This first thing is a bonus fact: the reason Budapest has so many thermal baths is only in part due to around a hundred atural mineral-rich hot springs. The main reason is that during the 150-ish years Budapest – or rather Buda, the city on the west bank of the Danube – was under occupation by the Ottoman Empire, the invaders brought their Turkish baths here in accordance with Islamic law to bathe before prayer. Although there’s little left of any original medieval features, several of the existing baths were founded in the sixteenth century – see Gellért, Király, Rudas and Veli Bej. Many of these pools, and therefore the modern ones too in imitation, feature an octagonal pool, often under a domed roof and so in honour of it, here are 8 things you need to know before going to a thermal bath in Budapest.
1) You’ll need to book either a cabin or a locker
Whether you book online – highly recommended – or take your chances on the day, the first decision you’ll usually have to make is between a cabin or a locker. A locker is cheaper – you’ll be given an electronic wristband, directed to the mixed-sex changing area where you’ll find a cubicle to change in, find an empty locker and use your wristband to lock it. If you go for a cabin, you’ll be directed to a machine on the wall which will show you which private changing room is linked to your wristband and this will be yours for the duration of your visit. No hunting around for available cubicles or lockers: change in it, leave your clothes in it, lock it with your wristband and come back whenever you want to.
2) You only get one cabin per booking
Here’s the catch with the cabins: you only get one, no matter how many people are on the booking. If you’re a couple, you’ll probably manage, although some of them are barely big enough to turn around in. If you’re, say, a stag party of eight or ten, you’re going to have trouble. The nature of the cabin space is that there are no random public cubicles around like in the locker room: you’re either going to have to take turns or some of you are going to have to change in public between the cabins. Plus, there may not be a lot of room for eight or ten bags. Secure your own cabin by making separate bookings – which, I appreciate, is a lot to ask of a stag party.
3) You need a swimming hat for the swimming pools
This is a rule I find utterly irrational but they’re very strict about it. Some thermal pools have a pool meant for actual swimming and for hygiene reasons, you must wear a swimming hat. They will blow the whistle and gesture and if you ignore it, they’ll come and get you out. You can buy caps at reception or often somewhere inside the complex. But, oddly, you don’t need a hat for any of the thermal pools or adventure pools, either outside or inside. Unhygienic in the lane pool, fine in the thermal pool. Make it make sense.
4) You need pool shoes
Now, granted, I didn’t see anyone pulled up for this but neither did I see anyone without shoes except between pools in the same room. You need “slippers”, by which they mean flip-flops or sandals or something meant for walking around pool environments. You can buy them at reception or wherever they sell caps within the pool area if you didn’t bring any with you but they’re non-negotiable.
5) There are foot baths next to every pool
Because foot hygiene is clearly very important, there are a lot of foot baths. They’re either at the top of the steps into individual pools (all around the edges of the big outdoor pools at Szechenyi) or they’re at the entrance to the room. They don’t always necessarily have any water in them, I found, and they’re generally pretty cold. Do step into them on the way into whatever pool you’re going for.
6) Pool temperatures are usually marked
Thermal pools generally range from about 30⁰C to about 42⁰, with swimming pools being a bit cooler (26⁰ – 29⁰ usually) and cold plunge pools being a lot less. Most pools will have a sign or a plaque somewhere giving its temperature – in the older or more ornate one, it might be carved into a stone on the wall above the pool. Apart from it being good to know whether you’re about to leap into something freezing or something that’s going to scald you, it’s helpful when you’re deciding on your hot-cold-hot-cold cycle, if you’re bothering to do that and not just enjoying a series of warm baths. If you operate in Fahrenheit, maybe do a bit of revision on the two ends of the thermal scale beforehand so that the given temperatures mean at least something to you.
7) No food or drink in the baths
Maybe this is obvious to you but as an Iceland-phile who’s accustomed to watching tourists knock back pints in every geothermal pool in the entire country, it feels weird to have these big pools beloved of tourists and especially stag parties and not have alcohol in them. I mean, it makes perfect sense – water and drunkenness are bad bedfellows and without Iceland’s three-drink limit on adult-only electronic payment wristbands, you can’t control how much people are drinking. Plus, these pools evolved from Islamic tradition, so that may be a factor. But most pools have at least a bar/cafe within the pool complex and Szechenyi has several. You can absolutely drink there, you just can’t take it into the pools.
8) Yes, you can generally take cameras in
This is, after all, the age of Instagram. Some people are definitely here more for a photoshoot than a healing bath and some places are extremely photogenic – Szechenyi’s yellow splendour, Rudas’s riverside panoramic pool and Gellért’s Art Nouveau architecture as the most obvious examples. I personally carried my travel towel, swimming cap and GoPro around in a drybag and got the camera out if that seemed to be the accepted thing, with it going back in my locker or cabin when I got tired of worrying about its safety poolside. Changing rooms and showers are a no and generally, so are saunas, although naked saunas are quite rare now and non-existent on mixed-sex days, which are generally weekends at least.