The Best Hotels to Book in Debrecen, Hungary, for Every Traveller

On a tree-shaded street on the edge of the city, this modern five-star hotel in Debrecen with a grand spa overlooks the Great Forest Park. The rooms feature pale tawny walls and warm orange carpets with classic furnishings. Upgrade to a Royal Suite to add a second bedroom, dining room, sitting room, roof garden and jacuzzi-style bath. The lavish breakfast buffet has hundreds of dishes, including cooked-to-order omelettes and pancakes. In the leafy park behind the hotel, an outdoor theatre hosts jazz bands, orchestras and choirs from around the world.

The menu in the airy restaurant at Malom Hotel Debrecen is full of tempting choices. For dinner, try the braised goose liver with muscat apples or the roast pikeperch with pasta. The wine list showcases Hungarian vineyards with fruit-fragrant whites from the Mátra mountain range or spicy, rich kadarkas from Szekszárd. Afterwards, you’ll be happy to have a luxuriously rustic bedroom in the same building – a converted brick windmill in an attractive suburb a short walk from downtown Debrecen.

Just a 20-minute drive from Debrecen, the lake-ringed town of Hajdúszoboszló is home to the largest spa complex in Europe, featuring thermal baths and huge pools. However, you can dive into the curving spa at the Apollo, complete with three indoor pools and one outdoor, sun loungers, whirlpools, saunas and a salt chamber. More than 50 wellness treatments are on offer, and massages can involve chocolate, lava stones or Tibetan honey. For a private jacuzzi and sauna (and a waterbed), book the VIP suite.

The Béke is yet another capacious Hajdúszoboszló member of the Hunguest group – one of Hungary’s biggest hotel chains. Almost every light-filled room has a balcony or terrace. Like its other properties, Hunguest keeps up the emphasis on wellness here, with several palm-fringed swimming pools and saunas. If all that pampering has made you peckish, there’s a big breakfast buffet and hearty Hungarian dishes on the restaurant menu. Alternatively, stroll out under the sycamore trees to visit roadside kiosks selling fresh-fried doughnuts or marinated lamb gyros with mint-cucumber sauce.

At the neoclassical Hotel Aurum, near the huge Hungarospa, most rooms have kitchenettes so that, if you want, you can whip up meals between your adventures. It’s a short walk to the nearest supermarkets or a slightly longer (15 minute) stroll along the lime and cherry-shaded Hőforrás Street to the colourful Zsu-An Mini Market. The hotel buffets are just as fresh and inviting, while the aromas of roasting meat and paprika from nearby umbrella-topped food stalls waft into the warm evening air.

A two-hour drive south of Debrecen, castle-topped Gyula is a sunny spa town. The bedrooms at the vibrant Corso Boutique Hotel have bold natural colours on the floors and ceilings, which also feature in the curtains, covers, headboards and big botanical photos over the beds. An autumnal room echoes burnished maple leaves, and a red one has poppies. Creepers, window boxes and a terracotta urn soften the brick garden walkways.

Right inside the Castle Garden in Gyula, the Hunguest Hotel Erkel sits inside a towering cylindrical structure with direct access to a spa with alkaline waters and waterslides. You can stroll in the flowery garden, which has a green pond and stately linden trees, before retiring to pale, elegant rooms with lime-green silk details. The hotel is named after composer Ferenc Erkel, who was born in Gyula and wrote some of his grand operas in the shade of a nearby tree.

Founded in 1913, the maximalist Komló Hotel in Debrecen serves top-notch cuisine. Trout from the waterfall valleys near Szilvásvárad in northern Hungary is rolled in sesame seeds and served with crispy roast potatoes and spicy mayo, while pork is stewed with forest mushrooms. For pudding, there are raspberry-stuffed cottage cheese dumplings or creamy Hungarian trifle. The rooms and suites feature tasteful shades of gold and grey, marble bathrooms and copper plant pots.