Baltazar Budapest - Boutique Hotel

Whether or not it’s your particular cup of tea — more on that in a moment — we can confidently say that every city in the world needs a boutique hotel along the same general lines as Budapest’s Hotel Baltazár. Which is to say, a boutique hotel whose creators’ imagination is allowed to run riot, where no opportunity for expression has gone unseized.

It also helps if it’s manageably small — this one counts just eleven rooms — and if it devotes equal energy, of not more, to creating spaces for entertaining, for allowing locals and guests naturally to mingle. This one bills itself as a hotel, bar, wine bar, wine store, and grill, and we’d say that just about covers it — your own ideal list might differ in some details, but this is a fine start: a menu offering an upscale interpretation of Budapest street food, a thoughtful selection of Carpatian wines, and those bedrooms….

Yes, about those bedrooms. They’re as much collected or curated (sorry) as they are designed, an eclectic (sorry again) assortment of vintage furnishings and contemporary designer pieces, with art-history references that span the range from masters to kitsch — from Vermeer to Keith Haring to the bizarre trompe l’oeil bookshelves and larders. It’s a place that positively dares you to wheel out the clichés, and thus to some extent defies description. Maybe this sums it up: some people like buttoned-up minimalist boutiques, others like conservative ultra-high-end luxury hotels, but if you want a boutique hotel that’s in touch with its creative side, then this is your place.