- Stacey Shevlin
Széchenyi Bath: Smells Bad Feels Good – Budapest
Budapest Baths, they are famous all over the world. I had the chance to visit the one above with my friend Aditi. You can go as well Budapest, Állatkerti krt. 9-11, 1146 Hungary
Regular Admission or Packages
I had seen the photos but I really didn’t know what the experience would be like at the baths. The buildings are amazing. Located in the city park a quick bus ride from any part of town. When we arrived we were greeted by a nice guy whose job it was to get us to buy a package. In our naiveté we did.
Our package included our entrance, towel and robe, cabin to store our things, and entrance to the palm house. Pictured below. The palm house is essentially a greenhouse filled with plants hammocks and zen music.
It is quite nice to spend time in after a soak at the baths, and it includes herbal tea and fruit. For the cost, I would not recommend it to be honest. I incorrectly assumed that access to this area would be easy, and it would have its own pools. In order to enter the area, you must walk through 1/2 of the indoor pool building, go through a locker room and up an elevator. It’s actually quite awkward.
I prefer the outdoor baths
We spent the day at the outdoor pools. There is a warm pool, a hot pool and a lap pool. They are quite large and can accommodate all of the visitors with no problem. Perhaps we’re both to delicate or picky but we didn’t use the inside pools. The building is very closed off, there are no doors or windows that open in the entire long structure. You must enter through a cold foot bath as you come into the building.
Due to the fact that there is no airflow the building is very humid and has a suffocating air to it. I am aware that natural thermal baths have a sulfur smell, but the smell in the building the day we were there was more than sulfur. It was a mixture of foul odors that kept us outside.
All in all a pleasurable day, regardless of the up-sell or the smell 🙂
I wish I had more time to explore some of the smaller bathhouses so I had some sort of comparison — guess I’ll just have to go back to Budapest.
Happy Soaking.
Visit their website HERE
