It’s an unforgettable experience: Getting up at the crack of dawn in mid-winter, walking through the large municipal park on the Pest side of town, checking in to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath (mostly with Hungarian pensioners because tourists usually arrive later), and slowly easing into one of its three large outdoor hot spring pools, surrounded by the golden yellow neo-Baroque palace—built in 1913 for the baths—while old men playing chess in the water. Then watch as the sun rises slowly, and your breath dissipates into the cold, crisp air. The spa has 15 indoor baths, too, as well as 10 saunas at various temperatures. This spa isn’t about being posh, it’s about easing into the kind of everyday self-care that Hungarians have known and avidly practiced for centuries. Just join them.
SzÈchenyi Baths. Budapest. Hungary.
Tibor Bognár/age fotostock
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Szechenyi Baths
Budapest has several renowned medicinal baths. Szechenyi is one of the largest, with two hot outdoor pools, and several indoor of varying temperatures. It was quite the experience in winter, strolling out into the brisk winter air in a bathing suit, before hopping in the pool. You can book out a towel and bathing trunks there if you don’t have your own.
Hungarian chill out
Budapest, the city of the Danube, of ruin pubs, of goulasch and the most beautiful parliament house ever built, is also the city of baths. This is one of them, can stay the whole day, chill out and brush stress away.
The Széchenyi Thermal Bath
No visit to Budapest can be complete without a visit to one of its world famous spas. After all, the capital of Hungary is known as the City of Spas. The two most well known and probably the nicest and most well equipped thermal baths are the Gellért and the Széchenyi. The Széchenyi is lovely, the Széchenyi Bath is Budapest’s largest thermal spring bath. It’s also a historical bath built in 1913in neo-baroque style. Its thermal spring is one of the deepest and warmest in the city. It’s in City park, opposite of the City circus. Like the Gellért it also has sauna and steam bath facilities as well as numerous indoor and outdoor pools. Besides the convenient online booking system we have that lets you avoid the lines, it’s also possible to book different massage treatments like aroma therapy massages, hot stone massages or the chocolate dream massage. Entry for people with online tickets is between 9AM and 6PM, but you can stay until closing time.
Szechenyi Bath Budapest - A must go!
This is a must-do activity in Budapest. Whatever the season, the outdoor baths are open. There are three huge outdoor thermal baths, and many small ones inside the building, along with a sauna and shower rooms. Visitors can use the lockers, individual changing rooms and towel rental. Spend the afternoon relaxing and people watching. Bring cash for a towel rental deposit. Food and drink can be purchased at the bar.
Beware of Bubbling Babushkas
While staying at the lovely Kapital Inn Boutique B&B, the proprietor stated that the thermal baths are not just medicinal and healing. The baths also allow us to see the typical Hungarian woman participating in a cultural tradition. One can see the Ottoman’s influence on this Eastern European city by noting the architecture and then celebrate the art of massage in one of the various parlors upstairs.
Baths in Budapest
A cloudy, rainy day is perfect for spending at the spa. Or, if you’re in Budapest, visit one of the bath houses. There are countless pools of varying temperatures and there’s nothing like sinking into a hot pool of spring water and letting the day pass by.
Harness Nature's Healing Waters
When Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi was asked if he believed in extraterrestrials, he replied: “They are among us, but they call themselves Hungarians.” Where millennia old Roman ruins & 500 year old Turkish monuments can be found side by side. Where Central Europe’s largest fresh water lake - Balaton, provide a natural aquatic paradise for its visitors And, where hundreds of therapeutic mineral springs gush up from the depths of their volcanic tubes... The Széchenyi thermal bath is Europe’s largest medicinal bath. At the Széchenyi Bath and Spa, guests can relax in water containing fluoride, metabolic acid, calcium, magnesium, hydro-carbonate, sodium and sulphate that treats AR & is useful for orthopedic and post-injury treatments. Drinking the well water is believed to help a whole host of ailments like ulcers, gall bladder illness, calcium deficiency and kidney stones.
Warm up in the thermal baths in Budapest
Escape the dreary European winter with a trip to Budapest and enjoy the outdoor baths. Széchenyi Bath complex was a bit off the typical tourist route and where the locals stay warm on cold eastern european winter days.
Budapest thermal baths under a crescent moon
For me, the word Budapest has conjured up images of Hungarians outside a yellow building standing in and around pools for years, Knowing that thermal spas are a huge part of the culture - and Budapest experience - I made it a priority to visit the Széchenyi baths on my quick trip to Budapest. Széchenyi appealed to me (over the other but apparently equally beautiful art deco baths across the city) with its outdoor pools. On a cloudy fall night, where the sun set at 4:30pm, I joined others the locals playing chess in blissful warm water delights. With a crescent moon and the lanterns relfecting the same soft yellow glow as the building itself, it was a night I’ll not soon forget.
