Budapest has a centuries old tradition of public baths. These started as hot springs and roman bath houses and evolved to follow the model of Turkish hammams. In a hammam, they are either unisex or segregated by sex. Typically, the only clothing worn would be a towel wrapped around the body. This attire goes for most of the employees as well. Time, local traditions, and the preferences of a particular hall account for some deviations in this. The basic layout of a hammam includes sauna, steamroom, scrub/massage. In addition, some will have options of various spa treatments including manicure and pedicure, different types of massage and whatever else they can sell. Some even have a bar. The Budapest model has hot tubs of varying temperatures and swimming pools (usually indoor and outdoor). It should also be noted that the bathhouses in Budapest are treated as medical facilities and they do some physical therapy for older persons there. I am not sure how this works, but there was a water aerobics session going on in the pool at Gellert.
The major Budapest baths, with the exception of Rudas have all gone coed. Rudas, had gone coed on weekends and was women only on Tuesdays and men only every other day. On Friday and Saturday nights, they are open for coed bathing from something like 8p until 4a (may want to check that as I too old to even consider it). If you decide to go to Rudas, I would check that.
I went to Rudas and to Gellert. At Rudas, the cost for bathing was about $12 and a 60 minute massage was about $70. I went on a men only day. Completely nude bathing is no longer allowed, even on single sex days. Instead, they issue you a bathing apron. It is exactly as it sounds. It is a little white apron that ties around the waist and covers your front (some of the old Hungarian guys, whether out of protest or hygiene turned theirs around so it covered their butts.) The masseur was male and the apron remained on during the massage. The massage facility was among the nicest I have ever seen with beds that could be raised and lowered. The beds were padded and dry and in a quiet room away from the baths. Most hammans do their massage in a common room on a marble slab, so this was an upgrade.
The main bathing room had an octogonal pool under a rotunda at the center and four hot tubs ranging in temperature from 28 to 42 degrees C (82 to 108 degrees F). To the sides were saunas and the steam room. The steam room had a warning sign about using at one’s own risk, blah, blah, blah. The steam room had three chambers, each getting progressively hotter. The first was tolerable, the second was uncomfortable and the third I felt like I should be basted and put on a spit. I lasted less than a minute in the third room. In addition, they had normal showers and a resting room.
Overall, Rudas was a nice experience. There were few tourists with most of the clientele being older Hungarian men. The facilities were well maintained. The original facility dates back centuries. On the walls, were some pictures of what it looked like prior to being renovated. Prior to the renovation, the facility was split into two sides so that both sexes could bathe every day.
The Gellert Bath was a different experience. The bath house is attached to the Gellert Hotel which is an older hotel and looks quite posh as does the bath. This is one of the two most well known baths in Budapest, the other being Szechenyi. I chose not to go to Szechenyi because it was quite expensive (entrance ticket was about $70, but included free shampoo) and because it is actually quite far from the city center, whereas Rudas and Gellert are both near the Danube.
Gellert operates as a coed facility only, so you will either need to bring or rent a bathing suit. They also have the Friday and Saturday night parties like Rudas and Szechenyi and probably some others. Gellert, like Szechenyi (I have seen pictures) are beautiful facilities. Gellert has a large lap pool, baths at four different temperatures (though these are two each on opposite sides of the facility, so you could miss half of them if you don’t explore. It also had saunas and steam rooms. These seemed to be tuned to the tastes of tourists. The sauna for example, had three chambers. The first, was set to something like ‘An Evening in Phoenix’, you might want to bring a wrap. The other two were somewhat warmer, though none really got the job done. The steam room lacked the brutality of the Rudas steam room and might have even been enjoyable except that the steam generator appeared to be under the benches. When they kicked on, your butt and legs got uncomfortably warm. I did not spring for a massage at Gellert.
The coed aspect of Gellert limited my enjoyment. First, because I am a bit of a spa professional (not the kind that depends on spas for their livelihood), but in the sense that I like spas. I like to relax. I like a massage, a peel, a scrub, a hot tub, a sauna, a cold dunk (missing from Budapest, it may be a safety thing. They had cold tanks, but you had to walk down stairs to get in. I can’t do that, it’s all or nothing.), a steam room, a mani/pedi. There’s nothing to not like. The first thing making it coed does is bring in tourists — I am sure that financially, this is a winner. Bringing in tourists drives prices up and crowds the facility with people who don’t know what they are doing or where they are going (and of course, if you don’t know where you’re going, find a doorway and stand in it.) It also means that people are dressed in a presentable manner, so people bring cameras or smartphones and are snapping pictures of everything. When everyone is mostly naked, there are no cameras. Lack of cameras is kind of an essential part of being able to relax and be in the moment.
The dynamic of men versus women is also just different. In the men only facility, men go in, undress, put on their apron and go. In the coed facilities, everyone is carrying a tote bag. I’m not sure why, but it bothered me. It was one more thing to think about and keep me from relaxing. Which brings me to the final problems: couples or groups, particularly those on vacation. It is no longer acceptable just to take a picture of a thing, or even a person standing in front of a thing. Now, one must pose in front of a thing. If you don’t believe me, look up some travel blogs or travel instagrammers. These are predominantly young women. They all strike the same pose (usually in inappropriate attire for whatever the place, though here they’re just in swimsuits). That pose is about 5 o’clock to the camera — enough to show the shapeliness of the ass, but not the size. The back is arched and the face is in profile looking far off into the distance. The far off gaze is particularly annoying in a hot tub. These photos are usually staged in high traffic areas and the photo shoots can take a while.
So, for my money, I would avoid the coed facilities. This may not be popular if you are with your family, but it is the more relaxin spa experience. Who knows, if I were 30 years younger, I might enjoy one of the all night parties, but probably not.