Rudas Bath is probably the most popular medieval Turkish bath in Budapest, the City of Baths, famous for its bathing palaces like the Neo-Baroque Szechenyi Bath or the Art Nouveau Gellert Bath.
What makes Rudas Bath stand out is the modern rooftop panorama pool overlooking the river Danube and its many Budapest river cruise boats, the Parliament, the historical bridges and more. Also, Rudas Bath boasts a 16th-century thermal bath in its core, called the Turkish Bath.
In addition, Rudas Spa offers a special late night bathing opportunity, with its special overnight opening hours every Friday and Saturday (the baths reopen from 10 pm to 3 am, both nights: Rudas Night Bathing is only available with tickets booked online). Finally, Rudas is the only thermal bath in Budapest, which has – at least in a smaller part of the thermal complex – men only and women only weekdays in certain hours, when aprons are worn by many guests instead of traditional swimwear. You can book your Rudas Bath entries with a nice dinner right in the Thermal Baths for a special extra.
Rudas Bath & Dinner Booking
Opening hours – Rudas Bath Coed
Mon-Sun: 6 am to 8 pm (pools must be left by approx. 7.30 pm)
The bath is open on holidays, including national and any other holidays, e.g. Christmas, New Year, etc with a mixed set up (open to all genders). That means that the bath is open 365 days. Due to its popularity among locals, expats and tourists alike places are subject to availability at all times. Rudas Bath is a large bath complex, mostly co educated, but one of its several pools, the Turkish Bath has gender specific days, as seen below.
Turkish Baths Gender Days
Monday: Men only
Tuesday: Women only
Wednesday: Men only
Thursday mornings: Men only
Thursday afternoons: Coed
Friday mornings: Men only
Friday 11:00-20:00: Coed
Friday 10 pm – Sat 3 am: Coed Night Bathing with online tickets
Saturday: Coed
Sat 10 pm – Sun 3 am: Coed Night Bathing with online tickets
Sunday: Coed
National Holidays & Peak season periods: Coed
(hours and settings are subject to change, including the gender specific days in the Turkish Bath inside Rudas Bath. Kindly note that the majority of the bath complex, the saunas, plunge pool, large indoor thermal swimming pool etc. are coed, mixed seven days a week)
Rudas Bath is located at the foot of the scenic Gellert Hill on the Buda side.
Turkish Bath inside the Rudas Bath Complex
Turkish baths in Budapest are amazing oriental monuments with modern-day facilities. Many tourists who visited Turkey will expect to see the dry Turkish sauna as a Turkish bath, but the medieval Turkish baths of Budapest are not steam baths as in modern-day Turkey, but historical Turkish baths with a central octagonal-shaped pool extended with other baths.
That said, you can take a Turkish bath as a steam bath too, as Rudas Bath offers a complex bath and wellness experience, including a hammam (Turkish sauna) as well as an ilidza (Turkish “Ilica” for warm thermal spring). There are 6 thermal baths in Rudas Bath as well as a larger swimming pool.
The knights of St John in the 13th century built their healing center here, then after the Buda Castle siege, when the Ottoman Turkish armies successfully captured the Royal Palace of Hungarians, the Turks started to build a series of Turkish baths along the river Danube, using the deep underground hot spring waters for relaxing, bathing and healing. Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (Sokoli Mustafa), the Turkish pasha, who excelled in the siege of Vienna, and governed the town of Buda for 12 years during the Turkish occupation in Hungary, made sure that the baths are well built (with hard ceramic pipes, and tiles brought from Turkey).
Last updated on Oct 11, 2024
Which baths have the warmest water? Which would you suggest when it is in the 30’s outside?
Hello,
I will be in Budapest on 23-25 December 2015. I’m wondering if Rudas Bath will be open on either the 23rd or 24th Dec. Since it falls on Wednesday and Thursday, I assume it will be a men only day? Besides Rudas Bath, which other Baths will be opened as well?
Please kindly advice.
Thank you.
Dear Toshi,
please check back early December for the official dates at Christmas time in the thermal baths of Budapest. The management usually announces the finalized days late November or early December. Until then, we can only share the traditional opening hours (tentative), which have been customary in the last 10 years, but they have not been confirmed for 2015 yet.
You can find the traditional opening hours (2013, 2014, etc.) on this page. http://budapestchristmas.com/rudas-bath-at-christmas
Dec 23 is normally unaffected by the Christmas holidays, so standard opening hours should apply according to the calendar days (it is also true of other thermal baths in Budapest on Dec 23). Dec 24 will usually have shortened opening times. Dec 25 is normally open, but with somewhat modified opening hours.
That said, these are unconfirmed by the bath management yet.
Hope it is still of some help in planning your Budapest winter holiday.
i want to know if there are a certain days for women only
Dear Rania,
yes, Tuesdays are women only days in Rudas Baths.
Hi, does Turkish part of Rudas working?
Hi,does is ture that Turkish part of Rudas is under renovation?