Fenyves Hotel és Étterem Békéscsaba — Hotel in Békéscsabai járás

We spent two nights at the Fenyves visiting relatives in Bekescaba. The people and staff are very nice and friendly. But the hotel itself is just average. It is situated on the outskirts of Bekescaba on the eastern side in a fairly sylvan setting. The rooms are large but very plain. The TV is ancient and small, which was a bummer for watching any of the World Cup games (you were unable to read the score). The beds are adequate, not at all super comfortable. While the bathroom is large, there is only a shower with a shower curtain going all the way around it. If it had been a shower with a shower door, that would have been fine. The curtain leads to shower curtain stick, when the warm water creates wind which blows the shower curtain against your wet body causing it to stick to you. As well, if you turn the water up to a nice powerful stream, which you can do in this bathroom, the water ends up all over the floor and out into the hallway, something which happens very quickly and which you probably would not be aware of until you try it. Air conditioning is adequate and takes a while to cool the room (about 1-2 hours), but it is also noisy (when you use the air conditioning setting, it seems like it doesn't work, so just put it on the other setting and it works as long as you set the temp low). While the window is screened, the door is not and there are lots of mosquitoes, so you don't want to leave the door open for cool air at night, and having only the window open doesn't cool down the room sufficiently. Additionally, there were events both nights we were there, and one was a wedding that went on until 3am, so there was no way to keep even a window open if you wanted a modicum of quiet.|| The breakfast is typically Hungarian so don't expect much. We didn't eat anything except a yogurt (which was more like really low fat kefir) with honey, but at least there was chocolate cereal our daughter could eat. The espresso machine had a low temp warning lit and the coffee was lukewarm. We had to have the staff microwave it for it to be at an enjoyable temp.|| Bekescaba is a fairly dead town. Very few restaurants (the Mokus Csarda, almost all the way to Gyula, where we had a family meal Friday evening was pretty good for typical Hungarian fare, which can get very tiring and fattening after being in Hungary for a while). We spent two hours trying to find a place for lunch where we could sit outside, and this was downtown in the pedestrian area. The only available restaurant with outdoor seating had only three menu choices for the afternoon. One evening we drove to Gyula for dinner which was all of 7 minutes from the Fenyves. And what a difference. Gyula, a much smaller town (and a tourist destination because of the castle and its thermal spa), has a restored castle, and many more hotel and restaurant choices. We found out we could have stayed two nights at the Elizabeth Hotel there for about the same price, which we would have done had we realized how close Gyula is. Our meal at the Elizabeth was pretty good, not outstanding, but better than anything we saw possible in Bekescaba and it was outside with a nice view of the castle. The World Cup was playing on a giant screen next to the castle and it seemed like the whole town was out and about. On our last day on the way to visit relatives further East, we stopped for a decent Sunday lunch in Gyula (Hungary still has a way to go regarding service; the waitress was sitting at the best outside table smoking and was not a very good waitress although at least pleasant) and had a very nice Gelato at the small Gelateria next to the Sorpince, from a very proud gelato-making couple who appreciated our praise.|| In sum, if you have access to a car, it seems you are much better...

Well, we only slept one night. But we visited the hotel, used the restaurant, saw the spa area and researched the courtyard and terrace.||The room are large, with big balconies, clean and really nice and comfortable. Big bed, flat TV. I liked that the shower area was separated by the WC area. My wife liked that the balcony had shutters and kept the room in dark, even if outside was light already.||The restaurant is allright. I would say that it could be a little nicer, something made me think that isn't luxury enough. I saw it more that a eating hall... but the food was good. And the prices fair enough.||The breakfast was really good and, I love breakfasts in Hungary!||The hotel is situated on a side of the city, in a nice forest, so the air was fresh and there was silence. Even so, we reached the center in 5 minutes, with the car.||We saw the swimming pool and saunas, also the whirlpool. We didn't used them, it was too late (they close the spa at 22:00), but they are new and very clean. The pool isn't really to swim, it has about 4x6 meters, but a nice place to spend some time in that warm water, maybe with the kids also, in winter cold days :).||The personnel are very friendly and they tried to fulfill all our requests.||We will go again, with our bikes and will explore the surroundings...

Mikor megérkeztünk a szállásra megdöbbenten láttuk, hogy egyáltalán nem az fogadott minket ami a fényképeken volt. Először is a tisztasággal volt a probléma. A szoba ablaka pókhálós volt, majd amikor kinyitottuk beestek a döglött poloskák a szobába. A fürdőszobában is ugyan ez volt a helyzet. A szoba berendezésével még nem is volt probléma, de a fürdőszobáéval annál inkább, mivel olyan kicsi volt a kád, hogy még zuhanyzásra is alkalmatlan volt. A tisztálkodást nehezen lehetett megoldani. Mikor ezt közöltük lent a recepción, egyáltalán nem voltak segítőkészek, mivel azt mondták, hogy sajnos ez a szoba ilyen nincs más lehetőség, oldjuk meg. Ezt a foglalásban elfelejtették közölni. A foglalásban úgy kértük, hogy legyen klíma a szobában, amire igen is nagy szükség lett volna, hiszen tetőtéri szobát kaptunk. A klímát a lehető legjobb indulattal se tudom, még csak ventillátorocskának se nevezni. Az utolsó este el is romlott teljesen és csak a meleget kevergette. Az étteremben nagyon finomak voltak az ételek és a személyzet is nagyon segítőkész és kedves volt. Le a kalappal előttük. Mindig mosolyogva fogadtak minket, illetve lesték minden kívánságunkat. A wellnes részleg ugyan kicsi, de jól használható, mind a szaunák, mind a medencék is. A víz hőmérsékletek is kellemesek voltak. A haza utazás előtt mi után kifizettük a szállást kaptunk "ajándékba" 2 rúd helyi vastag kolbászt, amit a reggelinél is fogyasztottunk. Nagy örömmel fogadtuk, hiszen nagyon finom volt a reggelinél és sokat kompenzált volna a negatív dolgokban, aminek a recepción hangot is adtunk, ez által jól esett nekünk ez a fajta gesztus. Már úton voltunk haza, de szerencsére nem túl messze még, amikor hívást kaptunk a recepcióról, hogy azonnal forduljunk vissza és adjuk vissza az "ajándékba" kapott 2 rúd vastag kolbászt, mert nem nekünk jár és tévedésből adták azokat nekünk. Nyilván nem a 2 rúd kolbászon van a hangsúly, hanem a gesztuson. Miután visszavittük, csak annyit mondtak mosolyogva, hogy sajnálom. Eléggé megkeserítette a nyaralásunkat, ez a Hotel. Mikor ezek megtörténtek velünk nem akartuk elhinni, hogy létezik ilyen. Első éjszaka után ott akartuk hagyni a szállást, de mivel ki kellett volna fizetni, ezért inkább maradtunk és próbáltuk kellemessé tenni. Nagyon megtévesztőek ezek a pozitív kommentek, mivel mi egyáltalán nem tapasztaltuk azokat. Közel sem fedik a valóságot. Jövőre biztos nem fogunk ott megszállni, illetve akkor sem, ha a közelben leszünk....