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Lord of the Ring
Grand Hotel Wien sits in a prominent position on Vienna’s celebrated Ringstrasse (Ring Road), a distinction it shares with many of the splendid city’s greatest landmarks, including the Parliament,...
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1001 Hungarian nights
Our room is the Kings and Queens Room. The British version of monarchy, that is, because out of the six framed pictures on our wall we recognise only Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Later, from a book, we...
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The new and the nouveau
The former Hungarian city of Nagyvárad, now Oradea in Romania, has a centre rich in Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture. Further out are ugly communist-era apartment buildings and impressive but...
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Time out in Transylvania
In the fast 21st century, parts of the Romanian region Transylvania thankfully remain horse-and-cart country. Sighisoara, with the region’s best-preserved Saxon fortress, is a good base to explore....
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On the waterfront
You know how it is: sometimes the big city can start to overwhelm you and you need a weekend away. The pure air of mountains, perhaps, or by the water. Within 100 kilometres, say, which rules out the...
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Home, suite home
Ten years ago someone somewhere was given the task of coming up with a name for a new hotel chain in Central and Eastern Europe. Whoever thought of “Mamaison” – a top-end advertising executive? The...
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Rococo on Rye Island
The Budapest Times’ latest weekend away took us out of the city, out of the country and – very nearly – out of this world as well. Read on, dear reader, read on. Long-time readers will know we like to...
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On the up from Down Under
The Canberra conference room Australia’s presence in Budapest took a nosedive in 2013 when it closed its embassy as a cost-cutting measure. One large Australian company is keeping alive some of the...
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’Home’ without the hassles
A lot of different people come through the doors and a lot of out-of-the-ordinary things happen in 15 years at a hotel. Such as the strange cases of the berserk businessmen, the Nigerian king, the...
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Reaching for the heights
Asked in 1923 why he wanted to climb the then-unconquered Everest – a considerably riskier prospect in those days – British mountaineer George Mallory offered the immortal retort, “Because it’s there”....
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Rising star in hotel sector
The receptionof the Hotel Riverside in Prague CPI Hotels is one of the largest hotel groups in the Czech Republic, with a portfolio of 27 hotels. It would have been a name largely unknown in Hungary...
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Bird, bard inspired businessman
Seagulls are flying outside the window of our eighth-floor hotel room. Nothing unusual in that, normally, but this is a Mövenpick hotel and this particular bird has a special place in the history of...
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From Casablanca to Kecskemét
Somehow the outside comes inside with you upon entering the hotel’s revolving door: five 10-metre palm trees in pots dominate the large lobby, water flows in two ornamental pools and birds flutter and...
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Keeping company with national heroes
Corinthia Hotel St. George’s Bay north of Valletta When Admiral Lord Nelson’s famous Column in Trafalgar Square was refurbished and resurveyed in 2006, it was found to be 4.4 metres shorter than...
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Hilton Hotels & Resorts for people with well-worn passports
Hilton at Resorts World Bimini Hilton Budapest is a city landmark with its uninterrupted and up-close Danube River views, but in the bigger picture it is just one of Hilton Hotels & Resorts’ more...
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Slovenia dreaming
In a blissful dream, we drive over the border to an enchanted land where we stay at a smart hotel in a charming castle. The castle is on a small and pleasant island inhabited only by slender...
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365 days of pampering, come rain or come shine
Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon Budapesters are well aware that the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace is not just one of the city’s most magnificent hotels but one of the city’s most magnificent...
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War and peaks
We knew a fellow, an Englishman in fact, who once, standing amidst the magnificent mountain scenery of Bad Hofgastein, Austria, uttered the scornful observation that “once you’ve seen one alp, you’ve...
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365 days of pampering, come rain or come shine
Budapesters are well aware that the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace is not just one of the city’s most magnificent hotels but one of the city’s most magnificent buildings, full stop. Four Seasons is...
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Room with a view – a mountain view
“Dobro utro. Iskate li da tancuvame?” we say to the waiter in the Hilton Sofia breakfast room, having learnt a few phrases before arriving in the Bulgarian capital the night before. This is supposed by...
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