Eastern Europe Hotel Recomendations (for May 07)

[mattyk]

Hey guys,

I will be spending 3-4 nights in Budapest, Vienna and Prague this upcoming May and we are looking for hotel recommendations.

Travelers will be three males, all in their mid-20's. We are primarily looking to experience the nightlife and we don't plan on spending a whole lot of time in our rooms. Good location within respect to the "hotspots" is probably the biggest requirement.

We are hoping to be able to find a decent room in a decent location for around ~150-200$ (USD) per night. A 2 bed room is fine (we can either share, request a cot or rotate someone on the floor)

Any specific hotel recommendations, as well as area locations (eg should we try and stay in Buda or Pest? Is old town Prague the best bet? etc) would be much appreciated

Thanks

Matt

[madamtrashheap]

mattyk, have a look at the replies in a previous post of yours pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&n=1&thread=2925&page=1#1167970049 as there are some suggestions for accommodation there. For Prague, either post in the Ray in Prague section or send a message to BigRay about Prague as he's the expert there. Also, try the site www.inyourpocket.com as they are good with eastern Europe information.

If you're looking at hotels rather than hostels, try the chain hotels like Accor (own Ibis, Mercure, Formule 1, etc) www.accorhotels.com as they often have properties in the centre of the city (eg Prague has an Ibis Old Town Hotel, Budapest has Ibis Centrum) that should fit your budget.

Just a note on Budapest: be aware of the scams that still occasionally happen there (they were more prevalent about 6 years ago). Guys in particular are targetted by women who invite them to join them for dinner, take them to a restaurant or club just off the main pedestrian street (Vaci) and then they are "locked in" by a group of large men and asked for money (usually aroudn US$1000 as a start) and aren't allowed out until they've paid. This used to happen with great frequency, but the word has spread and travellers are aware of the scam now. Other than this, Budapest is a rather enjoyable city!

[pointofnoreturn]

Are you looking to stay in a hostel, B&B or hotel?

Hotels, you can likely find a good deal on venere.com and hostelworld.com has a lot of good cheap accomodations (not always hostels).

According to hostelworld.com, for a room with 3 beds in it:

P.S. I only included those that offered a room with 3 beds in it so you'd have to double-check yourself...

For Budapest, the top-rated ones were:
Central Hostel (96% rating with $33 USD per person for a triple ensuite room)
1st Hostel (91% rating with $31 USD per person for a triple ensuite room)

For Vienna, the top-rated ones were:
Bag & Map Guesthouse (86% with $31 USD per person for a triple ensuite room)
Happy Hostel (83% with $27 USD per person for a triple shared bathroom room)

For Prague, the top-rated ones were:
Shelter Pension (90% with $24 USD per person for a triple shared bathroom room)
Hostel and Pension Rodigari (86% with $24 USD per person for a triple shared bathroom room)
Hostel Rosemary (86% with $26 USD per person for a triple shared bathroom room)
Wenceslas ApartHotel Melantrich (84% with $40 USD per person for a triple ensuite room)
Apartment Centre (84% with $26 USD per person for a triple ensuite room)

Some people have their own preferences but I think you guys would be better off finding places that have 3-bed rooms preferably with an ensuite bathroom and by checking on hostelworld.com and plugging in all the stuff you want, you'll definitely find a place for each city!

[mattyk]

Thanks for the tips all.

madamtrashheap thanks for the warning about Budapest. It's not the first time I have heard it but its good to hear again as I'm sure we would be prime targets for this type of scam.

I guess I wasn't clear enough in my first post, we are looking for hotels, not hostels... but I will look into the links mentioned.

Thanks again

Matt

[herrbert]

For Vienna also take a look at Pension Kraml www.pensionkraml.at/HTM/engstart.html

It is not a hotel with a lot of stars, but it is cheap, and pretty close to two important metro lines. (a 3-4 minute walk). You will get your own keys, so you can come and go when you want. They have a lot of options, and also triple rooms, and apartments, that would fit your budget.

[lia]

I've been checking some sites; I'd suggest 101 Y Walkinghostel in Budapest (48€ p/room, they're private rooms), the Manhattan Hotel in Prague (60€ p/private room for 3 people) and the Hotel-Pension Arpi in Vienna (59€ p/private room). they're all in the city centre; of course there are much more, I just chose one per city (there are really a lot!!) . I checked on flashbooking, to see a different point from pointofnoreturn's happy planning and..just a curiosity: in Prague, I don't know if everywhere, but certainly in some places, when you order a beer they carry on bringing you new ones as soon as you finish yours, unless you tell them that you don't want any more, which could be fine.. the problem is that if you say "no" for them it means "yes"! I'll check how to say "no" properly in czeck!

[jennifer]

For Vienna, Wombats, the new one, is great. Yeah, it's a hostel, but the rooms are like hotels, the double ones anyways. The breakfast is good, great location. I really would recommend it, if I remember correctly it was around 55 Euros per night per room.