Hunguest Hotel Helios

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Belle hôtel mais éloigné du centre ville, 25 mn à pieds.
Très bon spa mais pas de piscine pour nager.
Repas correct mais très loint d'une étoile Michelin comme mentionné dans un commentaire.
Internet est le point noir de l'établissement, je pense que la connexion dépend de la chambre.

Das Essen war sehr lecker das hotel sehr sauber .
Personal sehr unfreundlich und nicht so hilfsbereit bei Problemen.

Sehr ruhig, wundervoller ruhiger Garten und Außenpool herlich.
Frühstück und Abendessen sehr abwechslungsreich und geschmacklich ausgezeichnet.

Aufräumen/Reinigung des Zimmers einmal in 7 Tagen!

Service, Personal, Sauberkeit, Behandlung und Therapeutische Betreuung, alles einfach Perfekt! Und das Essen: wenn einem Buffetrestaurant Michelin Sterne zu geben möglich wäre, dieser Chef müsste es bekommen! Einfach Sterneküche und Bedienung ! Nächstes Jahr kommen wir wieder!

Det var et dejligt sted at være

Alles sehr sauber. Das Personal sehr freundlich. Frühstück sehr ausgiebig und große Auswahl. Mit dem Abendbuffet waren wir weniger zufrieden. Verbesserungswürdig.

Super und Thermalbad super und Wellness

No reviews since 2018 . . . let's update things in November 2023.

The entire hotel has been beautifully renovated and is worthy of a four star rating.
The design and architecture are really super and they are currently building a new thermal water spa. All new furniture and great design everywhere. Good parking.
HOWEVER . . . . whether Covid has hit them, or maybe they just can't get the right staff I am not sure. The problem for me is the food. The food standard is very high and the kitchen staff produce wonderful tasty dishes. BUT, the Bain Marie / buffet system doesn't work and all the food is always virtually cold. The plates too are cold even though they are in a heater unit to warm them up After a week here we have not enjoyed a good, warm meal which we need n mid November. If you enjoy cold scrambled egg off a cold plate you are in the right place.
Tonight we were the first down to dinner. All the food had been cooked and left out on the buffet to go cold as no-one had switched on the overhead heater/lamps. That's crazy !! There were also two tureens of soup - both only lukewarm.
The stairs are dirty and need a good sweep/clean. There is a new display cabinet in the dining room which is covered in dust and also needs a good clean.
Pity !!

excelent food and wellness faciities, nice and friendly staff, good price value - it is my favourite ! the hotel where I return all the time in Heviz. Nothing to complain.
A wide and various range of food in the restaurant, the lobby bar offers also drinks for food-sensibilities, like cappucino with ricemilk, which is a great advantage

The hotel is located in a qiet part of Hévíz. Public transport is good. White and red Dotto has a stop at the hotel. For two people taxi is cheaper.. There is a medical dept..
A swimming pool and thermal bath are in the garden.

Spirit 2
Price 3
Dishes 3
Wellness capacity 1
Wellness sort of possibilities 5
Cleannes in the restaurant 2
Cleanness in the rooms 5
Service in the restaurant 2
Comfort of the regular beds 5
Comfort of the additional beds 2
Internet coverage and speed 2
Age of the hotel 2
Staff kindness 5

We spent here only one night with children 13 and 11).

Hotel is huge, crowded, old fashioned. Wellness is undersized you are not able to enjoy the services.

Dinner: in a crowded huge restaurant you can choose just some dishes which are not unique but are ok. Waiters capacity is low it is just a luck if you are served in time with drinks.

Breakfast: the hungarian 'korozott' is perfect. Best ever! Thr other is regular.

In summary there are old people who can enjoy it as I see. But for us it will not be unfortunately the most favourite place...

There is a room for improvements...

We stayed one night in the old body in a tiny room, then 4 nights in the new body into a room much better. Spa area is small but OK, and the thermal spa is gorgeous.The hotel is a little old, needs renovation. The location is excellent, it is quiet, in a park near lake.Personalul trained and Spa treatments are very good. The food excellent and varied.

Heviz is a lovely town with a thermal lake. Hotel Helios offers access to thermal water in one of its pools along with other pools and saunas. Although the buildings are quite old and do not look impressive from the outside, the rooms are nice and clean with a balcony and bathroom. What I liked the most was the food. There are two coeliacs in my family (one also lactose intollerant) and we did not have to worry about the gluten free diet at all. They bake their own bread/ rolls every day, make cakes and serve clearly labelled, delicious meals for different types of allergies. I recommend this hotel to everyone with dietary requirements and those who want a quiet place to relax. Heviz is also only 6km from Balaton which can be accessed by local buses or a taxi.

The Hotel now consists of 2 buildings the Hotel Anna built 20 years ago and the Hotel Benjamin built ca 1916 with the Hotel Claudia with its distinctive balconied tower across the road having closed down. Rooms in the Hotel Benjamin are €6 less per night than they are in the Hotel Anna. The bedrooms in the Hotel Benjamin have been well renovated as have some of the other rooms in the hotel such as lounges, table tennis room and theatre. There is a covered heated walkway connecting the Hotel Benjamin with the Hotel Anna and the spa facilities in the middle. The restaurant is on the first floor of Hotel Anna and the lift was broken the first few days so all had to walk up the stairs which was difficult for elderly people walking with crutches or strollers. Hotel Benjamin is also not good for elderly people either for although there is a noisy antiquated lift max 300Kgs built in the stairwell, you have to climb or descend stairs to gain access to the lift.
Wifi was good in the rooms apart from when connections crashed several times on the last afternoon/evening. Early mornings was when the internet connection was fastest. Only secondary double glazing in the windows and only room 214 had a balcony. The antiquated lift was very noisy so all rooms close to the lift were also noisy so I got little sleep as I could hear whenever someone used the lift and I was in room 212 opposite the lift. The rooms came equipped with fridges containing two 1.5 litre bottles of water, one carbonated and one not and each cost Ft290 ie less than a Euro very much less than was charged in the restaurant or lobby bar. The TV had Hungarian and German channels plus CNN so no TV channels in English only in the American language but Hungary gets few English speaking tourists. It was impossible to use the shower in the bathroom without flooding the floor every time.-- the curtain needed weights at the bottom or the height of the bottom pan to be raised. Disliked the cheap unperforated toilet paper and you would have expected better in a three star hotel. Tissues were provided and there was a heated towel rail. Hot water always took a long time to come to either the basin or the shower
I always take my own pillow with me and there was one larger and one tiny pillow provide for each bed which were both extremely thin. I also take my own flat sheet with me as I can't stand duvets where your feet always come out in the cold. Always have sheets and blankets on my own beds in my home. Only two sockets by the desk, one for the TV and one for the fridge so one had to be unplugged in order to plug in the laptop. Mobile phone had to be recharged in the bathroom. Two upright chairs were provided by the desk. In addition to the old radiator there were two long hot water pipes which could be used to dry things but heating was only on the first couple of days as it then turned milder. Nice view from the window across the large park across to the thermal lake and the hills beyond. You could access Hotel Benjamin without going through Hotel Anna and on the ground floor of Hotel Benjamin there were practice rooms from the St Andrew Hospital by the thermal lake. Appointments were made in the reception area of the Helios Hotel spa centre.
The quality of the masseurs in the spa centre varied considerably. I would highly recommend Ilona Raksane who was much better than either Andrea Horvath, Vivien Madar or Silvester Rozsa. Would not recommend the inhalations treatment which was a complete waste of money. The roof of the spa pool needed renovating badly. Unsweetened herbal tea was provided each morning from 10 am to 12 noon. In the spa area, the spa water was available to be drunk at all times from 6:30 am until 6pm. The spa area in the Hotel Anna was open from 7 am until 8 pm and had Jacuzzis, Kneip treatment, saunas as well as the outdoor pool which had a temp of only 28C compared with the Jacuzzi which was 38C [The thermal lake in Heviz -- the largest in Europe, does not drop below 26C even in the coldest of winters]. By the spa areas in Hotel Anna were rooms for manicure, pedicure and hairdressing and these were independent of the hotel and cash had to be paid either in Forints or Euros.
The buffet breakfast and evening meals were adequate largely biased towards the mainly German speaking guest. The menus were written in Hungarian, German, American and Russian so they had colored beans instead of coloured beans as it would be in English. Materials in English in the hotel which had Union Jacks on the front had lots of typographical errors in them some of which gave you a good laugh. The machine which gave juices were clearly synthetic and the machines for coffee and chocolate did not always work. The hot chocolate was far too thick and strong. Cereals were provided but no milk only plain and fruit yoghurt. Fruit salad was there both for breakfast and the evening meal. Cottage cheese and sour cream was also provided. The tasteless flaky pastry savouries so loved by the Hungarians were there plus several varieties of rolls and bread which could be cut from loaves with a bread knife. There was also a toaster. Most days there were hard boiled eggs, scrambles eggs plus the first two days chicken livers plus other days chilli con carne, broccoli gratin in a thin watery cheese sauce, mushrooms in a watery sauce. Cheap sausage meats and two types of sliced cheese were there. There was a cook to make you eggs fresh if you wanted them and this was needed at least the first half hour as eggs did not appear on the buffet for at least half an hour.
There was buffet soup lunch each day with two hot soups plus rolls/bread available.
The first week we were there it was week A and the second week it was week B for the evening buffet. Two hot soups and one cold fruit soup were there each day Each day for the evening buffet there was a different type of potato so there were mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, scalloped potatoes, croquette potatoes, chips, chipped potatoes etc. Each day there was a fish entre and a vegetarian entre in addition to the meat dishes with at least one beef and one pork dish each day. The Cordon Bleu were excellent and was the vegetable/meat lasagne. Each day there was a cooked vegetable plus there was the rabbit bar for the women. There was always one hot desert plus several varieties of cake and the fruit salad already mentioned. It was difficult to get drinks in the evenings from the waiters/waitresses and you had often finished your meal before you were asked. There was someone playing a grand piano each evening and the music was very pleasant. Several times two ladies from Bezirk Murau sat at the same table and this was there 19th visit to the hotel and they travel each year by coach from Bezirk Murau in Styria so clearly the hotel has customers who really like the place.
The hotel had bicycles to hire but Heviz is very hilly with steep hills. The hotel is about a 15 min walk down a steep hill to the centre of town or 30 mins walk to the main wine growing area. A Spar supermarket is less than 5 mins walk from the hotel but Orban has closed all shops on Sundays now and the Roman museum in Heviz was closed on Saturday and Sunday and is situated in Egregy the wine growing area. There also is the tiny 14th cent Arpad church in Egregy and a grave of a former Roman soldier. Wine bars in the wine area were only open afternoons/evenings or were closed until the beginning of April. A motorised train can take you to the wine area for Ft800[€6] but the one I wanted to take was full so I walked the 30 mins each way along roads with no pavements but very little traffic.
Very friendly staff who had excellent English in the reception area but they said they had little opportunities to use it. The Reception staff in the spa area could speak a little English but no other staff could speak English only Hungarian and German.
The hotel was vastly better than the spa in Zalakros which I had visited in May where the staff were lazy and unpleasant and would like to return again.

Stayed here for 3 nights. Full board, which was very reasonably. The room on 1_st floor was OK and also had a balcony. Breakfast and dinner buffet was OK with plenty to choose from. Only had lunch ( soup) one day. Surprised still to day to meet this "eastern Europe closed" staff. Waiters did'nt speak English and only very little German and with a not friendly attitude. Impossible to get eye contact...or a smile. Slow and unflexible. Dirty tables were not cleaned. Mostly guests from Hungary, Slovakia, few Germans and AustrianS. And a bit funny to see all these well proportioned people in their white bathrobes all over in lobby and bar. Hevics is a nice city in walking distance. And for us the price level was indeed reasonable

Stayed here for 2 nights on all DBB basis.
Good sized room with balcony. Lovely gardens and outside pool area.

Plenty of parking . Easy walk into Heviz but a little train also stops here every hour so no walking back up hill!

Food was ok but not a great culinary experience.

Must not miss going to the thermal baths. You can take the bathrobe from the hotel if you wish which was really useful.

All in all a good stay if you want a few days rest and spa treatments.

I have stayed here every year for 6 yrs and even though the staff isn't always cooperative and sometimes quite badly behaved, the food is excellent and the wellness area with jet stream available once an hour, water "cannons" for your shoulders/back and a 360 degree massageshower in the pool is excellent. There is a jacuzzi, steam sauna, swedish sauna, kneipp stream and infrared sauna. The thermal pool, with a lovely 36-38 degree water, is sooo relaxing and nice. Be careful though, as some people can not because of medical conditions use it. Outdoors there is a nice big park with a swimming pool. The hotel offers free water gymnastics and there is a fashion show once a week in the lobby, operette evening, folklore and crafts stalls etc. free of charge. I recommend it strongly.

We found this Hotel via an internet search and although some reviews were poor decided it couldn't be that bad. The price was very reasonable.
We were given a room overlooking a roof but it was quiet if shabby. It is an old decaying building but they had tried to make the best of it.
First impressions were of a strong smell of urine in the toilet, similarly in the toilets near the pool. I wiped a thick wad of toilet paper round the inner rim of the toilet and was disgusted to see it brown, covered in stale urine and old faeces. The strong smell disappeared after I cleaned it properly. The beds were dreadful, mattresses no more than two inches deep and as the air conditioning wasn'tgood I removed the cover and used that as a sheet instead. It wasn't until the last day when I went to put that cover back I found a big bloodstain on the duvet, something totally unacceptable.
The public areas were reasonably clean and the gardens surrounding the outdoor pool were excellent.
The restaurant catered mainly for a German clientele so it was mostly cold meats and cheeses but there was plenty of choice of both hot and cold food.
I was disappointed in their gluten free menu, cold meats and cheese to which you added salad or veg. The pudding options were tasteless and the croissant at breakfast an unpleasant texture. I asked for GF bread and a pleasant waitress brought me some dark brown bread, sadly it proved inedible , my husband who eats normally described it as foul tasting.
After that first meal we ate out in Hevis where there were numerous nicer places.
The Sunday we were leaving we were awoken by banging on the door before 8 am.
We ignored it thinking someone had the wrong room and no key.
8.15 am it happened again so I got up and discovered the housekeeping lady demanding she come in and count the fridge contents. My husband was naked so I politely refused, having to push her out of the room and shut the door!
8 30 am she was back and by then we were up, having abandoned all hope of a holiday lie in.
As we checked out I asked the man on the desk if it was normal to be disturbed so early, and he insisted yes it was, implying we should accept their rules.
We did also eat in the bar (fine), used the wellness pool (looked a bit dirty and stains all over the roof above it).
I am reluctant to ever post a poor review as I know it affects their reputation, but the overall impression of this hotel is they have no comprehension of customer service.
I have never seen such filth or terrible bed linen in over 40 years of travelling, so my advice to you is quite honestly, avoid the place or like us, you will be left feeling grubby.....I took photos of the dirt and stains but wouldn't subject you to them, I am happy to email them to anyone who wishes to see them.

The building is from the old socialist era. Interior was renovated about 10 years ago. Would not call it modern, but it's okay.

The service is even more socialist than the building. You can overhear waiters dissing guests who don't speak Hungarian. Ridiculous.

The spa area is small and dirty. The termal water area is full of blight - unbelievably disgusting!

Holistic massage was godd though!

Choose a different hotel if you want to relax in good fashion.