Financial struggle: Are Budapest’s best spas becoming tourist traps?

For decades, Budapest’s world-famous thermal baths have been among the city’s greatest attractions — but recently, they’ve come to symbolise something else entirely: mismanagement, closures, and entry fees that rival those in Western Europe.

Gellért bath in Budapest is out, and this causes changes elsewhere

The latest casualty is the iconic Szent Gellért Bath, which closed its doors in late 2024 and is expected to remain shut for at least three years. In its final year of operation, the bath welcomed 420,000 visitors and generated HUF 4.1 billion in revenue for Budapest Gyógyfürdői és Hévizei Zrt. (BGYH), the city-owned company operating the capital’s 12 thermal complexes.

With Gellért gone, crowds are now being redirected to the already busy Rudas and Széchenyi baths, while two other historic venues, the Rác and Király, have stood closed for years.

The reshuffling has led to chaos — even forcing changes in opening hours at Rudas, where female regulars protested the drastic reduction of single-gender bathing times. The dispute has reached the city council’s committees, though no final decision has yet been made.

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Funding shortfalls and political roadblocks

Although the BGYH is one of Budapest’s few profitable municipal companies, most of its earnings are siphoned off to keep the city running, leaving little for renovations. As a result, even a financially stable firm cannot afford to refurbish landmark sites like Gellért or Rác.

The Gellért project would be one of the largest bath restorations in Hungary — a HUF 20-billion investment aimed at fully renovating the century-old building and adding new wellness facilities.

Yet, at present, only the design phase has been approved; there is no funding, and no guarantee when or if construction will begin, writes Telex.

City leaders now hope to finance the Gellért and Rác renovations through loans, but these require government approval — a process fraught with politics. The Orbán administration has repeatedly blocked Budapest’s loan requests in recent years.