So, I love to travel and almost as much as I love to travel, I love to help other people travel. At the end of March, Bruno and I went for a long weekend in Budapest and I'd like to dedicate a couple blog posts to the trip.
Here is installment one:
Budapest is a great place to visit and still relatively unknown by the masses of American tourists. It has taken a huge jump up in popularity over the last five years and I think the Hungarian people might feel a little bit like they are being invaded, so don’t be alarmed if not every waiter in every bar is thrilled that you are there. But not to worry, the people are generally really nice, and if not nice, they just leave you alone (they aren’t mean or anything). And the city is AMAZING!
Budapest is actually two cities: Buda and Pest. They are divided by the Danube river. On the Buda side is the Buda castle which is worth a visit and there is a great view of Pest from there. The rest of the time we pretty much hung out exclusively in Pest which is more lively and funky.
THE BATHS. Budapest is known for its wealth of natural hot spring baths. You can save money by bringing your own towel and not renting one there. If you are with a boyfriend/close friend/sibling etc. you can also save money by sharing a little dressing room. You lock your stuff inside afterward.
Indoor bath – the Gellert Bath in the Gellert hotel is well known. It is on the Buda (hill side) of the city just on your left as you cross the Szabadsag hid. bridge. There is a hot pool and cool swimming pool and then if you venture back and off to the right you can go though to a sauna and another steam bath area. It's not that well marked so there aren’t as many tourists in this part, because they don’t know it is there. When I say back to the right, if you are at the hot pool, facing the swimming pool it is accessible through a door in the back right corner.
Open-air Baths- our favorite was Szechenzyi bath which is really big and beautiful.
There is one hot pool, one really hot pool and a cool swimming pool all in a big courtyard. You can go in any season and it’s neat in cold weather because you can see all the steam coming off the water. And it's actually pretty funny to jump out of 104 degree water and go running (and in my case squealing) to the other pool. One of the pools is famous for the old Hungarian men who stay in the pool for hours playing chess.
Both of the hot pools have jets and sprayers. Some of the jets go in cycles, so for ten minutes there is one feature going and then another feature. The jets come on and off in different parts of the pools so it's not like there is only one good spot to be in the pool. The hot pool without the chess players has a really fun circular part in it with a really strong current that whooshes you around- it is really fun!
This bath is located in Heros Square park and there is a metro station right at it on the line one called Szechenzyi Furdo (furdo means bath in Hungarian).
We also went to the much smaller and very un-touristy Lukacs bath. Nobody really speaks English here! This one also has a circular pool with a current and a sauna. This one is neat but I wouldn’t go here first because it’s better if you understand the system a little bit. Here there are communal dressing rooms (men and women separate though) and you have to have a swim cap or else rent one there! This is located in Buda at 25-29 Frankel Leo utca (street) north of Batthyany ter metro on line 2.
All of these baths are mixed, men and women and you have to wear a swimsuit. They all have a deal where if you stay less than 2 hours that you can get some of your money back. The three here are listed in order most expensive to least expensive with Gellert around 12euros per person and Lukacs around 5 euros.
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