Budapest Travel Answers

As far as I know, you can only visit to participate. The ticket booths are at the entrances. If you think about it, people who are enjoying their bathing would probably not appreciate fully-dressed architectural observers. Why not just take a swimming costume and towel and pay to go in (it's hardly expensive)? Then you can enjoy the architecture and, if you choose, not get wet at all. Details of all the baths here: spasbudapest.com/tartalom.ph... under 'all-year' and 'seasonal' baths.

Gellert baths are supposed to be particularly beautiful (Art Nouveau), but I found Szechenyi (the first in Pest) architecturally very pleasing.

It's a very long time since I've been to my local swimming pool, but there was a large seating area and one could buy a spectator's ticket just to go and watch other people swimming (essentially, I assume, for people who wanted to take their children without actually going in the water). I thought that maybe at somewhere as large as the Széchenyi baths, with no shortage of poolside space, it was possible for fully clothed people to go in to the complex but not to get into the water, which I imagine would be a very small nuisance (if any nuisance at all) to the bathers. (Likewise with the galleries on the upper levels of some other baths - as seen in photos online.) The problem is not so much with going into the water as with wearing bathing costumes, so unless it is possible to visit the baths fully clothed I'm afraid we're likely to have to give them a miss. Thanks for your advice.

You wouldn't want to walk around fully-clothes even if you didn't want to partake of the waters. Hmmm - your question is a bit like - "I want to visit a naturalist beach but I don't want to take my clothes off. Will it be OK if I turn up fully-clothed with my camera?" - Think about it LOL.

Thanks, John, but you are being unfair. My question is actually nothing like, "I want to visit a naturalist beach but I don't want to take my clothes off. Will it be OK if I turn up fully-clothed with my camera?" (I take it you meant 'naturist', i.e., naked people, not naturalist, i.e. people studying the natural world.) First, the people bathing at the baths in Budapest are not, I believe, naked - at least not in the baths under discussion here. Secondly, did I say anything about taking my camera? And if I did take my camera, would I be taking photos of people? No, I'd be taking photos of the architecture. Thirdly, there's a pretty big difference between a naturist beach and a bath complex of historical and architectural interest: voyeurs at the naturist beach are there to look at naked people; visitors to old and beautiful public baths are probably there to look at old and beautiful public baths. Fourthly, you seem to fail to grasp that people being naked is the essential characteristic of a naturist beach. Wearing clothes at the naturist beach would be like insisting on shouting at a silent retreat. At the public baths, on the other hand, people wearing bathing costumes is simply a matter of practicality. Wearing clothes at the public baths if you're not swimming actually seems pretty sensible to me. Indeed, at the normal beach, where people wear swimming costumes, you will also see plenty of people who wear their ordinary clothes, and I don't think the people in swimming costumes mind a jot, and they're also quite happy for you to take your camera, provided, of course, that it's to take pictures of the sea, not of them. And, as I said, plenty of people go to the swimming baths in the UK and keep on their outdoor clothes. Another pool I know has a cafe on a balcony overlooking the pool, and I have a feeling they would positively discourage the coffee drinkers from wearing their swimsuits. Have you never sat by an outdoor hotel pool (in Greece, say, rather than Bognor) fully dressed reading a book? I certainly have, and I have seen plenty of other people doing so too. So, yes, I still think it sounds perfectly reasonable to imagine that some of the public baths might have a terrace or balcony with a cafe where non-swimmers might get a drink and enjoy the architecture without causing the slightest annoyance to bathers.

The baths atmosphere is very warm and John is right that you would be uncomfortable fully-clothed, even if it were allowed. Remember also that the baths are not really for swimming purposes. Szechenyi has indoor and outdoor pools which are for relaxing and allowing the waters to do their work rather than for swimming: the water can be really quite warm, so swimming is not all that comfortable even in the larger pools. It's not your personal intentions which were being commented upon, it is the perceptions of those who are using the baths (or naturist beach). Better to ban it altogether than to have people photographing inappropriately, or clients being disturbed by photographers. I have not visited all the baths, obviously, but I remember that when I arrived at Szechenyi I saw a 'no photographs' sign (I remember because I wanted to take photos). I suspect the other baths have similar rules. If you are really keen, why not contact or email the Budapest Tourist Info people, and see if you can arrange a special visit (perhaps just before the baths open, or after they close)? www.budapestinfo.hu/en/

I think you should check out this site: spectours.hu/services_item.p... They talk about touring the bath first and then giving tour participants the opportunity of changing into swimwear etc.

If you buy a ticket, sure you can go in and nobody is forcing you to get undressed and go under the water. Feel free to look around, sit down at a chair outside the pools or go to the coffee shop. The bathers won't pay any attention to you, don't worry.

Unfortunately, the OP does not wish to pay the full entrance fee.....

You do have to pay to go to the baths, even if you just want to take pictures. The Szechenyi baths allow men and women to visit together. It is located in the Varosliget (City Park) and has a variety of indoor and outdoor pools, so it is a nice place to relax. I think the outdoor pools are very beautiful and are the most photographed part of the Szechenyi baths. Also, the metro line 1 stops right outside the building, so it is easy to get to.