Budapest and the Bath Culture

Budapest is the richest in thermal springs among the capital cities of the world.   Therefore, ever since the Roman times, bath culture has been thriving in Budapest. With this booming bath culture attraction, the city has been entitled the “City of Spa” in 1934. The city is sometimes called the City of Baths and Caves because of the rich hot springs and underwater caves and springs. These hot springs and thermal baths have become an important aspect in Budapest’s health and tourism culture.

Tourists all over the world are enticed to visit Budapest in order to personally indulge themselves in this thermal bathing culture. Tourists and locals alike would spend time in thermal baths for medicinal, therapeutic, or recreational purposes. After a long day of work or tour within the city, they will definitely find themselves soaked in one of those open hot pools or prestigious and elegant hot baths in hotels.

Two famous thermal baths in Budapest are the Hotel Gellert’s bath and the Szechenyi bath.  The latter is always overcrowded everyday – even during the winter season. Gellert bath is a natural mud pit and is well-known for its medicinal and healing properties. Some of the popular features in Gellert are the covered and open-air swimming pool with artificial waves.

Since hot springs are easily available in Budapest, other public and affordable pools had sprouted in the city to cater for the needs of the natives and the tourists.

Excluding the spa and thermal baths in Ramada Plaza, Thermal Hotel Margitsziget, and Corinthia hotel, there are around 15 public thermal baths in Budapest. These include Ruda’s Bath and Palatinus Bath in Margaret Island.

Young tourists will mostly be hooked on some other spas that are placed inside theme parks and hotels because of their special features for children, such as the wave pools, water chutes, and whirlpools. Professionals and businessmen in tours will definitely have a relaxing and soothing weekend in spas and baths that have green fields in it where one can just relax, sunbathe, read his favorite paper or magazine, or perhaps do sports.

Aside from its recreational and thermal spas, Budapest is also known for its medicinal baths. This tourist attraction has made Budapest a must-visit tourist spot in the world. These medicinal baths used the thermal springs which have been used by the Romans since the 2^nd century.

These thermal springs have a temperature that varies between 21°C and 78°C and produces up to seventy mega-liters of water a day. The dissolved minerals and salt in these waters coming from one hundred eighteen different sources, which could either be natural springs or bores, have made them suitable and preferable for treating and curing hundreds of illnesses that range from circulatory problems to joint and muscle damage, rheumatic diseases, and blood-related problems.

Hungary’s medicinal waters are effective for locomotor disorder treatment. Some are even particularly efficacious in the treatment of gynecological and dermatological disorders. Moreover, some even form part of a drinking cure for renal and metabolic conditions, as well as stomach complaints.

Several of these medicinal baths and spas have been built along the banks of the Danube River. These are the Ruda’s, Kiraly, Csaszar and Rac baths. These spas are open all days of the week.  Some of the amenities and features they offer are tub and thermal bath, sauna, dental shower, and indoor swimming pool.

Most of these baths provided other services and facilities such as therapeutic massage, mudpack treatments, and physiotherapy exercises. Within the spa and baths are water fountains and wells that provide spring and medicinal water.

Below are the most popular medicinal spas and baths in Budapest:

·         Széchenyi Baths
·         Gellért Baths
·         Rudas Baths
·         Király Baths
·         Lukács Baths
·         Császár Baths
·         Csillaghegy Baths
·         Dagály Baths
·         Dandár Baths
·         Pesterzsébet Salt Baths
·         Újpest Baths

If one decides to come to Budapest, he should plan to go to Budapest’s baths to take a swim, soak in the tub, sit in the whirlpool, or just enjoy the silence. The relaxing and soothing ambience of the spa and bath is ideal to release all the stress and worries of a weary and tired body.

Budapest’s Top Attractions

Budapest, the largest city and at the same time capital of Hungary, has become one of the most popular destinations in Central Europe. With its stunning views and excellent taste of local foods and wines, Budapest makes a perfect travel destination. It has been dubbed as the Paris of the East and has been considered as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The historic past, poetry, and gaiety in it make tourists fall in love with it.

The Duna (Danube) river splits Budapest city into two: Buda and Pest. Buda is situated in the west side of the river bank while Pest is located on the east side, which covers the modern commercial core of the city. As such, Budapest deserves its dub as the Pearl of the Danube.

Great attractions await tourists who wander and want to kill time in the city. Among those popular attractions are summarized and categorized below according to the situated location where they belong.

Buda

• Castle Hill – This landmark is positioned in the western bank of the Danube River. Known as Várhegy in Hungarian, its medieval structure provides breathtaking views of the Danube River when you are its highest point. It has been said that it is in this place that Budapest was founded.

• Buda Royal Palace – It is Castle Hill’s most prominent feature, which is a historical castle where the Hungarian Kings of Budapest lived. It is sometimes called the Royal Castle or the Royal Palace. The Buda Castle is located in the southern tip of the Castle Hill.

• Fisherman’s Bastion – Tourists will have an excellent view of the city from this site. This spot is strategically located near the Castle Hill where you can have a good look at the city as well as the two bridges, Chain Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge. This is also where the Mathias Church is located. It is a nice place to look at the Hungary’s Parliament building and the Academy of Sciences. This is called the Fisherman Bastion because most of the settlers, here are fishermen. This neo-Gothic and Roman Style structure was built as a fortress for any attacks.

• Gellért Hill and the Citadella – It has an overlooking view of the landscaped realms of the entire Budapest. It towers over the other natural and man-made buildings near it at the height of over 239 MASL. It is basically made of a mineral that constitutes calcium magnesium carbonate and has similar appearance to a sedimentary rock. The fascinating view at the top of the hill is the Danube River itself, the whole Buda, the Parliament building, and the Buda Castle.

Pest

• Parliament – This is the notable landmark of Hungary and a popular destination in Budapest. It is one of Europe’s oldest legislative buildings and the seat of Hungary’s National Assembly.

• St István Basilica – This is an ecclesiastic basilica in Budapest, which is named in honor of the first Hungarian king, King Stephen (975-1038). Built in a neo-Renaissance-Classicist style, it is considered as Hungary’s second most important church and the largest in Budapest. This is known as St. Stephen’s Basilica as this is where the mummified right hand of first Christian ruler of Hungary is kept.

• The Great Synagogue – This is one of Budapest’s distinguishing landmarks. It is the second largest synagogue in the world and is also known as the Dohany Synagogue.

• Andrássy út – It is one of the most beautiful and the biggest street of Budapest. It starts in Erzsebet ter and ends in Varosliget.  This is also called the Andrassy Avenue.

• Városliget – This is Hungary City’s park. It also has a zoo in here.

• · Vajdahunyad Castle – This is a castle in City Park. It was built in 1896 for the Hungarian millennium.

The Danube

• Elizabeth Bridge – It is the second newest bridge in Budapest and was named after Queen Elizabeth. It is known as the longest suspension bridge in the world.

• The Chain Bridge – This is one of Budapest’s famous landmarks. This is the magnificent chain that connects Buda and Pest over the Danube River.

• Margaret Island – This is originally known as the Rabbit Island located in the middle of the Danube River.

Budapest, a Tourist’s Gem

The largest city and Hungarian capital, Budapest serves as the country’s principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation center. Throughout Central Europe, Budapest is considered an important hub internationally. The city is home to almost two million residents as of the latest 2009 population census, with a 525 square kilometer area within its city limit. Budapest also is known to have hosted the biggest Jewish population in Europe.

In a historical note, Budapest became the capital of Hungary only in 1361. It was King Bela IV of Hungary that ordered the construction of his royal palace on the top of the hill of Buda and reinforcing the stone walls surrounding the city.

The city has a temperate and transitional climate – it is mixed of the mild snowy weather of trans-Danubian, the almost sub-Mediterranean weather of the south, the variable continental climate of the flat open Great Plain to the east.

The City boasts of its growing tourism industry. It attracts 20 million visitors on a yearly basis. It is widely looked upon as one belonging to the most stunning and beautiful cities found in Europe. Home to many declared heritage sites of the world that includes the Danube banks, the Buda Castle, the Andrassy Avenue, Millennium Underground Railway  .– Europe’s second oldest, and the Heroes’ Square. It also offers other highlights, which include its 80 hot springs, its large synagogue – world’s second largest, the parliament building – worlds third largest and previously the largest, and the world’s largest thermal water cave system.

Recently, this year, Budapest ranked as the most livable city among the Central and Eastern European cities in terms of quality of life and ranked the 3^rd out of 65 cities on MasterCard’s Emerging Markets index of 2008.

At first glance, Budapest is an architectural gem. The baroque, neoclassical, eclectic and secessionist building and architecture are enough to satisfy one’s appetite.

The Parliament House visit is a comprehensive tour for Budapest sightseeing for a tourist who wants to learn some historical value before leaving Budapest or as an Introduction before the tour on the city. The Parliament House is the largest building in Hungary and home to the Holy Hungarian Crown. The tour introduces you to its Neo-Gothic architecture, splendid session halls, the impressive central staircase and the wonderful Great Vaulted Hall. Along the tour, a guide is giving some historical backgrounds and commentary. The Parliament Building was once the largest in the world with 691 rooms and staircases that stretches a total of 12 miles.

Budapest is fortunate to have many of the world’s finest Turkish baths. Budapest’s baths boast of its unique and hedonistic bathing experience and original Ottoman architecture. Baths consist of wonderfully colored glass windows and copulas and amazingly shaped octagonal pools. Baths recently offered massage with expert masseurs who happily can rearrange your limbs and muscles in a way that is impossible to think. Budapest also boast of its hot springs and bath, relaxing and splashing on Budapest baths is considered as the most worthwhile activity in the city according to Tourist and locals alike.

Another tourist attraction and offering are the Danube River cruise – considered the highlight of any trip to Hungary. Danube River is considered the longest in the entire European Union and Europe’s second largest after Volga. Danube River’s crosses ten European countries like Germany, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Moldova, Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia and Serbia. The Danube Bike trail is a Bicycle trail along the River also attracts tourists.

Furthermore, an indispensable offering of the city is its traditional restaurants in the hills of Buda. The Restaurants offer a three-course meal dinner followed by the typical Hungarian music and folkloric dance show. The Hill also provided a magnificent view of the illuminated city at night.

Nightlife is hot in Budapest, Many bars and restaurants offer excellent but affordable food and wine in abundance. In recent years, Budapest has taken the role of a party town in the region. In warmer months, outdoor entertainment areas are in abundance with party makers both tourist and locals.

Budapest is a place to see, rich in history, scenic beauty and marvelous attractions. It guarantees a vacation that is worthwhile and satisfying.