Budapest
Budapest sits on a layer of thermal springs that has made it the world's great spa capital, a tradition stretching from Roman times through the Ottoman era to the grand bathhouses of today. Nowhere else in Europe is soaking in mineral water woven so completely into the rhythm of a city, and a long, warm afternoon in the baths is one of the great pleasures of a trip to Hungary.
The most famous is the Szechenyi Baths, a vast neo-baroque palace of butter-yellow walls where locals and visitors soak in steaming outdoor pools even in winter snow, some playing chess on floating boards. The art-nouveau Gellert Baths dazzle with mosaics, columns and stained glass, while the atmospheric Rudas Baths keep their original 16th-century Ottoman domed pool, light falling through the colored glass in the ceiling.
Soaking in the warm mineral water, moving between hot and cold pools, saunas and steam rooms, and treating yourself to a massage is a quintessential Budapest ritual, relaxing, beautiful and gloriously affordable. We build the days so you catch a bath at its most serene, whether an early soak before the crowds or the steam rising into the cold on a crisp winter morning.
