There’s this notion of Budapest as an ideal stag party destination. Quick flights, cheap booze, strong beer, ruin bars, a currency that feels like monopoly money. (4,000 HUF for an aperol spritz? I have no idea if this is a great deal or imminent bankruptcy.) It’s a simplistic mentality that undersells Budapest’s remarkable culture and presents Brits abroad as pissed up philistines who descend on cities like invading armies, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake. How dare they propagate this cliche. How very dare they.
So twenty of us hit up Budapest on a stag party. We stayed in a hostel. Turned our livers into raw pickled onions. Sustained a sleep schedule that would make a vampire wince. Saw very little of Budapest outside of the ruin bars. And I knew this would happen, the whole gory weekend. So I did something uncharacteristically smart. I arrived two days early and stayed at the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel.
Anantara is the flagship brand of Minor Hotels; the first opened in 2001 and there are now Anantara hotels in more than 40 countries so someone’s doing something right. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word antara, which means ‘without end’. Alas, my stay in Budapest’s Anantara came to an end far too quickly but before I found myself necking shots in a ruin bar, I enjoyed a memorable couple of days (unlike the weekend that followed).
The hotel started life as the headquarters of insurance company New York Life way back in 1894. The iconic New York Cafe opened the same year and swiftly established itself as the city’s hotspot. It even turned into a nightclub during the second world war but communism stopped the party and shut the cafe down for several decades. Come 2006, the building was reborn as a luxury hotel, the cafe reopened and much of the original architecture restored to its former glory.
The lobby
And glory is the word: the lobby is one of the most spectacular spaces I’ve ever experienced, rows of white arches rising from a marble floor as though you’ve stepped inside a giant wedding cake. It’s all very La Belle Époque, emphasis on the belle. The glamour somehow intensifies when you step inside New York Cafe, a gorgeous swirl of marble columns and ornate frescos and an awful lot of gold leaf. The staircase is invariably populated by at least one young, beautiful person taking a selfie, and the breakfast is just as spectacular as the surroundings: a la carte, hot and cold buffets, plus an omelette station. Bosh.
On the mezzanine directly above the New York Cafe you’ll find the White Salon; the two are literally part of the same vast room and the salon is equally glided. On the evening of our visit, the space was filled with music: a pianist played on the ground floor, a string band up top. It was so romantic, my friend and I considered getting hitched just to make the most of the experience. (And we’d have saved a fortune on the stag.)
New York Cafe
The White Salon
The food was fantastic and suitably lavish: venison loin, foie gras, confit duck leg smiled out from the menu. I went for the steak tartare – strong – and a traditional Hungarian dish of chicken paprikash with Hungarian dumplings and a sharp cucumber salad, legitimately one of the culinary highlights of my year to date. Be sure to pair whatever you order with a couple of local wines that go down very smoothly indeed. Going out may be a struggle once you’ve finished: plans of hitting a local bar were replaced by staggering upstairs for a nice lie down.
Probably for the best: the next two days would see numerous bars be hit – they occasionally hit back – and it would have been a shame to waste the extremely luxurious bedroom. The bed was ginormous; we’d requested a twin room but as so often happens, ended up with a king bed. This one was substantial enough for two people to bunk down and never risk an inadvertent spooning should someone roll over in the night – we were practically miles away! The same looked true of the marble bathtub but we didn’t put it to the test. Why bother when there’s an actual swimming pool in the downstairs spa?
A luxurious bedroom
The hotel also offers various experiences for guests, including a romantic trip down the Danube and a gastronomic walking tour. We spent three hours scooting round the city in a classic VW samba van with an open top: you know it's cool when passers-by take selfies with it. The van was first designed in 1949, our guide Imre's model hailing from 1962 – same year as the first James Bond film. Prices start at €100,000 so you better start saving. (Imre got his back in the day when prices were a little less punchy.)
You cram a lot into three hours. The Hero Square is filled with statues of great figures from Hungarian history and the beautiful exhibition hall. Next to the square is the city park containing the Gunda restaurant (the most expensive in the city), the Budapest Zoo, a circus and the Széchenyi Thermal Bath. If you're feeling poorly, your doctor might write you a prescription for the bath and save you the entry fee.
Budapest
The Dohany Synagogue is a magnificent building, the second oldest synagogue in Europe and the biggest in the world when it was built in 1859. The two towers are deliberately reminiscent of the Islamic minaret – the architect wanted to promote peace between the two religions. The extraordinary gothic parliament is the third biggest parliament building in the world. Entirely symmetrical, it was completed in 1905, an era when Hungary was several times larger in territory.
It's very fun zipping around in the samba van. Everyone points and waves as you go past. You feel like a minor celebrity. The castle district is incredibly cool with panoramic views across the city. Look out for the bronze horse with shiny balls, touched for good luck by local students. Then it's up to Gellert Hill for even more impressive views, straight down the length of the Danube. There's a citadel under construction: when completed it will look spectacular but God knows when that will be.
Back to the hotel for a wander round the Jewish quarter and maybe a ruin bar or two. New York, New York – you'll definitely want to be a part of it.
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Budapest, Erzsébet krt. 9, 1073 Hungary; Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel
