Do I dare a turkish bath?

We never encountered total nudity, but ultimately, you can control it. At one hamam, which was segregated by gender, the female attendant wanted my wife to take off her top. But if you're uncomfortable with that, you can decline. My suggestion would be to wear a 2-piece bathing suit. Even if you leave both pieces on, the attendant can give you a pretty good scrubdown. With a one-piece suit, there's a lot of skin that they won't be able to scrub. And the scrubbing is half the fun of a hamam.

Do not leave without taking a Turkish bath! It is an awesome experience. It is considered imprudent for men to do it in the buff (so my husband says), but women do.

I was a bit nervous about it too, but soon realized that nobody else paid any attention to me. If you insist, you may keep on your underwear, but I think it would just interfere with the scrubbing process.

Taking a Turkish bath is one of the best "activities" we've done in all our travels. Enjoy!

Go to the "home" site and read to the end of Rick''s daughter Jackie's blog of travel this summer..one of her Istanbul treats was a "turkish" bath and she stayed "bikinied"

What about my personal fear-funky fungal infections? Anyone like to share any experiences?

Karen, I don't have any personal fungus experiences to share, but you can purchase your own scrub pad and bring that with you to the hamam. There are always at least one or two shops that sell the scrub pads in every bazaar.

You should be relatively comfortable with lots of nudity of all shapes and sizes. Even the attendants are stripped down to their skivvies.

I went on my own and after the initial 'omg I am nekkid in front of all of these strangers!'... I remembered just that, they are strangers! It was fun.

As for fungus... well depends on the bath you go to. Some are better known for their hygiene practices.

I'll be in Turkey in April and have ponder the baths too...

I have very sensitive skin and when I had salt scrub at a high end spa it left me raw for days...

it's so sensitive that I have to be careful that lotions and potions dont have perfumes in them
or I get a rash

is the turkish bath for me??

being naked doesn't bother me..

One of the options at the bath I went to was to self bathe... so access to the room but no scrub down.

The raw silk mitts are pretty rough and there isn't a lot of mercy. I guess you could always ask for no mitt and bubbles only. Might be tricky to explain though.

Yes, you dare. Get naked and go with it. Did it on the sauna level at the baths in Baden-Baden, turned out to be one of the highlights of that trip. Also did it on a beach in Greece, again, a highlight of that trip. Basically, this is why you travel, suspend your inhibitions (as long as it is not seriously illegal or hurts others) and give in to a new experience.

We (my mother, two friends, and myself) left our tops off, but went with our underwear/bottom half of bikini and it was wonderful! I was apprehensive, but nobody else is paying any attention to you, honestly. We were the only ones with clothing, but still, nobody was watching us.
As for the sensitive skin question, I too have sensitive skin, and had no negative reaction to the bath...you might want to get your own scrub mit, but I say go for it and enjoy!

You only go around once in life, so go with gusto. You will not be the first naked person that they will have seen, and frankly, they are not interested in what you look like. Relax and enjoy the full treatment.