The Gellert is supposed to be one of Budapest's star attractions...unfortunately, it was an awful experience. The facade and much of the outside (including outside areas) is under construction when I went (July 2008).

First of all, waiting to enter you must decide from a menu of pricing options what kinds of entry tickets & treatments + amenities you want to purchase. You can buy an entry ticket for the pool, or the thermal baths - need to pay extra for massages, access to changing facilities, towels, etc. The treatment menu is VERY confusing - there are treatment names and hourly pricing and re-entry options that just don;t make sense. On top of it, you need to wait forever to buy your ticket because when you do make it to the box office area, the woman who takes your "order" needs to print out a separate ticket for each thing you want. So, we had an entry ticket/card, a ticket for a towel, a ticket for a 30 minute wellness massage, and a ticket for use of a locker for changing and keeping our valuables. I was so confused!

Once we entered the building (which is a beautiful building), there are no signs telling you where to go. We went to a massage area where the surly old guy told us to go back, down under the pool and up to the area to get towels. We walked for ages through mazes of cabins, changing area, assorted wet areas until we found a place to get towels (by the way, you need to pay a deposit for towels which you get back when you return the towel). The service was spotty and not very attentive throughout. We then had to find our changing area, then we had find where to get our massages...which happened to be at the same place we started! (he could have just told us to enter there instead of having us walk around).

The massage attendant gave us two tokens...changed the tokens 10 minutes later and just made us sit & wait...for almost 40 minutes until a fat hungarian guy in a towel came, took me to a room, asked me to get naked and lie down on a massage table (the table had no hole to put your head in, so you had to turn your head to the side). So here I was naked, face down, head strained to the side, naked Hungarian fat guy in towel starting to massage me. He lightly massaged me for no more than 20 minutes (it was supposed to be 30 minutes). He did not use oil, but that was OK - he just clearly was not into it, and wanted to get it done as soon as possible. My "therapist" kept the room door open, and also chatted with the other masseuse who was massaging my friend - so both of us lying naked, open doors, our therapists gabbing with each other. It was a men's only area, but still...really not a great experience.

I checked out the men's thermal baths, sauna and steam room...decent facilities, but I will not be going back. There was too much going on, too much uncertainty, no customer direction or service, lots of randomness and overall, not worth it. Not sure what the fuss is all about for the Gellert - this place feels like a state run facility (which i learned it is!) - the workers don;t really care, and the place feels overwhelming and unfriendly.