Visiting The Széchenyi Thermal Baths In Budapest: An Actually Useful Guide
After living in Budapest, Caleb and I have been to EVERY single thermal bath, and Széchenyi will forever be my favorite. It’s the most popular for a reason – it’s so beautiful!
But, when we first visited, we felt like idiot tourists and were a little lost on what to do. So, in this guide, we’re covering EVERYTHING you need to know so you don’t feel lost and can make the most of your visit! By the end, you’ll be acing your visit like a Budapest bath pro!
Whether you’re a couple like us looking for a romantic experience or just looking for a good Instagram photo, you’re going to love visiting Budapest’s most famous bath. Let’s DIVE IN!
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Quick Navigation: 🕰️ How To Get There & When to Visit //❓Basic Info // 🛀 Amenities Overview // 🚰 How Your Visit Will Go // ❗Tips
How To Get There
Széchenyi is inside City Park, which is a little way outside the city center and main tourist districts. We wanted to work off all the heavy Hungarian food and wine we had been eating and drinks (mmmm, sour cream!), so we opted to walk, which took about 45 minutes.
You could also take an Uber/Bolt from the city center, which will only take around 10ish minutes and be $5-$10.
Or, take the M1 metro (yellow line.) It goes to Széchenyi Fürdő metro station from many parts of town and is only 10-15 minutes. The metro is one the best ways to get around Budapest.
The Best Time to Visit
Personally, we think the best time to visit Széchenyi Thermal Bath is in winter. Yeah, you’re going to be BOLTING for that hot water as soon as you take your towel off and yelling COLD! COLD! COLD! Until you get in (maybe that’s just us?), the hot water feels SO NICE!
Plus, it’s less “peopley”, and you get some cool Instagram photos with the mythical steam rising!
However, many people love visiting in the Summer to avoid the “Cold! Cold! Cold!” dealio. The hot water on a hot day just won’t feel as nice! You’ll also start to see a lot of tourists!
The Basics To Know Before You Go
The Prices
There are different prices based on the day and time you go.
- Morning tickets before 9am: are HUF 8400 during the week and 9700 on Fridays.
- After 9am: it’s HUF 10 500 for a day ticket with a locker on weekdays and HUF 12 000 on Fridays and weekends.
- You can also get a fast-track ticket for HUF 12,500 on weekdays and HUF 14,000 on Fridays and weekends.
NOTE: prices are a little higher than this on holidays and in peak season. Check out all the prices on their website here.
The Opening Hours
The baths are open from 7am to 8pm from Monday through Friday and 8am to 8pm on weekends.
Saunas and massage have different hours, so check out the entire opening hour list here.
How To Buy Tickets
The best way to buy tickets is directly through the official website here.
If you’re going to low season (fall, winter), you don’t need to shell out extra dough for the fast-track tickets. We went in the winter at opening and had no line.
If you’re going in the spring or Summer, we recommend getting fast-track. Especially if you’re going mid-day! Save time waiting in line. ←I’m a poet, and I didn’t even know it.
PRACTICAL TIP: If you do buy the fast-track ticket, you enter from a different area! We learned the hard way and went into the wrong place. The fast-track ticket entrance is on the other side of the building, facing into City Park.
The regular tickets are at the main entrance, facing Allatkeri Krt (that is the main street name.) They look like the above photo.
PRO TIP: Don’t fall for the tickets you can buy on Viator that come with a Palinka tasting that we’ve seen other travel sites promote. Palinka tastes like rubbing alcohol, and those tickets are overpriced. Just buy them yourself directly and just do the ticket
What To Bring
Bring a bathing suit (there is NO nudity in the baths!), towel, and flip-flops. You can buy a towel (no renting) there, but it’s not included in the price, which is weird. But that’s the rule.
You can also buy a swimsuit, but they’re expensive and unflattering. Ask us how we know. 😅
Practical Tip: if you forget flip-flops, go to PEPCO in Budapest. It’s a chain discount store with many locations, and we got slippers there for a buck or so, and that worked perfectly!
How Long Do You Need At Széchenyi Baths?
We think that 2 hours is the perfect amount of time at the baths. We stayed around this long and had lots of time to see the indoor and outdoor pools.
If you do the beer spa or massage, stay a little longer, though!
Locking Up Your Stuff & Lockers Vs Cabins
When you get your tickets, they will give you a bracelet. This works as your locker key, so make sure you keep it on you at all times! You need it to go through turnstiles in some thermal baths once inside.
To lock your locker: scan your bracelet on the locker you choose and then shift the knob to red.
To unlock it: scan your bracelet on your locker, then shift to green.
You’ll have a choice between lockers versus cabins. Cabins are essentially small changing rooms that apparently fit two people, but they would have to be VERY small humans. We recommend changing separately from each other.
You can use your cabin as a locker and use your wristband to lock it.
The basic lockers are included in your regular ticket price and don’t include a changing room, so you’ll change in your gender changing room. The lockers are pretty big, and you’ll have no problem storing your stuff! We fit winter clothes, boots, backpacks, etc.
Practical Tip: we don’t think the cabin upgrade is worth it, so we just changed in a bathroom stall because there isn’t much privacy in the changing rooms. Be warned.
Quick Amenities Overview
Indoor Pools
Do NOT skip the indoor pools – they’re SO beautiful in a simple and traditional way with gorgeous maroon pillars. There’s a reason that the Independent calls it one of the best spas in Eastern Europe!
The indoor complex is massive and has a TON of different thermal pools (about 15 or so) with different temperatures ranging from 20-40 degrees Celsius (68-104 degrees Fahrenheit)
COUPLES TIP: Inside, there were more locals than tourists (probably because it’s less Instagrammable). This is your spot if you want a quiet and intimate vibe!
Inside, you’ll also find some steam rooms, saunas, and a salt room where you can literally taste the salt in the air. We probably exceeded our sodium intake for the day in just a few minutes. 😅
Outdoor Pools
The outdoor pools are what you see all over your ‘gram feed – they’re super photogenic with all the yellow architecture and aqua-blue water! Here you can chill (er, warm?) In 3 giant pools, but one of those is for swimming, so you probably won’t use it. (you need a swim cap if you want to!)
The other two are shallow and perfectly warm! One is around 35 degrees Celsius, and the other is around 38. Which is 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit for our American peeps. The warmer thermal pool is on the right when you walk into the outdoor area from the non-fast-track entrance. The cooler one is to your left.
The two thermal pools are where you’ll be relaxing, Instagramming, and just enjoying your time.
PRO TIP: the cooler thermal pool has a lazy river/whirlpool that is a blast to swim around. It’s known as the “activity pool.”
Beer Spa
Like all big cities, Budapest has some super “touristy” things you should avoid (we’re looking at you, lame ruin bars that aren’t actually that cool), and the beer spa sounds like one of them…but it’s not.
Full disclosure: We didn’t do this, but we wish we had. The area looked really cool, and people rave about it in the reviews here.
I mean, where else can you take a bath inside what looks like a giant beer keg, actually bathe IN BEER, and DRINK IT AT THE SAME TIME?!
You can do this right in Széchenyi Thermal Baths!
>> Check prices, availability, and reviews here <<
Massage
They also offer various massages, which you can find the prices for here.
Exactly What You’ll Do From Start To End
We were pretty lost when we first entered, so here’s exactly how your visit will go down so you don’t wander around like blithering tourist idiots like we did:
First, you’ll enter through the appropriate entrance as we outlined. Either buy your ticket or show your confirmation if you buy online, and they’ll give you a wristband.
If you get lockers, you have to go downstairs once you enter – going straight through takes you to the cabins.
Once you get to your lockers, go to your own changing rooms (they’re separated by men and women.) Change and lock your locker.
Now, get ready for the maze! From the changing rooms, follow the signs for the pools. They are there even if it’s not super obvious. Once you see a glass door, that opens to the outdoor pools!
It’s pretty confusing, and you’ll ask staff for help, but they won’t help you, so you’ll end up figuring it out on your own, feeling slightly stressed out the whole time. But I’m being dramatic. You’ll get there, we promise.
If you want to get to the indoor pools, just go up the stairs on the little balcony behind the outdoor pools.
PRO TIP: this is also an excellent spot to get a photo of the outdoor pools, as you can see in our above photo!
Do your thing and relax for a while.
Once you’re ready to leave, follow the maze back to the changing rooms and change. When you exit, you’ll walk through a turnstile. In order to get it to move, you drop your wristband in the little open compartment (vertically.)
BOOM! You just visited the baths successfully. Bet you feel relaxed and jello-like, don’t you?
Tips For Making The Most Of Your Visit
- Go to Széchenyi Thermal Baths at night and early morning during the week. This is when they are the least busy. We went right at the opening, and people started arriving about an hour later. This is a pro tip for all Budapest spas!
- Waterproof cameras are your best friend. The baths are super photogenic, so if you want to take pics, a waterproof camera is helpful. We just used our iPhones, and there were many spots to put them, but we did have to carry them over our heads sometimes.
- If you take photos, be aware of others. It is a bit awkward taking pics of randoms in their swimsuits, so be respectful, okay?
- Shower before bathing. This is required in all thermal baths in Budapest. Keep it clean!
- Check out the thermal bath party, called SPARTY. What do you get when you mix a thermal bath with a disco club party vibe? A SPARTY! We keep missing these (they are seasonal), but they look SO FUN! Details here.
WE MADE IT FRIENDS! Now you know literally everything you need to know. The Széchenyi Thermal Baths are my (taylor’sTaylor’s) personal favorite bath in Budapest because of how relaxing and beautiful they are. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and let us know.
Don’t miss some of the other baths around Budapest! Check out our ultimate thermal bath guide to see which are worth visiting!
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