Széchenyi Thermal Bath Budapest Hungary: Is it Worth Visiting?

Visiting one of the thermal baths in Budapest is an absolute must when you come to Hungary. Hungary is the third most thermal country in the world (after Iceland and New Zealand) and Budapest is the only capital in the world that has rich thermal waters with healing properties. Hence why Budapest is known as the City of Baths. As Széchenyi Thermal Bath is the most famous and won a Certificate of Excellence on TripAdvisor, it's on a lot of people's Budapest bucket-lists. But does it deserve to be on there? Is it worth the hype? We went to the Széchenyi Budapest Thermal Baths for the day and this is what we thought! [Note: this post was updated on the 23rd of February, 2023.]

Széchenyi Thermal Bath Budapest Review: First Impressions

They say that first impressions are the most important, luckily that wasn't the case here as our first impression left something to be desired: the ticketing process was slow, despite there being four ticket booths, and exacerbated by the fact that we were put in the wrong queue. Visitors are given special bath wrist bands that you use to get through the gate, and to open/lock your lockers. We've seen this system before in Germany but there you can buy your band from a machine. This kind of system would probably speed things up here. However, this was only a minor setback, the room was so pretty and once we finally got through it was even more beautiful and we were excited to explore more. Important note: you can avoid our mistake by skipping the queue at Széchenyi!

There are a number of refreshment options available at Széchenyi thermal bath, including BBQ, pancakes, canteen food, juice, beers & ice cream. We went for canteen food: veggie burgers and chips. It wasn't the best food we've ever had (or the cheapest) but you couldn't beat the location. Now I'd recommend you go for a pancake - the Hungarian 'palacsinta' is famously tasty (it's similar to the French 'crepe')! There are many drinking fountains dotted around the site with natural thermal water from underground. Make sure you try some of it: it's some of the freshest water we've ever tasted.

Thermal Bath Széchenyi Budapest: Outdoor Pools

Outside are three giant pools. Two are shallow and very warm, about 35 degrees Celsius. The third is a swimming pool and is presumably colder. I say presumably because we didn't actually go in as swim hats must be worn and we didn't have any with us. They were for sale at the entrance, but we weren't really there for swimming, we were there for relaxing.

Well, relaxing and for taking Insta-good photos... I tried and failed to take so many half under water half over water photos with my GoPro before I realised you need a GoPro Dome this was the first place I used it:

If you don't have a Go Pro, I recommend getting one, we used ours loads - and not just for water/snow sports, they're great for taking selfies too!

The hot water of the two other pools was definitely relaxing, but as it was a hot, sunny day it quickly got too hot. We bet that it must be absolutely superb on a cold winter's day, with the added advantage that there are fewer tourists in winter. This would be great, as by midday it was packed! [Update: I went in the winter, the outdoor pools are amazing! It's so nice to sit in boiling water with your head all cold. It stopped me from feeling faint and was a great way to warm up in the winter. Highly recommended.]

We also made a video about our time in Széchenyi thermal baths, in case you're interested :)

Széchenyi Thermal Bath: the Indoor Pools

Back to the summer, we escaped the heat and the crowds by heading inside, which is where we found the highlight of our day: the indoor pools. I say highlight partly because the architecture was beautiful! Széchenyi thermal spa was built between 1909 and 1913 so it is over a hundred years old and you can really see this in the interior design:

There were many pools inside, some shallow, some deep, some long and thin, others square. All beautiful, all different temperatures - some freezing, some boiling and everything in-between. It kind of reminded me of the Wood Between the Worlds in the Magician's Nephew book: 'a quiet forest dotted with many pools, each of which were portals to a different world.' Except there was no forest and the pools weren't portals... Unless you count the fact that they transport you onto a different plane of relaxation. Yey Széchenyi!

The hottest pool was 40 degrees Celsius and the coldest 20. Relaxing in a hot pool before submerging into a cold one feels fantastic - like taking cocaine. Presumably. Our skin tingled and we felt incredible! The architecture was absolutely beautiful too, each room was slightly different with the most darling, ornate tiles and high ceilings.

Inside Széchenyi thermal bath there were also a number of steam rooms and saunas. These were mixed and you have to keep your clothes on (of course). We enjoyed trying the different rooms and then plunging into the cool pools. And we really liked how each sauna was slightly different, our favourite was one had red glowing lights. Make sure you don't do what we did and miss the entire ground floor - there's a sauna there with an ice bucket for you to douse yourself in first/afterwards/both.

Which Is the Best Thermal Bath in Budapest?

You have to visit one (or more) of the thermal baths when you come to Budapest: Hungary is the third most thermal country in the world (after Iceland and New Zealand) and Budapest is one of the few cities in the world with so many healing thermal baths!

What they all have in common: the layout is kind of similar (an outside pool or two, lots of inside pools of different temperatures and lots of saunas and steam rooms). Also in all of them, the layout is super confusing and you could easily miss an awesome room or two. Try and get your hand on a map and don't be surprised if you walk towards something to find you can't go in that way and you have to turn around and go another way.

In all of them you must wear a swimming hat in the deeper and cooler swimming pool. You can bring one with you or buy one there. We just didn't bother going in the swimming pools, there are enough other pools, baths and saunas to keep you occupied, and frankly after an hour or two in those relaxing pools, you're not going to want to go swimming. Saying that though, I was super jealous of a few ladies who had the most beautiful flowery swimming hats.

Essentially no mater which bath you go to, you're going to get to try out some awesome baths and saunas, and you're going to go back to your hotel feeling as soft as a baby's bottom, but, despite their similarities, each bath still had something unique.

#1. Gellért Thermal Bath, Our Favourite

Gellért was the second bath we went to and our favourite one over-all. Their outside pool has a wave machine (which Tanbay loved) and it was a much more reasonable temperature for a hot summer's day (i.e. it was cold).

We also loved the decor of Gellert - it was so pretty inside! It was built between 1912 and 1918 but in a different style to Széchenyi: Gellért spa is a masterpiece of Art Nouveau architecture and interior design (see our photos and video below). If (when) you come to Gellert spa make sure you go to the pools on both sides of the swimming pool, we nearly missed the pools on the right-hand side and they were the prettiest! We really loved the saunas and steam rooms here too.

Here are some more photos to show you how beautiful Gellert is:

some of the decoration

this is the backside of the building with the outside pool of Gellért and my good friend Flo :)

a beautifully carved drinking water foutain with natural thermal water - amazing!

this is the entrance hall at Gellért thermal spa with a café, Viennese style

one of the inner pools with old ladies and their fancy swimming hats :)

If you only have time/money for one pool we'd definitely say go to Gellért!

Above you can watch our video of our time spent in Gellért thermal spa, enjoy :)

#2. Rudas Thermal Bath

Rudas was the third and final pool we went to. We were a little disappointed with the size of their outside pool (it's tiny):

But the temperature was perfect for the summer (not too hot like Szechenyi and not bordering on too cold like Gellert). This outside pool got extra points because it was the only one with cool views of Budapest:

* This article was originally published here