Fodor's Expert Review Corinthia Hotel Budapest

The Corinthia first opened as the opulent Grand Royal Hotel, in time for the Magyar Millennium in 1896. The subsequent century unfortunately wasn't very kind to it---two world wars, communist rule, the 1956 revolution, and more contributed to the hotel’s decline and eventual closure, and it wasn’t until an extensive renovation in 2003 that it reclaimed its former glory. Its storied past has served it well, though, as the chief inspiration for Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. The expansive atrium lobby is full of Italian marble and wrought-iron ornamentation, and the hotel's Royal Spa---a dazzling reconstruction of a spa designed and built in the late 1880s and operating until 1944---is replete with a swimming pool, saunas, Jacuzzis, massage salons, tropical showers and more. Guest rooms and suites are stylish with dark wood and jewel-tone upholstery; bathrooms are all-Italian, from marble floors to gleaming fixtures.