Rudas Thermal Bath

Rudas is one of Budapest's oldest and most atmospheric thermal baths, a 16th-century Ottoman hammam at the foot of Gellert Hill where an octagonal pool sits beneath a domed, star-pierced roof. Long a fixture of the city's bath culture, it keeps traditional single-sex days, men-only on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, which have made it popular with gay visitors for generations, and it adds a rooftop panorama pool with sweeping Danube views, several thermal pools, saunas, and a steam bath. More a place to soak, socialize, and take in the architecture than anything else, it is a quintessential Budapest experience, with late-night bathing on Friday and Saturday evenings.