25 Budapest Hotels and Their Histories
An insurance palace on the river, the café where writers threw the key in the Danube, a monastery on Castle Hill, and the Freemasons’ old headquarters.
Budapest put its insurance palaces, its bathhouses, and its grand café to work as hotels. This list has the riverside palace a London insurance firm built, the café where writers are said to have thrown the key in the Danube, a hotel wrapped around a 13th-century monastery on Castle Hill, and the former headquarters of the Hungarian Freemasons.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Each hotel’s name links to its own site, where the rate is current and you book direct.
The grand old palaces
Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace · Széchenyi tér
The Gresham Palace went up between 1904 and 1906 as offices and apartments for a London insurance company, a Secessionist landmark on the Pest riverbank. It was badly damaged in the 1944 siege of Budapest and left to rot as flats and shops under the socialist regime. It reopened as the Four Seasons in 2004, facing the Chain Bridge.
Corinthia Budapest · Nagykörút
The Corinthia opened in 1896 as the Grand Hotel Royal, built for Hungary’s thousand-year celebrations. One of the country’s first film screenings, on the Lumière brothers’ machine, is said to have happened here that year. It fell into decline and closed, then reopened in 2003 after a full restoration brought back the grand ballroom.
Anantara New York Palace Budapest · Nagykörút
The New York Palace was built in the 1890s for an American insurance company, and its ground-floor café opened in 1894. The New York Café became the center of literary Budapest; the story goes that writers threw its key into the Danube so it could never close. The building was restored as a hotel from 2006 and later took the Anantara name.
Matild Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel · Ferenciek tere
The Matild is one of the twin palaces that frame the Pest end of the Elizabeth Bridge, finished in 1902. The pair was named for the Archduchess Clotilde. The southern one reopened in 2021 as the Matild Palace.
Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest · Ferenciek tere
The Parisian Court arcade was finished in 1913 for a savings bank, a swirl of Gothic, Moorish, and Art Nouveau under a glass dome. An earlier passage on the site, from 1817, had been the first shopping arcade in Pest. The hotel opened in the restored building in 2019.
Danubius Hotel Astoria City Center · Astoria
The Astoria opened at its namesake junction in 1914, and is often called the oldest Budapest hotel still running in its original form. It was taken over as a military headquarters during the 1944 occupation, and the 1956 revolution played out on the streets at its door. Its Belle Époque café is the draw.
Radisson Blu Béke Hotel · Nagykörút
The hotel opened in 1913 as the Hotel Britannia. Its Zsolnay Café is lined with the famous Hungarian porcelain. It was renamed Béke — ‘peace’ — in the socialist years, the name it still carries.
Ensana Grand Margaret Island · Margaret Island
The Grand Hotel on Margaret Island opened in 1873, designed by Miklós Ybl, out in the park in the middle of the Danube. It has long been part of Budapest’s thermal-spa world, and an underground corridor links it to the spa hotel next door. It runs now under the Ensana name.
Used to be something else
W Budapest · Andrássy út
The W is in the Drechsler Palace on Andrássy Avenue, built in the 1880s by Ödön Lechner. For decades it housed the State Ballet Institute, then stood empty for years. It opened as the W in 2023, the brand’s first in Hungary.
Dorothea Hotel, Autograph Collection · Dorottya utca
The Dorothea opened in 2024, knitting together three old buildings on Dorottya utca, some of which were once banks. It is named for the Archduchess Dorothea of Württemberg. It was the Autograph Collection’s first hotel in Hungary.
The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest · Erzsébet tér
The Ritz-Carlton is in the Adria Palace on Erzsébet tér, built around 1913 as an insurance headquarters. It ran as Le Méridien before reopening under this name in 2016. A big stained-glass dome covers the lobby lounge.
Hilton Budapest · Castle District
The Hilton opened in 1976 up on Castle Hill, next to the Fisherman’s Bastion and Matthias Church. It was built around the surviving tower and cloister ruins of a 13th-century Dominican church and monastery. It also keeps the baroque front of a former Jesuit college on one side.
Mystery Hotel Budapest · Podmaniczky utca
The Mystery is in the former headquarters of Hungary’s Freemasons, on Podmaniczky utca. It opened as a hotel in 2018, and its design plays on the building’s Masonic past.
Continental Hotel Budapest · Dohány utca
The Continental stands on the site of the old Hungária Baths, one of Pest’s historic bathhouses, and kept the facade. It opened as a hotel in 2010, with a garden and pool on the roof.
Eurostars Palazzo Zichy · Józsefváros
The hotel is in the former Zichy palace, a neo-baroque mansion built in 1899 for a Hungarian count. The conversion kept the grand staircase and the facade. It runs now under the Eurostars brand.
Small houses with character
Casati Budapest Hotel · Paulay Ede utca
The Casati is in an 18th-century house, one of the oldest in its district, around a central courtyard. Its rooms are grouped into distinct design themes.
Baltazár Budapest · Castle District
Baltazár is a small boutique hotel on a quiet street in the Buda Castle District, in a restored old townhouse. Its rooms are each designed differently, and it keeps a grill restaurant and wine bar downstairs.
Hotel Clark Budapest · Clark Ádám tér
The Clark opened in 2018 at the Buda foot of the Chain Bridge. It is named for Adam Clark, the Scottish engineer who finished the bridge in 1849 and bored the tunnel through Castle Hill behind it. Its rooftop bar looks across the river to Pest.
Hotel Moments Budapest · Andrássy út
Moments is in a restored 19th-century palace on Andrássy Avenue. It opened in 2016, keeping the old staircase and the inner courtyard behind the boulevard facade.
Prestige Hotel Budapest · Lipótváros
The Prestige is in a restored early-20th-century building near the Chain Bridge, on the Pest side. It holds Costes Downtown, a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Art, design and recent arrivals
Aria Hotel Budapest · Szent István tér
The Aria opened beside St. Stephen’s Basilica in 2015 on a music theme, with four wings — classical, opera, jazz, contemporary — and rooms given to individual musicians. Its High Note rooftop bar looks across to the basilica dome.
Hotel Rum Budapest · Királyi Pál utca
The Rum is a small design hotel in downtown Pest, near the Central Market Hall, in a renovated old building. Its rooftop bar looks out over the roofs of the center.
Brody House · Palace District
Brody House opened in 2009 in a faded 19th-century townhouse in the Palace District. It began as an artists’ club and residence, and its rooms are named for — and designed with — the artists who lived and worked there.
Kimpton BEM Budapest · Bem rakpart
Kimpton opened its first Hungarian hotel in 2024, on the Buda bank of the Danube. It is named for General Józef Bem, a hero of the 1848 revolution remembered on the embankment outside.
Verno House Budapest, Vignette Collection · central Pest
Verno House opened in 2023 in a restored historic building in central Pest. It is part of IHG’s Vignette Collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was an insurance palace, a bank, a bathhouse, a monastery, or a mansion with a past. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Every hotel name links to its own site, where the rate is current and you book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Budapest leave by train from Keleti or Nyugati station, or by boat up the Danube Bend. The central Pest hotels sit closest to both.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small houses — Baltazár, Brody House, the Casati — hold few rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.