The 5 best bath houses in Budapest

A visit to this bath is a great experience. It consists of three distinct parts: an authentic Turkish bath, a 19th-century part, and a newly-built 21st-century wing in the south end. The latter comes with a splendid roof terrace and an open-air tub, a terrific place to spend a winter evening.

The biggest bath in Budapest, in City Park, was built in 1913 to accommodate people who did not have a bathroom at home, for their weekly wash. The open-air part was added in 1927, it was originally covered with sand, in imitation of a seaside beach. Now part of it is an adventure pool.

This is the smallest bath in Budapest, built in art deco style and completed in 1936, to accommodate the inhabitants of the working class neighbourhood. The area is gentrifying fast these days and the bath, which was fully modernised in 2014–15, now attracts a younger crowd.

The art nouveau bath in the Hotel Gellért emanates the splendour of the Good Old Days – especially the indoor part, which was meticulously renovated around 2000. The most popular item of the outdoor part is the wave pool. The bath is situated between the river and Gellért hill, the vicinity of the woods is palpable here.

This is the oldest Turkish bath in town, it was first mentioned in 1584. Terribly neglected during the communist period, it was revived after 2000, when the hospital complex around it was given back to the religious order, whose mission was healing and curing. It opened in 2012, with five pools. It is a real secret for locals, too.