Spas and baths in Budapest

In my opinion, one of the great attractions of Budapest are the different spas! During my visits I always make sure that I get to one or two.

Probably the most dramatic that I have visited are the Széchenyi Thermal Bath http://www.spasbudapest.com/furdo.php?idx=14


These are the ones you often see in tourist information and it is well worth going there. Don't believe the guide prices, I went just this weekend and in a couple of years the price has gone up from 1700 HUF (6,25€) to 3000 (10,96€) last Saturday! And no one leaves after 2 hours so don't count on getting any money back from this. There are 3 outdoor pools, one for swimming which is not too hot and two others which are warm to hot even during the winter! In the summer there is a naturist sun area on the roof, I am not sure if it is open in winter and am not even sure people would like to go up there then! Indoors there are lots of pools of different temperatures, one with waves and others with different medical properties. There are also a number of saunas at different temperatures. There is even a sauna where the light colour changes - why, I am not too sure although it is explained - in Hungarian! If you want a real sauna, 80-90 (celsius) you need to go outside and then into the basement. One of them also has an icemaking maching to cool you off as well as a cold pool at 16°.

I suppose the Gellert spa hotel is the next one everyone knows but you need to count on spending a little more to get in. There is a communal swimming pool indoors, the art deco one you see in all the tourist docs. Then outside and in the summer only there is a large pool with waves for the whole family. For the medical pools men and women are separated and wear a sort of loin cloth, at least the men do. Here there are a couple of pools of different temperature -one of 36° and one of 38°. There is also a steam room and a plung pool at 8° if I remember.

In both these spas you can have massages and so on.

The other baths I have been to are the Turkish baths: Rudas Thermal Bath - built in the 16th century and Király Thermal Bath - begun in 1565 - and feels that way today. In these baths there are mens and womens days and usually a mixed day during the weekend. They cost me 2100 HUF ( 7,67€) and you can stay as long as you want. The Rudas has been refurbished but still has the large round pool under the dome. The Kiraly is still not as posh!

I haven't yet visited any of the others but there is a great site which gives you information about all of them you will find it here:

http://www.spasbudapest.com/tartalom.php?idx=13

Enjoy!