Grand Astoria Apartment Budapest

The apartment was on the east side of the old downtown part of Budapest - easy to walk to the sights. The apartment is on a quiet alley (except for the temporary road construction next to the building which created some early morning noise a couple times while we were there). Right around the corner is a nice restaurant called "Rubens" which has a nice menu and reasonable prices. Just down from that is a little cafe next to a children's park called Karolyi-kert. You can sit outside and have coffee and breakfast or have some wine in the afternoon/evening. Very pleasant place. The Hungarian National Museum is very close. The apartment has two bedrooms downstairs, both with a queen bed and two bedrooms upstairs, one with a queen and one with two single beds. There is a bathroom upstairs with a shower and the washer is inside this bathroom. The washer worked fine. The electric dryer did not work very well and it was very noisy (we could hear it all night in the bedroom below it downstairs). Downstairs is the kitchen (appliances all work - Nespresso coffee maker), living room, two rooms with queen beds. Jacuzzi tub downstairs with shower but no shower curtain. I read other reviews that the railing on the stairway was loose and when we arrived we found the same problem. It could be very dangerous as one of the screws is missing in the base of the railing. I'm kind of surprised that VRBO (and the apartment management company in Budapest) would want to take on this type of liability. I took a picture of the loose railing and emailed it to the manager. He sent a young lady to "fix" it but she did not have the proper tools and the manager informed me he would "tell the owner" (not sure what role managers have in Hungary). A cement bit on a drill could drill the proper hole for a 1 euro anchor and the problem would be fixed in minutes. Instead there remains a dangerously loose railing on the stairs. The best supermarket close by is SPAR - several near the apartment. If you travel to and from the airport the best way to get to the apartment is by "Fötaxi." We paid 6300 Forint (20Euros) to get to the airport from the apartment. The apartment manager offers airport transfers but if your flight departure time gets changed (like KLM did with 5 hrs notice), he couldn't re-book it for a later time and still charged us full fee (taxi fee and profit). Manager won't give you the contact number for the driver for last minute airline changes.

The apartment was spacious and in a great location. There were 4 of us and it could have easily slept more. It was a good value and Budapest is a fun place.

Appartement spacieux mais manque de lumière. Propre, climatisation