Budapest is one of our Best Places to Go in Europe for 2024, part of our global guide to the Best Places to Go in 2024—find more travel inspiration here.
Budapest’s plentiful thermal springs gush mineral-laden waters that are both a geological wonder and an invitation to partake in a restorative, distinctly Hungarian ritual. The City of Baths, also known for its rambunctious ruin bars, has for centuries beckoned travelers with a salve for their ailments. But beyond purported curative powers, these historic bath houses also mesmerize with a transportive Old-World ambiance—balmy pools backdropped by splendid architecture create soothing interludes in Baroque, Art Nouveau, and Renaissance-Revival settings.
Before the grand baths of Budapest were erected, it was the Eravisci tribe that stumbled upon the area’s coveted bubbling springs in the fourth century BC. Later, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, awestruck by how rapidly the waters healed his wounded soldiers, introduced today’s bathing culture to what is now the Óbuda district. The Ottomans, who invaded in the 16th century, enthusiastically took to the waters, too, creating such hammam-reminiscent beauties as the Rudas and Veli Bej baths that are still clamored for today. Then the Hapsburgs made the comforting practice their own, wooing locals with the striking, labyrinthine Széchenyi and Gellért complexes that continue to draw travelers from all over the world.
While winter is a magical time to visit the baths and float alfresco amid rising steam, summer is even more enthralling thanks to cooler pools with invigorating blasts of icy water that draw locals and visitors alike for a welcome reprieve from stifling summers. Breezy mornings are ideal for privacy before the heat mounts and the baths heave with people; redolent of a carefree summer camp. The baths are equal parts sanctuary and playground in summer—a duality found only in Budapest.
Early mornings are when Margaret de Heinrich de Omorovicza, the co-founder of the Hungarian skincare line Omorovicza (a brand used at many of the city’s spas), relishes settling in at Rudas Thermal Bath. Its centerpiece octagonal pool lined with pillars sits adjacent to the Buda side of the city’s iconic Elizabeth Bridge, underneath a dramatic dome dating back to 1572. “I love going literally when it opens, before anyone’s there, and having it to myself,” she says. Her attraction to the city’s baths began over 20 years ago when she was posted in Budapest as a US diplomat, around the time she met her Hungarian husband, Stephen. On a blind date, he took her to Rác Bath, an Ottoman-era relic that his family had restored, and she was instantly smitten with the atmosphere, at once tranquil and lively.
“It very much [is] and always has been a part of Budapest culture,” she explains of the baths. “Older people, younger people, people that go with their family, their friends, or alone with prescriptions from their doctors. It’s a universal experience.”
Margaret’s frequent dips into these pools also transformed her previously troublesome skin, prompting her and Stephen to work with a venerable lab to harness the water’s abundant minerals into absorbent bio-available compounds and create her skincare brand in 2006.
Széchenyi is undoubtedly the most tourist-addled of the baths in Pest’s City Park, but still a can’t-miss experience you can do right: Bypass the gimmicks—the pull-your-own-pints Beer Spa and the rowdy into-the-wee-hours Saturday night Sparty—and instead go early to revel in the stunning, golden-yellow-hued Baroque Revival edifice built in 1913 from the sprawling outdoor pool (one of 18), complete with pulsating jets.
Also in Buda, the Gellért Bath is part of the under-renovation Art Nouveau Hotel Gellért from 1918, poised to become a Mandarin Oriental in 2027. Visitors flit between the monumental swimming pool crowned with a glass roof, the thermal pools surrounded by regal lion heads spurting water and walls of Zsolnay porcelain tiles, and the pummeling outdoor wave pool that opens at the end of May every year.
Particularly fitting for the summer season are the Palatinus Strand Baths. Since 1919, this fixture on leafy Margaret Island, a pedestrian-only Danube River hideaway straddling Buda and Pest, has held a series of boisterous, family-friendly pools that call to mind a water park bolstered by ample shady perches to unwind in between splash sessions. There’s a similarly low-key, beachy aura on display at Dagály, a collection of open-air baths that debuted in 1948 at the foot of the Árpád Bridge in Pest, and is beloved by locals who retreat to the grass after drying off.
Baths are communal, often social-fueled joys, but for those who crave a dose of Zen without the crowds, there’s AWAY Spa on the lower level of the W Budapest, where guests are greeted with bracing shots of grapefruit-ginger juice. It’s dominated by a relaxation pool nestled underneath the vaulted ceiling, an imposing holdover from the hotel’s days as the 19th-century Dreschler Palace, brightened with restored seashell motifs, swaths of curving metal, and orange loungers welcoming you to linger.
Hotels are a common host to some of the city’s most relaxing, newer baths. While away an afternoon at the Mystery Hotel Budapest’s Secret Garden Day Spa, a small, sky-lit space adorned with potted plants that showcases a glass-domed jacuzzi, sauna, and steam room. Inside the Danubius Hotel Helia’s expansive wellness center, the cool, dark salt cave covered in Dead Sea crystals (bookable for 45-minute intervals) also encourages renewal.
Hungarian-inspired treatments are another decadent option. The petite spa at the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest—where guests come for the sunlight-drenched pool alone—packs a punch with the three-pronged Touch of the Earth treatment. Guests are scrubbed down with thermal salt from Sárvár, slicked with lavender and almond oil, packed with a mud mask from Lake Hévíz that draws out impurities, and enveloped in a shimmering wrap that conjures discos, all while the therapist performs a vigorous Hungarian face and body massage. Skin-softening Lake Hévíz mud is also the star of a signature offering at the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel’s cocooning underground spa; in this rendition, it's applied to the back and paired with a milky lavender foot bath, sea salt and olive oil scrub, and a coconut oil body massage. Come early to pop into the Finnish sauna or 15-meter-long pool and stay cozy for as long as possible ensconced in one of the hanging chairs.
Quietude need not be fleeting in Budapest if you incorporate soulful green spots into the itinerary. Along with gawking at St. Stephen’s Basilica, shooting bitter Unicum liqueur at the iconic Szimpla Kert ruin pub, and devouring stuffed peppers at Café Kör, consider Kopaszi-gát (Kopaszi Dam) in South Buda, a 10-acre recreational development that evokes a carefree boardwalk. Eszter Farkas, a local mindfulness meditation and yoga instructor, enjoys walking across the promenade, past the couples and families headed to bars and restaurants, all the way to the end, which, surrounded by the river, feels like a little island in itself.
Farkas is revitalized by the river, especially on select summer weekends when the Liberty Bridge is reimagined as a pedestrian-only zone—where Farkas teaches yoga classes. She likes to lie down on the grass or sit under a willow tree and gaze at the Danube, or to close her eyes and meditate. You can “hear the sounds of the city and feel the Danube flowing underneath,” she says. “Even without [seeing] the blossoming flowers, one can enjoy the serenity.”
Where to stay in Budapest
Anantara New York Palace Budapest
The 185-room Anantara New York Palace, once the European headquarters of the New York Life Insurance company, is home to the late 19th-century New York Café, a ravishing Renaissance-style room bedecked with crystal chandeliers and marbled columns the literati once flocked to. Plenty brave the long lines to savor desserts like cottage cheese-stuffed pancakes in such a fanciful setting, but the rest of the hotel is hushed, with a hypnotic atrium looking onto arched corridors and guest rooms done up with stripes and golden bird silhouettes.
Completed in 1906, the Gresham Palace is an Art Nouveau treasure. Wrought-iron gates and mosaic tiles pave the way to the 179 softly hued Art Deco-style guest rooms—splurge on one facing the Danube—but do spend quality time downstairs, too. MÚZSA is the lobby hotspot for some of the city’s finest cocktails like the Ethereal. A refreshing vodka highball, it features a jolt of sour cherry, a summertime staple in Hungarian kitchens.
Hungarian Freemasons built the palace housing the 82-key Mystery Hotel in the 19th century, and it exudes a surreal air, with a theatrical lantern-flanked staircase, stately columns, sweeping curtains, and large-scale artworks. On the sixth floor, the Atelier studio recalls a painter’s workshop, melding brick walls with vivid rugs. From the rooftop Sky Garden, bask in views of the Gustave Eiffel-designed Nyugati (the train station that conveniently whisks jet setters to Prague) and the rest of the city, accompanied by a glass of sparkling wine from the renowned Hungarian producer Sauska.
At the 151-room W Budapest, a Neo-Renaissance building from 1886 once home to the Hungarian State Ballet Academy, lavish details like tiles and arches were preserved, yet are contemporized with such elements as sleek bronze cladding. Bold turquoise-colored guest rooms are also juxtaposed with checkerboard bath tiles that pay homage to the chess sets old-timers tote around to Budapest baths. Sample the Asian-inflected menu at Nightingale by Beefbar on the terrace directly across from the 19th-century Hungarian State Opera House designed by Miklós Ybl.
Where to eat in Budapest
Weekends are abuzz at the two branches of Franziska, the earthy, uplifting daytime restaurant founded by baker Franciska Horváth, which means there are always tempting desserts like paleo brownies and gluten-free, vegan almond butter-coffee mousse cakes. There are also blueberry-beet and coconut cream smoothies, toast slathered in homemade cashew butter and raspberry sauce, and salads tossed with edamame, red pepper, pickled red onion, and roasted peanut.
There are just a few tables at Hétköznapok and it’s open only during the week, but this no-frills restaurant in out-of-the-way Budafok makes the best pizza in the area, distinguished by ever-changing toppings like butter-roasted shiitake mushrooms, burnt capia peppers, and Thai basil that reflect chef Csaba Sajben’s penchant for fresh produce. Don’t sleep on the summer soups, chilled recipes that imaginatively bring together such ingredients as rhubarb and spiced granola.
Laurel
For a fine dining destination, Laurel is decidedly relaxed but distinguished by attentive service, and that’s one of the reasons it shines. Planted in the middle of the party-propelled District VII, it’s an oasis that revolves around two seasonal tasting menus from chefs Dávid Szabó and Zsuzsi Ötvös, and the vegan one is just as exhilarating as the carnivorous version. After amuse-bouches and aperitifs are savored on the book-lined ground floor, the six- or seven-course menu—sunchokes with green apple and white onion was a knockout on a recent evening—unfolds on the lower level before returning upstairs for the petits fours finale.
Marlou Wine Bar & Store
Just behind the Hungarian State Opera House is Marlou, a trove for natural wines spearheaded by the Frenchman Jean-Julien Ricard. Burrow into the sofa and crack open a bottle from one of the small Hungarian wineries (there are finds from further afield, too) like Barnag, Réka Koncz, and Kolónia 52 alongside weekly kitchen specials served Thursday through Saturday. Then, peruse the shelves for a souvenir to take home.
Tati
A farm in Biatorbágy, about a half hour from Budapest, is where many of the vegetables and fruits used at Tati are sourced. Putting Hungarian producers in the spotlight is owner Barbara Angeli-Poisson’s mission at this rustic-tinged restaurant (think brick walls and bales of hay) serving everyday brunches and dinners centered on nostalgic yet refined Hungarian dishes. Stand outs include lángos flatbread sprinkled with sausage crumbs and savory French toast stuffed with eggplant and cheese from the nearby village of Baracska.
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Edited by Shannon McMahon
