2014.11.05 - Thermal Baths

Thermal Baths in Budapest

In my opinion, the culture of thermal baths (as known as spas, or Turkish baths) are one of the unique aspects of Hungarian culture. Just Budapest alone has 26 different thermal baths where you can take some time to relax. 

Since I lived in Budapest before, there were always things that I wanted to do but never got around to it. You live in a place for an extended period of time and think that you will get around to everything, when in reality this is just not the case. Once I found out that I was returning to Budapest, I decided to make a small list of things that I never got around to doing, and actually DO them. One of these things is to visit and experience more of the thermal bath culture in Budapest. Previously I had been to Szechenyi Furdo (with my father when he came to visit), Gellert Furdo (with Scott, a fellow Canadian who is totally into the bath culture), and Lukacs Furdo (with Barbara who had her first thermal bath experience with some new adventures), but I never got around to the oldest and most historic ones. 

This changed on Wednesday of this week, when I got the chance to go to Kiraly Furdo in Buda. It turns out that it is right near my work which is an added benefit. Kiraly Furdo, although I did not take any pictures to show you, is very old and traditional looking. It still has stone signs written in Russian. The walls are super stained and have an odd smell about them. The facilities look like they have not been updated at all since the regime change. The staff working has a typical Eastern European mentality towards customer service. Nonetheless, this was exactly the type of experience I wanted. Kiraly Furdo also has a steam room, one hot tub, a cold Finnish bath, two saunas of various temperatures, and finally in the centre, the big bath. We went in the evening but apparently the ceiling has holes in it and if you go during a sunny day, you can experience direct sunlight while in the bath. How wonderful! 

Here is the link in Hungarian, and in English.

I highly recommend this place for a truly unique thermal bath experience.

Have a lovely weekend,

Cs.