Hello fellow travelers.
We will be in Hungary in August. We plan to spend five-six days in Budapest, and remaining 9-10 days in other cities. Previously we visited Gyor (lovely!!!). Now we will consider Pecks and Eger.
We want to visit good thermal spas. Gyor had a good one a few years back, but we would like explore others. Any recommendations are much appreciated!
The two most famous are Széchenyi https://www.szechenyibath.hu/ and Gellert, but Gellert is closed for renovation. Széchenyi can be a bit touristy, but still very much a hangout for the locals in Pest. Sometimes is gets crowded so mornings are maybe better. Pretty grand architecture as well.
If you want to go very local, then Lukács is a good choice. Nothing but locals and expats. https://www.lukacsfurdo.hu/en/. Not grand like Széchenyi but all the little rooms and stairs up and down and the outside pool in the courtyard are fun.
Rudas contains one bath that dates from the Ottoman occupation in the 16th century. Pretty impressive architecture, but most of the facility is fairly new. Not all of the facility is co-ed on all days. Do check the web page. https://tickets.rudasfurdo.hu/partner/rudas I have never been so I can’t help beyond that.
Veli Bey is another 16th century bath house but I know nothing about it. Its privately run and operated. http://www.irgalmasrend.hu/site/velibej/home The other two Ottoman baths, Kiraly and Vac are closed for renovation.
Then there is a whole collection of other, modern, baths that are popular with the tourists. Most of them are operated by the same agency so they are located here: https://www.spasbudapest.com/
Back to your question, I would suggest first Széchenyi which you can make part of a visit to the park, House of Music, Heroes’ Square, Lake, Vajdahunyad Castle, Museum of Ethnography, maybe Városligeti fasor, then since you are here for so long, do a local thing at Lukács.
With just five days, unless you have been there before I would say a day trip to Szentendere and maybe an overnight in Eger. But you could just as easily stay in town for 5 days and still have things to do; especially on a first visit.
Thank you very much. We have been to Budapest and visited Gellert (weren’t impressed by the very old bath, it is good that they are renovating). We are interested in Peck and Egert. Anything is good that someone can recommend?
Regards to All.
I am going to guess you visited the RQ Vízi Élménypark és Gyógyfürdő. Nothing like that in Budapest except maybe the Aquarena Water Park.
You did say "spa" and I did read too fast and sent you to a Bathhouse. All the Bathhouses in Budpaest that I am aware of are in old buildings. Well a few are in post commie occupation buildings, but they can be a bit rough around the edges too. Rudas does have a newer part that was bright and shinny ten years ago, but I havent seen it since and the old part, well its every bit of 500 years old.
But you said "spa" so best to visit the spa in the basement of the Corinthia Hotel. https://youtu.be/98Ub152l2fU?si=9nLTs-KTGhrVqLXy.
Cant help you with Peck and Egert.
An add on:
We went to Széchenyi about a half an hour before sunset (in December). It was beautiful to see the sun set and the lights come on.
We went to Szechenyi last week. €49 per person. You get an RFID wristband which allows you a single admission (no in-and-out privileges) and to use a secure locker in the common change rooms. You could pay a little bit extra to get a private cabin, but it is only about the size of a small closet.
We arrived at 8:00am and stayed until 12:00pm. We had tickets for the Parliament building at 2:00pm. First thing in the morning, there were only about 10 people in the outdoor Adventure pool which has a whirlpool in the center. If you bob up and down the current will gently push you in a circle. On the other hand, if you grab the sides and resist The current can feel quite strong. Early in the morning, you have a choice of all of the lounge. Chairs. It is best to pick one with shade.
There are three outdoor pools. During our visit, the cold water lap pool was closed and not scheduled to open until later in the summer. There are 15 indoor pools of various shapes and sizes ranging from 20° to 40° C. There are also saunas and steam rooms and a small nude area shared by both sexes. For additional fees, you can get a massage or soak in the beer bath and drink unlimited beer.
By about 10:00am, the place really fills up. All of the lounge chairs were occupied and the outdoor pool was a mass of bodies. When we packed to leave, people hovered to take over our lounge chairs.
It is a touristy thing to do, but I have had more fun with my kids at our local community pool at a fraction of the cost.
Not something i go out of my way to do. But friends go every week. Its a lot of locals, but maybe the tourists out number them these days.
When I have guests in town and want them to see what makes Budapest special and different we go to Széchenyi fürdő along with some of the other sights near the park ending with lunch in one of two great places. Some went for the fun and some did the ritual of the baths. Some have gotten a kick out of the co-ed locker rooms (there are changing closets). Some didn’t care for the experience at all. Everyone is different; I get it and I can understand why it doesnt light some fires.
But yes, when it’s packed not the same experience. One hint for this or any major attraction is to use Google Maps. Google Maps provides a graph of how busy the attraction typically is by day of the week and by time and shows the actual at the time you search. That can help prevent you from walking into an unnecessary situation. The past few weeks the weather has been beautiful, and the football tourists started showing up about a week ago so it’s been a tad busier than normal. The football tourists are all but gone now. Anyway, scroll down a bit and see the graph if you aren’t familiar with it. It’s not perfect but it is generally fairly accurate: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nRV7hHCwsgMbZeZG6
Standard tickets during the week are 13.200 Ft (about $45 / 38€) and on the weekend 14.800 (about $50 / 43€). https://jegyek.szechenyifurdo.hu/partner/szechenyi Yes, you can pay more for more stuff but its not really necessary. But do shop. They have private changing rooms (size of a phone booth) and they even have massage services. Never tried it.
If the only time you have available shows to be busy and you want to be really local, then you go to Szent Lukács Gyógyfürdő which tends to be less busy on weekends than it is during the week. It’s also nearly half the cost at 7.000 Ft and 8.000 Ft. It tends to be an older crowd because a few of the Districts subsidize pensioner tickets (sorry, foreign nationals don’t qualify) and its popular among expats.
Oops.
I booked our tickets from this site, which looked official: https://szechenyibath.com/szechenyi-bath-weekday-bath-tickets//
We ended spending €49 pp which is a lot more than on the site in Mr. E's post. No wonder, we found things expensive in Budapest. LOL.
Stuff happens. We've all done it. One thing I do to reduce the odds is use the links on Google Maps. So far, its worked, but I presume its not failsafe.
