"Unexpectedly One of My Favorite... " a Budapest Travel Page by aflaneur

I visited Budapest for 3 days as part of a trip that included Prague and Vienna. Truthfully, I was expecting the most from Prague and the least from Budapest, but came away putting this stunning city that spans the Danube at the top of my European list of cities to visit. If you love Paris, like I do, for that romantic feeling of being lost in a pre-1900 center of civilized history, then Budapest is all that in spades but without (yet!) the garish side effects of mass tourism or modern glass and steel buildings to ruin the cityscape. Budapest is a cafe lifestyle, highly educated population, passionate about music and the arts, former epicenter of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and architectural gem of a city. If you stand in the center of the Chain Bridge and take in Buda and Pest in a 360-degree rotation you will feel wholly lost in time in a mid-1800s city...no Eiffel or Montparnasse Tower to punctuate your view...just incredible.

I stayed at the new Four Seasons Gresham Palace, which is at the east end of the Chain Bridge and perfectly centrally located. It is an Art Nouveau masterpiece, with decorative ironwork and glass that takes my breath away. Took full advantage of an introductory $199/night rate and couldn't possibly have been more content or well situated.

Spent the entirety of my 3 days just walking the streets of Pest, with a half day on the Buda side with the baths and ascending the mountain for a view of it all. The city's amazing architecture and the breadth of the wonderful neighborhoods amazed me. I loved it so much I am seriously looking for an apartment to allow me to spend quality time there for years to come. The Next Big Destination.