Budapest guidebook
Panoramically divided by the Danube, Budapest is one of Europe's most beautiful capitals.
[Buy Now ]

Travel solutions: Hungary

Time Out combines daunting thermal spa treatments with brisk afternoon strolls around Hungary‘s charmingly eccentric capital

A giant bath is perched in the middle of a large, white cubicle. I feel like I’ve landed in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and the therapist, a towering Hungarian woman in starched uniform with slanted cheekbones and a fixed grin, is my Nurse Ratched.

The circus at Városliget city park

‘OK, get in ze bath!’ she barks. ‘I leave you 30 minutes.’ The hot water is bubbling and smells of oregano. The plumbing gurgles and groans. What the hell is it going to do to me? I lower myself in and within seconds my skin turns raspberry coloured. Frankly, I’m terrified. Every few minutes, the jets of water switch from massaging one part of my body to another. At some point, though, I unwittingly relax and after 20 minutes find myself drifting off into a strangely hypnotic trance. When ‘Nurse’ reappears at the end of the half-hour session I’m completely gaga.

Article continues

I’m in Budapest, spa capital of Eastern Europe, for a long weekend of detoxing, cleansing, facials and massage with Wellbeing Escapes, the British travel company specialising in finding the best therapeutic locations around the world. The city, thankfully low on stag parties on my trip in early January (it’s not as bad as Prague yet), with its natural thermal pools underground, is abundant with Turkish baths left over from 150 years of Ottoman occupation. My base is the recently refurbished Danubius Thermal Hotel, on the picturesque Margitsziget island which lies in the middle of the steel-coloured Danube between Buda and Pest.

The pool of the Danubius Thermal Hotel

At the Danubius, health and beauty is a serious business. There are the usual treatments appealing to namby-pamby Brits, such as Thai massage (here performed by expert Thai therapists), facials, body wraps, a fine gym and four thermal pools. But there are also serious supervised health services: electrotherapy which uses an electrical current to treat muscular problems or fractured bones; oxygen therapy where an increased oxygen supply is administered to the lungs for those with respiratory problems; and, rather alarmingly, a plastic surgery theatre for those who might require a bit of rhinoplasty while they are at it. It would be easy to come to Budapest and return home restored and healthy without ever leaving your spa hotel. But that would be a waste; the city is teeming with good coffee shops, chi-chi new lounge bars and buzzing restaurants. It doesn’t take me long to decide to detox in the mornings and retox in the afternoon, yielding to the city’s many temptations before returning to the comfort of the hotel and its fluffy towelling gowns.

In the late afternoon as the sun dips behind the Danube, sipping cherry tea and eating buttery almond cake in one of the city’s many grand tea shops, Gerlóczy Kávéház (1 Gerlóczy Utca, 0036 1 253 0953) I feel ecstatically rebellious. Later, after a kir royale at the opulent and beautifully restored Gresham Palace hotel (a must), I cross the iconic Chain Bridge to the Buda side of the river where a trudge uphill to the blonde-stoned Fisherman’s Bastion brings spectacular panoramic views of the city and its spiky houses of parliament. This side of Budapest, with its quiet charms and many good restaurants like the impressive Russian caviar restaurant Arany Kaviár (19 Ostrom Utca, 0036 1 201 6737), is best explored by foot . The most stylish way back down is to ride the famous old Funicular cable car (1 Clark Adam ter, 0036 1 201 9128).