I like apartments that are comfortable, air-conditioned, historical / picturesqe preferred, within walking distance of good food, a bit of bar/cocktail (no disco, party animail stuff)...., museums, cultural sites. Any help will do. I love Mala Strana Lesser town of Prague.

Any suggestions. I do not have a guide book yet.
Please help.

JkHeigle-you might want to read the Fodor's mini-destination guide on Budapest here on this site. It's generally pretty helpful, and will give you hotel ideas-also check tripadvisor.com under "Budapest-hotels." That said, I enthusiastically endorse the Marriott hotel, with its beautiful balconies overlooking the Danube, its daily pastry cart in the lobby, and its incredibly good and bountious breakfast buffet-possibly the best of any hotel I've stayed in-and you get the view of the Danube to boot.

In the summertime, the Marriott has their biergarten set out on the veranda, along the Danube promenade. This is a most pleasant and very Hungarian hotel, everything is within a 15 minute walk, the shopping street -vaci utca- is a 2 minute walk. Also very friendly and helpful staff who say goodbye to you when you leave. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend the Marriot Mellenium Suites.
Located near the E bridge and walking street.
Roomy apartments with good size bedroom with lots of closet space and very comfortable beds with TV.
Livingroom of good size with sofa bed and TV.
Bathrooms also roomy with lots of counter space and bath/shower combo and shower curtain and lots of hot water. Nice modern kitchen with all the appliances and granite tops. Free washers and dryers on each floor! Breakfast downstairs included which was continental and modest. Renovated last year and very clean. Modern, not historical. Reasonable cost at E195/night for a 2 bedroom suite/apartment. Do not know what the one bedroom suites cost. Lesser costs for more extended stays. Solid 4 star comfort. My highest recommendation.

The Buda side is more like Mala Strana and has a medieval village feel to it. Yo have beautiful views of the river and Pest below. It is easy to get across to the Pest side as well. Stayed at the Hilton, lovely room with a river view for 110E two years ago.

We were in Budapest last month and stayed at the Marriott Millenium Suites.

Can't recommend it more. Big suite. Excellent.

Ask for and got a view of the river side. Most rooms don't have it but I asked.

Very inexpensive and includes breakfast.

One block from the river and 10 minutes to the Chain Bridge.

We stayed last month at Hotel Victoria on the Buda side, right along the Danube river. It was a 5 minute walk to the Chain Bridge. We loved it! Every room has a large window with river view, and we requested and received the room with the balcony!! We spent late evenings on the balcony having wine and watching the World Cup games! Two nights there were fireworks. They have a complete breakfast in the morning and make omlettes, eggs, bacon, ham etc., all included in your room rate of 118€. It is also a 5 minute walk to the Red line metro, which is closed now, so they are running a bus instead along the line. The hotel has wonderful a/c also.

We loved Budapest and stayed 5 nights, going to Eger one day as a day trip. The only thing we had problems with was finding a route map for the trams and buses. You may want to find one on the net before you leave.

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