Palatinus on Margaret Island is where Budapest goes swimming in summer, with a wave pool, four slides and lawns to lie on between pools, and through the winter it stays open as a smaller bath for lengths and warm water. It opened in 1919, the first bath in the city where you could bathe outdoors, and its big pool was the largest in Europe until the Second World War.
Of its 15 pools, how many you get depends on the month. This page covers which run all year and which only in summer, the hours by season, what the ticket includes, what to bring and the rules for children.
Palatinus tickets
Budapest: Palatinus Spa & Pools Full-Day Admission
Best for: A day in the pools, entering whenever you like on the date you choose
- Full day, one entry
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- Full-day admission any day of the week
- Cabin or locker use
- Ticket
- On your phone, ready as soon as you book
- Ages
- One price for every age. The bath sells its own child and family tickets
- Bring
- Flip-flops and swimwear
- Not allowed
- Pets
- Also
- Reserve now and pay later
- The ticket is valid on the date you pick, for entry at any time while the ticket office is open
- It allows one entry. Leave the bath and you need a new ticket to come back in
- Massages, a safe for valuables, food and drinks cost extra
Palatinus pools and saunas
Spend a summer day in the outdoor pools
Summer is what Palatinus is built for, with all eleven outdoor pools open, the slides running and shaded lawns between them. The wave pool is one of the bath’s most popular, at 28°C and up to 2.8 metres at the deep end, with waves every hour from 10:40. The adventure pool has a drift corridor, hot tubs, neck showers and massage jets, and the round pool a fountain in the middle.
For sitting still, go to the two outdoor thermal pools, at 30 to 32°C and 33 to 36°C, with chess boards in the water. The leisure pool, a wide open-air pool, runs from paddling depth to 1.37 metres.
These pools and the four slides are summer only. In 2025 the wave pool and the slides were the last to open, in mid-June, so come from then to find everything running.
Swim lengths in the 40-metre pool, all year, in a cap
The outdoor swimming pool is 40 metres long, 1.7 to 1.9 metres deep and kept at 26°C, and it stays open all year. In winter you reach it from the building along a heated corridor.
A swimming cap is compulsory in this pool, and the bath sells them. Lessons and training sessions use it from time to time, so part of the pool may be taken when you arrive.
The outdoor sitting pool is open 365 days a year too, at 32 to 36°C with benches under the water, and it is the place to warm up after your lengths.
Sit in the medicinal pool indoors
The indoor section is small next to the outdoor pools, and it is the part of Palatinus closest to a thermal bath. Its main pool is filled with thermal water at 36°C and 0.9 metres deep, with a massage function at lower-back height.
The bath recommends 20 minutes at a time and lists it as a treatment for joint and back complaints. Children under 14 may use it only on a doctor’s prescription.
The indoor children’s pool is here as well, at 32 to 34°C and no more than half a metre deep, with toys and small slides. In winter it is the only children’s pool open.
Go between the hot and cold plunge pools and the saunas
The hot plunge pool is 40 to 42°C and the cold one around 20°C, both filled with medicinal water. The bath recommends five minutes in each and warns that their temperatures can differ from the usual.
The indoor section also has three heat rooms: a Finnish sauna at 90 to 100°C, an aroma sauna at 50 to 60°C scented with herbs such as linden, eucalyptus and lavender, and a steam room at 40 to 50°C. They are small, 12 people to each sauna and eight to the steam room.
All of it is open all year. Under-14s are not allowed in the saunas, the steam room or the plunge pools.
How a visit to Palatinus works
Take bus 26 to the door
Bus 26 runs the length of the island and stops at Palatinus fürdő, outside the entrance. Catch it at the Margaret Bridge end after tram 4 or 6, or at the Árpád Bridge end after tram 1 to Népfürdő utca / Árpád híd.
In summer the bath also runs a free electric shuttle from the Centenary Monument, every hour on the hour and half past from 10:00 to 18:00. Drivers use the paid car park at the north end, reached from Árpád Bridge, about a 10-minute walk away, and every other way onto the island is on our getting to Margaret Island page.
Show your ticket and take the wristwatch
Photo: Hungaria Koncert, via GetYourGuide Show the ticket on your phone in the entrance hall. You are given a wristwatch-style chip as your entry ticket, and you keep it on all day, because it also opens and closes your locker.
Change in a cubicle, then lock up
You change in a cubicle, then lock your things in a locker with the chip. In summer there are small free lockers outdoors as well. Valuables can go in a safe at the internal sales points, which costs extra.
Leave the water 20 minutes before closing
The bath asks everyone out of the pools 20 minutes before it closes, so on a 19:00 day the last swim ends at 18:40, and on a 16:00 winter day at 15:40.
What to bring to Palatinus
- Flip-flops or slippers. They are compulsory away from the water
- Swimwear. Swimsuits, swim shorts and burkinis are all fine. Street clothes, leggings, gym wear and underwear are not allowed in the pools
- A towel. The bath sells towels but lists none for hire
- A swimming cap, if you want the 40-metre pool. Sold at the bath
- A bank card. Food and drinks inside are paid by card, or with a top-up card loaded at the cash desk
- Food, out of season. The beach stalls, from lángos to pizza and ice cream, run in summer from 09:00 to 18:30. In autumn 2025 no buffet or restaurant was open, and eating is not allowed in the changing rooms or by the pools, so eat before you come
Palatinus with children
Széchenyi admits nobody under 14 and points families to a few other baths instead, Palatinus among them. In summer the slides, the wave pool and the playground make a day of it here. The house rules for children:
- An adult comes too. Under-14s need a parent or another adult with them, supervising in the pools and on the slides
- Under-14s may not use the saunas, the steam room, the plunge pools or any pool above 35°C, and the medicinal pool only on a doctor’s prescription
- Babies and toddlers not yet potty-trained may only go in the children’s pools, in a swim nappy
- The children’s pools are for children. An adult may stand or sit on the edge to supervise, but not sit in the water
- The four slides take anyone over 120 centimetres at the shoulder, from 09:30 to 18:30 in summer. The Kamikaze is the shortest and steepest, the Turbo starts above 15 metres, and the 130-metre Magic Tunnel is ridden on a tyre, two at a time. The bath bars pregnant women and anyone ill or disabled from them
- Out of the water there is a dry playground with climbing walls and slides, a water play table and a football-tennis court, all free with the ticket
Accessibility
The bath publishes no information on step-free access or a route through the building, and its slide rules exclude disabled visitors. If access matters, contact the bath before you go, through the form on its contact page.
Paying less at Palatinus with the Budapest Card
Budapest Card: Public Transport, 30+ Top Attractions & Tours
Best for: Taking 20% off an adult locker ticket at Palatinus, if you are seeing more of Budapest than the island
- 24, 48, 72 or 96 hours from first use
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- 20% off an adult ticket with locker here
- Free entry to Lukács, the card's own bath
- Unlimited public transport
- Free entry to more than 30 museums and attractions
- At Palatinus
- A discount on the adult locker ticket for the card holder, not free entry, and not combined with other discounts
- Where it is given
- At the bath's ticket desk, in person, never online
- Worth it only if
- You are doing several things in the city. A card bought for one visit costs more than it saves
Insider tips
Arrive at opening on a hot day for a lounger
On hot days the loungers are claimed with towels early, and the small free lockers outside go just as fast. The lawns are the fallback, with shade under the trees and room even on the busiest days, and the lockers in the changing rooms take longer to run out.
Check the Palatinus pool list before you go
The bath lists its pools and saunas on its available services page and posts closures there, as it did for the round pool, shut from 4 October 2026. If you are coming for the wave pool or the slides at either end of the summer, look the day before.
Come in winter for the outdoor lengths
Out of season the lido shrinks to the 40-metre pool, two warm outdoor pools and the indoor section. As a family day out it is not worth the trip then. As a place to swim lengths outdoors in winter and then sit in warm water, it is a good one.