Budapest

The Gellért Thermal Baths in Budapest have acquired a somewhat infamous reputation since it became known that Ergo Insurance Group agents had a sex party there. Does this image stand up to reality? Lukas Bay tread the paths of the sex tourists in Budapest.

My colleague grins as I tell him about my journey to Budapest. “Budapest? So are you going to visit the Gellért Baths?” The Gellért Thermal Baths became unintentionally famous in Germany after a major German insurance company rented the bath complex for a sex trip five years ago. Its top- achieving agents were invited to make free use of the services of ladies selling love in the venerable bathing halls. The sex trip, which was disclosed one year ago by the journal Handelsblatt caused much ado – and has given trips to Budapest a somewhat dubious tint to this day.

For the sake of my colleague, I go and visit the venerable baths on the west bank of the Danube River on the night after my first work day in Budapest. The Gellért Hotel with its thermal baths dates back to 1918, but was destroyed and reconstructed several times in the turbulent history of Budapest. The hot springs that feed the basins are said to have been discovered as early as the 13th century. The baths underwent their most recent renovation in 2008.

The effects ascribed to the mineral-rich water are nothing short of magical. A bath is said to cure joint diseases, spine disorders, slipped discs, impaired circulation, asthma and chronic bronchitis. As I do not suffer from any of these problems, I sadly cannot verify the truth of this.

The baths’ entrance hall bears little in common with the thermal baths I know from Germany. Fancy arches and an Art-Nouveau-style glass roof give it the appearance of a castle rather than a bath. Entrance tickets are sold in a wood-clad booth for 4,100 to 4,600 forints (14 to 15.60 euro). After paying I am handed a blue ribbon.


On my way to the changing rooms I suffer a first minor disappointment: they radiate little of the entrance hall’s ostentatious glamour. The scene is dominated by the notoriously chaotic charm of a swimming pool; slightly confused visitors are marshalled to the numbered private booths. I would like to rent a bathrobe but change my mind after a rather harsh-tempered lady at the rental mentions a price of 11,000 forints (around 37.50 euro).

Hot thermal baths

I need some time to find my way around the vast complex and start with the pool area where the lascivious insurance agents lolled. The large pool is lined with white pillars and indeed makes a majestic impression. What a waste to only go swimming there.

Nudies stay in the entrance hall. A door leads me to a room with several wooden booths and my first thought is that I got lost yet again. Finally, a sign shows me the way through the labyrinth to the thermal baths. I open another opal glass door and am greeted by a sulphur smell. People are crouching in two dim-lighted basins, immersed up to their necks in 36 or optionally 38-degree warm water from the mineral springs.

The picture calls to mind the bathing houses in ancient Rome. On weekdays, men and women bathe separately at the Gellért. The insurance agents must have been here on a weekend. After a brief bath I look for a sauna and find one behind the next opal glass door. However, the sauna area in the Gellért has the flair of a slaughterhouse: pale tiles, bare showers and rusty doors. The floor of the 70-degree sauna is so hot that I can only save my life by a valiant plunge for the wooden bench. The pouring of water over hot rocks I know from German saunas are not known here.

I hope the sauna in the outdoor area has more to offer, but due to the freezing temperatures it is closed, just like the wave pool. After another round in the thermal baths I have had enough and head for the exit. The white marble statues in the entrance area, by the way, are the only nude figures I have set my eyes upon today. Visitors to Gellért’s are strictly obliged to wear clothes.