Luxury in Budapest: the back story

About Luxury in Budapest: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Budapest Editorial Team

At the turn of the 20th century, Budapest was one of the richest and fastest-growing cities in Europe, and its insurance palaces, cafés and boulevards were built to impress. Today many of those buildings are luxury hotels, and the city has MICHELIN-starred restaurants, grand cafés and historic baths to match.

Palaces reborn

Budapest’s golden age came in the decades around 1900, when insurance companies and banks built palaces on its boulevards and squares. Many have been restored as luxury hotels: the Art Nouveau Gresham Palace is now the Four Seasons, the New York Palace houses the Anantara and its famous café, and the Matild Palace and Párisi Udvar have been reborn at the Pest end of Elisabeth Bridge and on Ferenciek Square. On Andrássy Avenue, the Drechsler Palace facing the Opera has become the W Budapest.

Dining

Budapest’s fine-dining scene has grown fast. Stand holds two MICHELIN Stars, and a group of one-star restaurants, including Salt, Borkonyha, Costes, Babel, essência and Rumour, cook modern Hungarian and international menus, alongside celebrity kitchens such as Spago by Wolfgang Puck.

Budapest’s Belle Époque palaces were built to impress, and today many of them are luxury hotels.

Cafés, baths and rooftops

The grand cafés, the New York and Gerbeaud above all, are a reminder of the city’s coffee-house glory, while the historic baths, from Széchenyi to the Ottoman Rudas, offer a very Budapest kind of luxury. In the evening, rooftop bars such as High Note look out over the Basilica and the Danube.

Shopping

Luxury shopping centres on the first stretch of Andrássy Avenue, and Hungary’s great porcelain houses, Herend and Zsolnay, have stores on József nádor tér.

Our advice: book the MICHELIN-starred restaurants well in advance, take an evening cruise on the Danube to see the city lit up, and save time for a long morning in a grand café.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Luxury in Budapest: the back story before you go.