If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information
please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk
Hungary, like much of Europe, seemed quite naturist friendly.
In Budapest we stayed at the Gellert Hotel, a wonderful early 20th century grand hotel with lots of character. It has been refurbished recently and offers good and friendly service. The highlight is the thermal spa attached to the hotel, as a guest you have free access, we often popped in for just a quick dip/soak.
There are indoor and outdoor pools where swimming costumes must be worn. The architecture of the indoor pool is fantastic, well worth the sacrifice of wearing a costume. There are two separate spa areas, male & female, which are entered either from the main entrance corridor or from the indoor pool. Most tourists enter the spa from the indoor swimming pool and just keep their costumes on. Most locals enter from the entrance hall and are given a modesty apron to wear. Perhaps 30 or 40% chose to wear nothing. The architecture in the men's spa was very grand, high ceilings with roof lights and mosaics on the walls. There is a 3 room hot air "Turkish" bath / sauna, a steam room, and two hot pools with thermal water. There were lots of attendants there giving massages which seemed very popular. (My wife tells me the lady's side has the same facilities but hardly any of the grand decorations.).
On the Internet I found mention of a naturist sunbathing area at the Gellert and I'm pleased to report is still there. From the main entrance hall corridor the second lift on the left takes you right up to the roof on top of the two separate thermal spa areas. My guess is that historically this was organised as two separate male/female sun bathing areas. Now it is organised as a female only nude sunbathing area and a couple only naturist area. (Though I noticed that they didn't seem to insist too strongly on the couples only bit if you were a frequent visitor). The main problem in finding it is the language barrier, the staff assume that if you are speaking English you can't possible be interested. (We should have tried our German!!).
Apparently there is also a naturist pool/sunbathing on Magrit Island in the Danube, but we ran out of time to try this.
We visited the Szechenyi baths, wonderful outdoor thermal pools, but the indoor thermal spa areas are badly in need of renovation. The separate male/female areas are now all joined together so it's costumes everywhere folks.
In August 2004 both the Rac baths and Rudas baths were closed for renovation.
The Lukacs baths are quite small by comparison and felt very old. The main thermal hot pool is in a wonderful circular dome with windows in the roof. It felt Turkish and old. There was the usual hot air rooms, steam rooms, and thermal water baths. The Lukacs is open either for male or female only days. The day I went there was some gay activity but nothing that put me off enjoying another wonderful soak. The Lukacs felt more genuine than the tourist dominated Gellert and Szcheny, even the thermal waters smelt more authentic (I.e. they smelt of rotten eggs!!).
We also visited Szeged in the far south of Hungary, a wonderful city. We stayed about 10 minutes drive outside the city at a naturist campsite in Kiskundorozsma. A wonderful river side position, very friendly, with a small shop and cafe, and yet not crowded - highly recommended.
Unfortunately in Szeged the thermal pools were closed for refurbishment. We peeked in, they look like they'll be wonderful, we'll just have to go back and check them out.
If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information
please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk
Go to
Back to the NEFF | Contents | Search | Maps | Beaches | Venues | Beginners Please!
See full disclaimer and copyright. This page © NUFF and/or authors, 1997-present.