Just imagine… you’re admiring a striking mustard Neo-Baroque palace as you lounge in naturally heated geothermic water. As the cold night air kisses your hot face, you watch steam rise and evaporate into the star-spangled Budapest sky.

You can make that steamy dream a reality at Budapest’s Széchenyi Thermal Baths (above). Constructed in 1913, they house 15 indoor and three outdoor natural pools ranging from 30º to 40º Celsius (86º F to 104º Fahrenheit). From time to time in warm weather, it stages huge EDM “Spa-rties“ (spa parties), as well.

Budapest is known as “the city of spas” due to the 118 thermal springs bubbling beneath it – harnessed by 15 public bath houses and other thermal spas in various hotels. Another Belle-Époque favourite is the Art-Nouveau-style Gellért, and there are also a handful of incredibly atmospherically medieval-feeling, Turkish-style bath houses such as Rudás, dating back to the 16th century when this land was ruled (for more than 150 years) by the Ottomans.

If you can’t get enough of hot water, consider venturing out to Miskolctapolcais, just under two hours northeast of the city, where baths with built-in massage jets wind through natural caves leading to five indoor basins.

Read more in our post 6 of Hungary´s Top Winter Pleasures.

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