Best Spas And Baths In Budapest 2024

Budapest is Europe’s spa capital. Historic, elegant, and beautiful in their own right, with origins reaching back to Ottoman or Habsburg times, spas here are ideal for a full day of leisure and even nighttime enjoyment.

No visit to Budapest is complete without a trip to the spa. The majority cost around £25/€30, however Lukács and Veli Bej are more affordable options. Bring a towel, your swimming outfit (this isn’t Germany; Hungarians don’t do naked saunas), flip-flops, a winter dressing gown, and a credit card to purchase drinks and food inside.

1. Palatinus Baths

Margaret Island is Budapest’s recreational sanctuary, complete with thermal springs that supply two spa hotels. The Palatinus, located on the western side of Buda, has been delighting Hungarians of all ages for just over a century. The Palatinus, Budapest’s first open-air hot bath and pool complex, opened shortly after World War I and was renovated in remarkable Bauhaus style right before World War II.

It is known here as a strand or lido, and it is full of water elements for children, who throng here in droves during the summer. Only after a 2017 renovation did the baths open year-round, allowing adults to enjoy the 15 pools and different spa treatments.

2. Lukács Baths

While not as big as the Gellért or Széchenyi, the Lukács attracts a large number of repeat visitors due to the substantially reduced admission fee and more conveniently accessible bathing places. Plaques covering the walls of the luxuriant gardens attest in several languages to the curative efficacy of the thermal waters that once eased tired troops returning from the Crusades.

Some aspects of the in-house Sauna World may still be unavailable due to ongoing renovations, but the outdoor and indoor pools should keep you happy for a few hours. In the summer, the roof is used for sunbathing, with Buda’s verdant hills as a backdrop.

3. Széchenyi Baths

When you think of Budapest spas, you immediately think of the Széchenyi in City Park, an elaborate complex with 13 indoor and three outdoor pools. The typical image of ancient Hungarians playing chess in the lake is quickly fading; nowadays, tourists and expats make up the majority of the clientele.

The Széchenyi is a remarkable experience and a must-do for your first visit to the city, especially when snowflakes fall from starlit heavens over bathers in the winter. Sparties are year-round pool parties that take place on Saturday nights.

4. Gellért Baths

Although the surrounding hotel is closed for long-term renovations, the famed Gellért Baths remain available for business. The Gellért, designed in the same Art Nouveau style as the prominent edifice overlooking the Danube at Liberty Bridge, recalls Budapest’s Silver Age between the wars.

The indoor pool is surrounded by marine-tiled interiors and artistically carved columns, and during the summer, one of the world’s earliest wave machines has entertained bathers for nearly a century. Take note of the plaque on the embankment opposite the Gellért, which marks the location where seaplanes would take passengers to Lake Balaton as part of the Grand Tour.

5. Rudas Baths

This lovely facility near Elizabeth Bridge is divided into three sections: an Ottoman-era steam bath, a swimming pool, and a modern spa center. The cupola-covered Turkish bath, with its octagonal main pool, was built in the 16th century and has recently been restored to reflect its heritage status.

Bathing is single-sex during the week but mixed on weekends, when the Rudas remains open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings. The rooftop jacuzzi offers front-row seats over the Danube, which is in high demand once the stars come out.

6. Veli Bej Baths

The Veli Bej, part of a hospital complex near the Lukács Baths, is of 16th-century Ottoman origin, as are the Rudas and the long-closed Király on the Buda side. This smaller facility, which was just recently renovated for modern public usage, is open everyday from 3pm to 9pm and 6am to noon on weekends, with your ticket valid for three hours. The stone arches and cupola are original characteristics from the Turkish era, but the sauna area is clean and modern, with an ice machine and bathrooms.

7. Dagály Baths

The Dagály (‘High Tide’) is of its day, having been erected in Socialist-Realist style by the new Communists in 1948 and reconstructed in 2017 to fit the surrounding Duna Aréna in preparation for the World Aquatics Championships the following year.

This huge facility on Népfürdő utca (‘People’s Baths Street’) in north Pest combines the best of both eras: still appealingly retro-tinged and inexpensive, it features multiple pools with a contemporary makeover. The extensive vegetation, framed by the Danube and Buda slopes, allows you to set up camp for the day, spreading out your towel and breaking out the sandwiches like the locals.

8. Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest

The Gresham is one of several high-end hotels in town that welcomes non-guests to its spectacular spa, which is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. This fin-de-siècle Art Nouveau monument, which overlooks the Chain Bridge from the Pest embankment, was renovated into a five-star hotel by the Four Seasons organization in the early 2000s, and it has since hosted numerous Hollywood A-listers.

In addition to breathtaking views of the Danube and Buda cityscape, the spa provides treatments such as Hungarian moor mud therapy and relaxing massages with gold particles, as befits the once-in-a-lifetime nature of coming here in the first place.

9. Alfréd Hajós National Pool

If you’re looking for a great swim for the price of two beers, this vintage pool complex on Margaret Island is ideal. The Alfréd Hajós Stadium, designed by Hungary’s first Olympic winner, who won a swimming gold medal in 1896 and another medal for stadium architecture in 1924, has served as a training ground for generations of Hungarian athletes.

Several major events have taken place here, most recently the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, but that doesn’t mean you can’t quietly swim a few lengths with a simple breaststroke. The Hajós, as it is known, converts into a family-friendly lido during the summer, similar to the nearby Palatinus (see above).

10. Római Beach Baths

Named after the nearby stretch of the Danube where the Romans set up camp 2,000 years ago, the Római is a strand, a summer-only lido full of flumes, slides, splashing and shrieking.

It’s great with the kids, perhaps not so ideal if you just want a calm soak and a few hours with a good book – although the grounds are spacious (and shaded) enough for you to find a quieter spot.

There’s a large lane pool, too, and kiosks serving the classic Hungarian beach snack, lángos, a mess of fried dough and sour cream. Nearby is Római part, an embankment lined with bars and fast-food outlets, where a temporary lido is also set up in summer, this limited area of the Danube clean enough to swim in.