One of the most important things I came away with from my visit to Budapest is that real Hungarian Goulash is actually a delicious soup.

The second thing I learned is that Budapest is a bustling, seemingly prosperous city beautifully laid out along the River Danube. It's actually two cities. Buda, with its tourist-filled Castle District, is on the hilly side of the river, Pest (begins with P, says our guide, like pancake) is the flat side, and has the business districts, shops, restaurants, and most of the luxury hotels.

I have the good fortune of traveling around checking out destinations to see what will or will not work for my clients. Sometimes I am alone, but many times I host Client Education Trips and bring meeting and incentive planners along who have potential business for those destinations. Such was the case on this last trip to Budapest and Prague. I was accompanied by five wonderful, professional "third-party" planners and we covered a lot of ground looking at a zillion hotels and venues, sharing our opinions as well as seeing the sites of the cities. We had a lot to see and so I was very strict with "shopping time", but I think they were able to manage a few hours here and there when I wasn't looking.

Our Destination Management Company in Budapest is Columbus Welcome Management - Budapest, and they did a fantastic job putting our two-day stay together. They took care of everything, from transfers to the hotels to the meals, tours, and sightseeing. It was flawless. And they are really nice people as well. As DMCs should, you could tell that they were always very concerned that we were happy. And we were.

Like I said, we looked at a lot of hotels. The general consensus was that we were staying in the best one, the Five-Star Kempinski Corvinus. A relatively new hotel, it provides a very high level of service, large rooms, comfortable meeting space, a small spa, and excellent cuisine. It is also very close to the city's main square, lots of shopping, and the river. A terrific location.

The traditional five-star Royal Corinthia has been the place to stay in Budapest for generations. It is not far from Andrassy Street, the more elegant shopping district, has some beautiful public space, and a very impressive ballroom. I was not that impressed with the guest rooms, especially compared to where we were staying. They were OK. What made the biggest impression on me was that this hotel was Gestapo Headquarters during the War.

Hungary sided with the Germans, so technically their presence was not an Occupation, but my guess is that after a while it was very clear who was calling the shots (literally). Anyway, as I toured the property I could not stop imagining the scenes that took place there. How must it have felt for someone summoned to the Corinthia as they walked through the lobby, up the Grand Staircase to the elegant, chandeliered ballroom that had been transformed into the headquarters of the SS? They never knew how, or even if, they would be leaving.

My mother's sister married a Hungarian doctor before the war. While in New York in the thirties he became active in helping Jews leave Hungary before it was too late and re-settle in the US. He got one of his sister's out in 1939, but his other sister, Olga, and her husband, decided to stay. One night, early in the War, there was a knock on the door and Olga never saw her husband again. She hid with a Christian family for the next four years before making it to the US in 1949. She never re-married. I could not help thinking about my "uncle" during the site. It is a shame, really, because the very nice people who run the hotel had nothing to do with all of that. Most people today would not give it more than a second thought. Just me, I guess.

We looked at the Four Seasons, located in a beautiful old, but completely renovated building by the river looking out over the city's famous Chain Bridge. The hotel is, like most Four Seasons, nearly perfect and the most expensive hotel in the city. I also wanted to take the entire art collection home with me. Great for a high-end incentive, but if you don't have the budget or it is more of a meeting than incentive, I still vote for Kempinski.

The Hilton Budapest has a unique location in the Castle District on the Buda side of the river. Built inside what had been a 13th century Dominican Monastery, it is literally next door to the Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is also the only luxury hotel that can handle very large groups, so if you have a big event, it is where you stay by default. Couple of problems with the hotel (as agreed upon by our committee of professionals); the neighborhood is jammed with tourists during the day, and I mean jammed, and it is deserted at night. We also agreed that we did not know the Hungarian qualifications for five-star, but it certainly felt like a four-star. It was all O.K., but certainly not a wow, except for the few rooms that had breath-taking views of the Castle, the River, and Pest. But that was not enough to make us want to stay there. Hope no one from Hilton reads this.

Just want to make a couple of other points. On our first night our itinerary from our DMC said "Depart on foot for Danube Panorama Cocktail (involving a boat, Budapest panorama and drinks)." I assumed our departure on foot did not involve a boat, and felt reassured that the cruise did, in fact, involve one. I also hoped that the boat was completely involved, not just possessed with a passing interest. At any rate, the cruise was a great introduction to the city and is kind of a "must-do" for any group. If, on the other hand, the DMC suggests the group drive "Bringos" on St. Margareth's Island as a teambuilding exercise, do a site inspection first.

Next point.... How is it possible for all of the souvenir shops to actually sell the masses of crap that they offer. It's the same crap in one store after another. Who actually buys it? I understand that some tourists with no taste buy it as memorabilia of their trip, and others buy it because it is so tacky, but there are not enough people in the world to buy it all. How do these stores stay in business? And a warning...the large in-door market and the pedestrian shopping street in downtown Budapest are filled with these places and jammed with tourists. Unfortunately, very little real art or local crafts can be found there. You have to search for it.

Two other things I learned; There are some excellent Hungarian wines. There are a lot of attractive women in Budapest.

Hungary, like many countries in southeastern Europe, is suffering from the latest economic downturn. They call it the "Crisis". After the Soviet Union collapsed and Hungary emerged from more than forty years of occupation and subservience (they definitely do not like the Russians), the State sold off its assets at bargain prices to former members of the Communist Party, the Secret Police and the Mafia. These bad guys got rich while the people, who supposedly owned the State, ended up with nothing.

Luckily for Hungary (the word "lucky" is debatable), it was able to attract foreign investment. The country began to prosper, at least on paper. As in Greece and many other southern European countries, the country's spending and debt became unsustainable. Their economy is contracting while the interest on the original foreign debt must be paid, and so budgets are slashed and government services continually reduced. It is a vicious cycle as money continues to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands while the people work more for less. History keeps happening. Interesting, always interesting.

On to Prague.

To see pictures of my trip to Budapest, please visit my page on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/TheCramerCollection.