fluffy. The decor was distinctly average. As for the turn-down service, that simply did not happen although the rooms were always serviced well in other respects each day.

The buffet breakfast was generally very good although service could be patchy. On one morning, we had to ask for coffee although staff were circulating - but not always making eye contact! Sometimes, they were also a bit lax when it came to clearing tables in readiness for next guests.

The menu in the more informal restaurant - which we used twice in the evening - was not terribly inspired and the service was generally poor. If there had been other restaurants in the vicinity of the hotel, we would have opted for those.

As it was, the hotel is quite a distance from the city centre and trailing back there after a long day's sight-seeing was often too much trouble. So location is a problem.....

The spa facilities are good but it IS a bit bizarre to have to go down there in your robe and slippers - we opted to use the back stairs as opposed to the lift !!!

The lobby area was nice but VERY smoky and appeared to be the favourite haunt of the many smokers so we could not make use of it.

All in all, a reasonably pleasant stay but most definitely not a 5 star one.

Lovely for Relaxing

We stayed in this hotel for my mum's birthday, with her sisters and some of my cousins (8 girls in all). We had a great time. Yes, you can't walk into the city centre unless you are really keen, but the public transport service is very good, 15minutes max.

The facilities of gym (which we didn't use), swimming pool, thermal pool, jacuzzi, solarium and sauna (which we all tried) are all available free to guests. Some of us also opted for various massages, which were fantastic (around £15 for 20mins).

Rooms were fit for purpose, though not extravagant, service was very good and we all enjoyed the buffet breakfast. One evening upon returning, we were invited down to the band in the downstairs bar - woeful, with extortionate drink prices (£15 for a cocktail). Only ourselves and another couple were there, more savvy travellers were in the small bar upstairs. We stayed for one drink and scarpered.

I suppose it depends on your priorities, we enjoyed the onsite facilities and had plenty of time to do the sightseeing bit. For other people a central location may be more important.

Good for a short break

We stayed for 2 nights 20-22 Feb 2005. The hotel was graded a five star

but i would put at 4 star. Check in seemed to go on for ages and service was a bit ok..ish! I do expect more from 5 star "luxury". The thermal pools in the spa are included in the room rate which was a fantastic end to the day pounding the streets. Breakfast was average but adequate, nothing grand or varied as one would expect. The hotel is not close to the city centre but is easily accessible by the HEV (green) train which runs from just outside the hotel. Expect to see a lot of suits - primarily due to this being an excellent place to hold conferences or conduct business meetings. I cant help but feel that after discovering where the Hilton was (next door to Matthias Church on Castle Hill) and the Intercontinental (Pest Side but facing the Danube) we perhaps had made the wrong choice. Or for sheer grandness try the Gresham Palace hotel for luxury!! Would stay at Aquincum again but only if in town to do business or to chill out in the spa and not do anything else.

Not for tourism

The hotel is quite unconvenient if you plan to go to Budapest for tourism.

It is located real far from the city center. The only way to get there is to catch a train in the nearby station. The problem is that the train is not very frecuent so be ready to wait. The ride takes about 40 minutes to get to the Buda castle (there are works in progress in the underground). For me is too much time to be spent if you are on holidays. The return trip, specially in winter, will leave you in a dark station and the walk back to the hotel can be very frightening (not many people there, dark bridge to walk by).

We wouldn't have spent so many time if we booked a hotel in the city center and we had felt safer.

The service and food at the restaruant was average, not what you would expect in a five stars hotel. The room was clean and spacious.

Would not go back to the Aquincum, I would look for a hotel in the Budapest center.

Well worth the stay!

The hotel and facillities were excellent.We stayed 18th Jan 05 until 21st Jan when it was nice and cold.We ate in the hotel every night which was a bit expensive (compared to the rest of Budapest) but that was because we spent the majority of the day visiting all the sights and as it was quite cold, we couldn't be bothered to get the bus or tram back into the town.The meals were nice though and so was the service.But I have to say, it would have been nice to have had more restaurants around the hotel or within easy walking distance just to get a bit more variety and to keep the cost down.

We used the free spa facillities which made the hotel a 5 star.The only off putting thing about that was the fact that you had to dress in your swimsuit and robe in your room and make your way to the spa dressed like this.When we stayed this wasn't a problem because we just got the lift down to the spa and no one saw us.But i would think that this may put some people off using the pools.However, it was really nice after a freezing cold day walking around, to warm up and relax in the thermal pools and jacuzzi.

Even though the hotel is on the outskirts of the city, it is really easy to use the public transport to get to where you want.We used the buses and metro every day and purchased one of the 72 hr travel passes to use on all public transport.We even made our way back to the airport using the travel card which was easy.If you need directions anywhere then ask the receptionist who will tell you the easiest way to get there and provide a map.

The rooms were nice enough,but not the standard that you would expect of a 5 star.Which doesn't mean that they were bad,just not as grand as you'd expect of a 5*.The room service was excellent.We had breakfast in bed every day! The maids also did an excellent job cleaning the rooms.All in all, we had a great stay and don't be put off by the hotels location because it is easy to get into the city with minimum fuss.

Go for the executive upgrade

On arrival at the hotel we were asked if we wanted the executive upgrade. I am so glad that we took it. The Hotel was wonderful and the upgrade (cost €15) was unbelievable. I read the previous review about this hotel and cannot agree that the hotel was anything but 5 star in every category. The food was wonderful (to be fair we only had Breakfast) the service at both check in and check out was swift and efficient. The executive lounge was wonderful (free alchoholic and non alchoholic drinks from 5pm to 7pm easily made up for the upgrade) the upgrade room was large with a King size bed and a basket of fruit and 2 bottles of water was provided in the evening free of charge. I would most certainly go to this hotel again. As for the fact that the hotel was far away from the centre, the nearest train station was a matter of 200 metres walk, no problem there, and it took 20 minutes to be stood in the centre of Budapest (which is a wonderful city and well worth the visit).

OK, but...

Impressive facilities and rooms spacious and well-equipped. However, service was generally poor, particularly in restaurant where they ran out of food one night during our stay. Our friends had a room right at the end of the corridor which often did not get fully serviced (towels not changed, bed not turned back, etc) -as if it was too much trouble for staff to go right to the end of the corridor! Lack of safes in rooms was a problem - it was a complicated process leaving valuables at Reception.

Have a bath ... when you are alone

We stayed for three nights in the Corinthia Aquincum.

The hotel is located far from the city center. You can get downtown by train, the train station is very close to the hotel, but at night is dark and a bit intimidating.

The surronding neighbourhood is as dark and as intimidating by night as the station.

The rooms are clean and tidy, and the breakfast buffet is excelent. The best of this hotel are its thermal baths. They are free for hotel customers. The installations

are new and modern. It is great to get into the warm pool after a whole day walking through Budapest. I missed sombody in charge of telling people how to use the pools, it is a bit disgusting to see people coming out from the steam bath, sweating, and getting into the pool without having a shower.

We had dinner twice at its restaurant, the first one was ok but the second day the meal was cold and burnt.

We also had problems whe checking out, we were charged telephone calls that were supponsed to be toll-free numbers, our bus was waiting at the door so we didn't have time to

argue and had to pay that bill.

It is a modern hotel, and it is ok if you know that is not located close to downtown. Its thermal baths are a plus.