Szechenyi Thermal Bath: Tours & Tickets

We were in two minds whether to visit Gellert Spa or Széchenyi Spa. We decided to do the Széchenyi Spa and were not disappointed. We chose to visit later in the afternoon to do an evening visit and glad we did. Evening session is less busy and an alround better experience at night (especially for the romantics). We took our own towels and slippers (bath hats not necessary unless swimming in main pool). There are lots of thermal pools in doors with variating tempatures, so lots of choices, together with sauna and steam rooms. However, our favourites were the outdoor pools of which there were 2. One with hot jet steams and the other with bubbles and a really fun river. I would suspect on a busy day this could be like people soup but just pick your time early or later in the evening and you shouldn't be disappointed. Building itself is beautiful and kept very clean. We hired a cabin for each of us, but to be honest if you are a couple you could share one.

We were there on Easter weekend. There were exceptionally a lot more people - queuing to buy ticket and to redeem online tickets. We spent about 20 mins to get the tickets despite booking online. We booked 2 cabins and was asked if it's ok to share (due to high turn up) and we agreed. If you are visiting this place during long weekend, it's highly recommended to purchase your tickets here in advance. The best part of booking online is that the Spa reserved a cabin with number for us - hence skipping the line to get into this place with others who purchased entrance tickets with cabin. Overall, we spent about 30 mins queuing from collecting tickets to gaining entry. Other than that, the pools are really nice and warm - we enjoyed overall.

My family was skeptical when I booked this (they thought it would be a waste of time/was a weird concept) but everything was perfect! Cabin purchase gave us a great sense of security, no wait in line, and wasn’t overcrowded. I don’t think I’d go back if I went to Budapest a second time, simply because there is so much else to see there- but would definitely recommend for anyone visiting for a few days!

The facilities were excellent, whereas when we arrived with our skip the line passes we were told some useless information. When we asked where we could use the passes we were told to go outside and go to the left, if we followed these instructions we would’ve ended up in the middle of nowhere when it was really around the back of the building, staff members also quite rude when approached.

You still need to wait in a line as they have a printed copy of your ticket in a folder. This is a different line than those without a ticket. When we were there late morning on a weekday neither line was very long however this line was actually longer than the ticket line and got much longer later.