Hopstel BeerHotel – A Unique Craft Beer Hostel in Budapest, Hungary

I love a good pub with craft beer. But I also like a good night’s sleep. Generally speaking, I probably wouldn’t try to find an experience that attempted to mix the two.

But as I was searching for a different type of place in Budapest, I came across the Hopstel BeerHotel – a place that bills itself as the first Beer Hotel in Hungary – with Hungarian beers and craft offerings.

At first, I considered booking this place for just one night. My fear was going to bed at night and just hearing loud music the entire time.

Laziness took over – I didn’t want to manage different bookings for the same city – so I booked this place for my four-night stay and hoped for the best.

This is one of four places we’ve stayed when we’ve visited Budapest. If you want to see the others, here they are:

• Full Moon Design Hostel
• Baroque Hostel Budapest
• Budapest Maverick Lodge Hostel.

Getting to Hopstel

The Metro system here is pretty easy to figure out. And if you are a Google Maps user, it’s even easier. I didn’t have any issues finding this place. You can take the 100E bus into the city and take it all the way to Kalvin ter.

Then, just walk 10 minutes to the Hopstel BeerHotel. Or get on the Metro and take it to Corvin negyed.

Keep in mind that the 100E bus is not included as part of the city transit (even though it looks exactly the same as a Metro bus).

You have to buy a separate ticket for 900 HUF.

The Hopstel is at Tozolto utca 22. Just past the Aldi on your left.

Checking into Hopstel BeerHotel

This part was a little confusing because the instructions weren’t exactly clear in the Airbnb listing. Just by coincidence, a couple of guests came out of the building after I spent a few minutes wandering aimlessly and helped me out.

The entrance to the Hopstel BeerHotel in Budapest is pretty obvious – up the stairs on your right through the doors. But where the keys are wasn’t clear in the description.

Just across from the entrance is another set of stairs. On the right are 6 lockboxes. Find the one in the AirBnB description and that’s where your key is. Take the key and go across to the entrance and use it to open your room.

You may have to try it on all three rooms before you find your own. I did.

Rooms at Hopstel BeerHotel

When I tell people why I can afford to travel so much, I always say that I don’t care about accommodations. As long as the bedroom, bathroom, and shower are clean, and it’s reasonably quiet, I’m good.

And that’s exactly what I got here. Nothing more. Well, OK, a desk, too.

There are no frills at Hopstel Budapest. You really do just get a bed and a place to clean up. But the good news is, it’s all very clean. I looked everywhere and didn’t see anything I had a problem with.

The bed was comfortable (though I didn’t lie the pillow as much) and the 2 bathrooms looked good as new.

One thing I would love to have had here is air conditioning because it happened to be unusually hot in Budapest during my visit. But for $13 USD a night, I didn’t expect A/C. The room has a fan, and that worked out well.

During the day, the room could heat up. But it cooled down fairly well at night. And you could open the window and let in the fresh night air.

There is also a heater for winter months.

It’s a Beer Hostel. What about noise?

That’s what I found so surprising. There wasn’t much noise at all. Hopstel BeerHotel in Budapest is basically in the same complex with an outdoor pub that can hold a lot of people.

And when the futbol games were playing, it could get loud down there.

There was plenty of noise downstairs in the pub area. But it didn’t permeate into the rooms, thankfully. That’s because of two things:

1. The rooms face away from the pub area and you have to go through two other areas to get to them.
2. The windows are quite good at blocking out the sound. Open them and you’ll hear a lot. Close them, and they’re quite soundproof. I usually left them cracked just a little to let the fresh night air in the room. Even though I could hear some chatter, it was low and I had no issues.

Pubs and restaurants at Hopstel BeerHotel

There are two restaurants and two pubs here. The pubs, especially the Eleszto bar have a LOT of different types of craft beers and they range in price from 650 HUF for a Hekkelberg (about $2.30 USD) to 1300 HUF for some of the better ones (about $4.60).

The prices depended on the quality and alcohol percentage. That seems to be on par with the price of a pint in Budapest.

One bar is pretty much beer and cider only. The other has beer, wine, and mixed drinks. You can get anything you want here.

The best of the two restaurants was the sandwich place. That seemed to be the consensus with everyone to be honest.

My favorite menu item was the Deklas Vegaszenso – a beetroot sandwich made with great toasted bread, beets, coleslaw, and fried cheese. You can get it with their hand-cut French Fries, which are great!

It’s the only vegetarian sandwich on the menu here.

I asked several people about the other options and they told me the same thing – delicious.

Wi-Fi at the Hopstel

The entire complex has good Wi-Fi. In your room, you’ll connect to the Hopstel network. In the pub area, you’ll connect to theirs. Both are fast. I didn’t have any trouble – even with HD videos.

Inside the room, the connection disappeared one night as I was about to go to bed, but it was back early the next morning. The network at the bar was still up, even though it was closed.

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Hopstel BeerHotel at a glance

• Location: Near Corvin-negyed station – one of the main stations in the center of the city. Easy access to everything.
• Price: Use our AirBnB referral link to get $20 off your first stay. Then check with AirBnB for current prices. I paid $13 USD for my room.
• Staff: There is no on-site staff at the hostel. You’re on your own. Self check in and out. The reviews for this place say that the owners are easy to contact, though I didn’t have to do that.
• Beer List at Hopstel: Basically comparable to any good craft beer place. They have a great selection.
• Smoking: No smoking in the rooms, restaurants, or inside bars. You can smoke outside though.
• Food, etc: There are two restaurants here. You’re also very close to an Aldi and many restaurants, falafel/doner places, bars, etc.
• Safety: This seems to be a safe neighborhood. And you’re right next door to a police station.

Want to read more of our reviews of places to stay around the world? Check them out here.

Use our AirBnB referral link to get $40 off your first AirBnB stay.

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For More on Hungary and Budapest: When we travel, we use Lonely Planet. By buying a book at one of the Amazon.com links below, we get a small referral fee at no additional cost to you.

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Michael

Michael is originally from Canada but now resides in Atlanta, GA with his husband, Halef, who also writes here. He is a Couchsurfing expert. Michael has traveled to over 50 countries learning how to experience more for less as he travels.