It can be fun acting out someone else’s travel fantasies, especially if it involves staying in a palatial hotel in Budapest.
“I’m putting you up in my favourite hotel in Budapest,” my travel agent said. “But you’ve never been to Budapest,” I protested. He and I had swapped travel tales and we knew each other’s territory.
“Yes but if I was going to Budapest, this is where I would stay – look.” He turned his computer monitor around to show me. “It’s like a palace.”
I took one look at the building. It was lit up at night and looked elegant and grand. The exterior was a splendid mix of Greek, Roman, Baroque and Renaissance architecture. The interior was pretty plush too, in a more modern fashion. “The price is pretty good, considering,” he said. Considering what? Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one paying!
The hotel’s stylish atrium.
I had to make a quick decision. I should really say no – it was too extravagant. Luxury hotels are usually out of my price range. But you have to treat yourself every now and then, and staying at a palatial European building would be a new experience for someone who has lived all his life in parts of Africa and Australia. Sometimes you should let fate – or its agents – decide these matters. “Okay,” I assented. “Book me in.”
And so I went off to Hungary to live out my travel agent’s fantasies.
A cafe like no other
The hotel in question was the Boscolo Budapest (which has recently been sold by Boscolo and is now the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel). I really enjoyed staying there, even though it is in quite a busy part of Pest, about two kilometres from the Danube river. After a long day’s sightseeing, returning to its sumptuous comforts was a real treat.
Even if you’d prefer to say in a hotel with river views, you should visit the Buscolo/Anantara because it has one of the most beautiful cafes in the world, the New York Café.
The cafe is open daily from 8am to midnight and has a comprehensive menu – currently 36 pages (browse it here). If you are with someone special, come for the New York Afternoon Tea For Two (a three-tier tray of finger sandwiches, mini cakes, bonbons and macarons) or the Franz Joseph Experience For Two, which offers a similar selection of cakes and pastries, plus a beef goulash soup.
The frescoes on the ceiling date back to the mid-1800s.
Cafe patrons at night.
What’s the New York connection? The building was once the offices of the New York Life Insurance Company, and it had other incarnations. Being a journalist, I like the fact that it also housed the offices of an important, but now defunct, literary magazine, Nyugat. I wish my office looked like this.
Downstairs from the cafe is the breakfast room. As you can imagine, for hotel guests it feels pretty good starting your day with a buffet in this setting.
Budapest is a big city, busy and noisy, and exploring it usually involves a lot of walking. Returning to this elegant haven after a hard day out and about is bliss.
A note to my travel agent: when you eventually get to Budapest, you know where to go. TTW
Bernard O’Shea travelled to Hungary and stayed at the Boscolo at his own expense. Photos © Bernard O’Shea.
