Anna Baths in Szeged is 2 hours 20 minutes from Budapest by train, a return ticket costs 6,820 HUF (~€19), and a full-day entry ticket is 4,200 HUF (~€12). The whole day therefore costs less than a single weekday ticket at Széchenyi, which is 13,200 HUF (~€36). Locals simply call it Anna Bath. The honest verdict: the trip is worth it for Szeged, not for the bath. Anna Baths is a small, restored city thermal bath that locals use on a Tuesday morning, not a spectacle.
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All prices, opening hours and train times below were checked in August 2026.
| Train time each way | 2h20–2h30 |
| Return fare, 2nd class, full price | 6,820 HUF (~€19) |
| Anna Baths day ticket | 4,200 HUF (~€12) |
| Whole day, with lunch | 11,000–15,000 HUF (~€30–41) |
| Verdict | Worth it for Szeged. Not for the bath alone. |
If you have not settled on a Budapest bath yet, start with our ranked guide to the best thermal baths in Budapest — for most visitors that is where this decision ends. If you would rather keep the day simple and stay in the city, check what is available at Széchenyi for your dates →
Is Anna Baths open right now?
No. Anna Baths is closed for planned maintenance from 17 to 30 August 2026, and the wellness section has been closed since 10 August. The operator, Szegedi Sport és Fürdők Kft., gives 31 August 2026 as the reopening date.
This matters because every other English-language page about Anna Baths currently tells you it is open. If you were planning this trip for the next fortnight, move it. The same summer shutdown hit Veli Bej in Budapest, closed 13–31 August 2026.
Two more live details worth checking before you commit to a date:
- The train. Track works on the line out of Budapest-Nyugati ran from 19 July to 24 August 2026, with altered Napfény InterCity times, and a new Szeged timetable takes effect on 28 August 2026. Any journey time you read on a competitor page right now is guesswork.
- The tram in Szeged. The tram between Szeged’s main station and the Anna-kút stop was suspended for track works until 17 August 2026 and resumed on 18 August. Check szkt.hu on the morning you travel.
How to Get From Budapest to Anna Baths in Szeged
Take the Napfény InterCity from Budapest-Nyugati to Szeged. It runs roughly hourly, with about 12 direct services a day, and takes 2 hours 20 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes. There are no changes.
A full-price second-class single is 3,410 HUF (~€9), so 6,820 HUF (~€19) return. That figure comes from MÁV’s domestic fare table valid from 1 February 2026, for the distance band covering Szeged at about 170 km south-east of Budapest. Under-6s travel free, children aged 6–14 pay half, and EU citizens aged 65 and over travel free in second class on domestic services under MÁV’s fare rules.
From Szeged’s main station, Anna Baths is 1.5 km. Tram 1 or 2 stops at Anna-kút, directly outside, and the ride takes about 8 minutes. Walking takes 20 minutes along Boldogasszony sugárút. The address is Tisza Lajos körút 24, in the middle of the city centre.
Leaving Budapest at 08:00 puts you at the bath by about 10:45 and back in Budapest by 19:00, with roughly five hours in Szeged. That is the realistic shape of the day.
Is there a direct transfer from Budapest to Anna Baths?
Yes, but it is never the cheap option. A private door-to-door transfer covers the run down to Szeged in about two hours and drops you outside the bath. Kiwitaxi quotes from about 87,000 HUF (~$279) per car for up to four people, against 3,410 HUF a head on the train. Even with the car full that works out at roughly 21,750 HUF (~€60) per person, about six times the rail fare. What the transfer buys is the door, not a saving: no Nyugati, no timetable, and no last-mile walk with luggage or a tired child.
| Getting there | Time each way | 2026 cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Napfény InterCity, Budapest-Nyugati → Szeged | 2 h 20 – 2 h 30 | 3,410 HUF (~€9) single, 6,820 HUF (~€19) return, per person | Solo travellers and couples |
| Private transfer, door to door, up to 4 people | ~2 h | from ~87,000 HUF (~$279) per car | Families with small children, or arriving with luggage |
| Private minibus, door to door, up to 7 people | ~2 h | from ~92,000 HUF (~$295) per minibus | Groups of five to seven |
For one or two people the train wins on every count: it costs less than the Anna Baths ticket itself, runs roughly hourly, and still leaves you the whole afternoon in Szeged. The gap only narrows at the top end — seven people splitting a minibus pay about 13,000 HUF (~€36) each, and at that point the door-to-door convenience starts to look like a fair trade. It never becomes the cheaper way to travel.
This section contains an affiliate link. If you book through it we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If a transfer is the right call for your group, check current transfer prices from Budapest to Szeged.
How much does an Anna Baths ticket cost in 2026?
A full-day adult ticket is 4,200 HUF (~€12), and a locker is included in the price. Prices below come from the Szegedi Sport és Fürdők price list valid from 1 January 2026.
If you have read that Anna Baths costs 3,800 HUF, that is the 2025 price. It went up on 1 January 2026 and several guides have not caught up.
| Ticket | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wellness, full day, adult | 4,200 HUF (~€12) | The standard visitor ticket |
| Wellness, full day, discounted | 3,350 HUF (~€9) | Student and senior |
| Thermal only, full day, weekday | 2,500 HUF (~€7) | No Budapest equivalent at this price |
| Thermal, morning, weekday | 1,800 HUF (~€5) | |
| Afternoon, from 17:00 | 2,100 HUF (~€6) | |
| Night bathing | 3,650 HUF (~€10) | Wednesday and Friday, 20:30–24:00 |
| Sauna session | 850 HUF (~€2) | Charged on top |
| Massage, 30 / 60 minutes | 5,500 / 11,100 HUF (~€15 / €31) | |
| Family, 2 adults + 1 child | 10,500 HUF (~€29) |
The opening hours are the trap. The thermal section runs 06:00–20:00 on weekdays, but the wellness section does not open until 14:00 on weekdays. At weekends both run 07:15–19:00. Arrive on a Tuesday morning train and half the bath is shut. If you are coming for the day, come at a weekend, or plan to bathe in the afternoon.
You cannot book ahead. The bath’s own terms state that tickets cannot be bought in advance; you pay at the desk on the day. No ticket reseller or affiliate partner sells Anna Baths entry, so ignore any page that offers you one.
What is Anna Bath actually like inside?
Anna Bath is a small, over-100-year-old city bath in a restored historic building on the ring road, with a thermal section, a wellness section, a Finnish sauna, and steam, infrared and aroma cabins. The water comes from the Anna spring, which the bath describes as officially recognised medicinal water — that is the operator’s classification, not a health claim.
Set your expectations against the building, not against Budapest. There are no outdoor thermal pools, no neo-baroque courtyard, no chess players. It is indoors, it is compact, and on a weekday morning most of the people in it live within 2 km.
That is the appeal, and it is also the limitation. If you want architecture, Budapest has more of it. If you want to bathe somewhere that has not been photographed 4,000 times this week, Szeged has that.
What do you get in Szeged that you do not get in Budapest?
Three things, and only one of them is the water.
A price that is not a tourist price. 4,200 HUF (~€12) with a locker included, against 13,200 HUF (~€36) for a weekday ticket with a locker at Széchenyi. The weekday thermal-only ticket at 2,500 HUF (~€7) has no equivalent anywhere in Budapest.
No queue and no audience. There is no ticket line, no group tour, no one holding a phone above the pool. Budapest’s quiet bath, Lukács, at roughly 7,000 HUF (~€19) on a weekday, is quiet by Budapest standards — see current Lukács options and prices →. Anna Baths is quiet by any standard.
A city that is not Budapest. Szeged was rebuilt almost entirely after the 1879 Tisza flood, which is why the centre is a single coherent piece of late-19th-century planning rather than a patchwork. Dóm tér and the Votive Church, the Art Nouveau Reök Palace, and the Tisza embankment are all within a 15-minute walk of the bath. Szeged markets itself as Hungary’s sunniest city, and in September that claim mostly holds up.
If you would rather not compress all of that into five hours between trains, stay the night. Szeged rooms cost well under Budapest rates, and an overnight removes the part of the day that spoils it: watching the clock so you do not miss the train back.
What else is worth doing in Szeged on the same day?
Enough to fill the five hours the train timetable gives you, all of it walkable.
- Dóm tér and the Votive Church — 5 minutes from the bath, one of Hungary’s largest churches, on a square built for open-air performances.
- Reök Palace — an Art Nouveau building from 1907, two minutes from the bath, now a gallery.
- Szeged halászlé — the local fish soup, made with Tisza river fish and Szeged paprika. It is genuinely different from the Budapest version, and this is the place to eat it.
- Napfényfürdő Aquapolis — a much larger water park across the city. If what you actually want is slides and a big complex, go here instead of Anna Baths and skip the city centre.
Pick two. Five hours goes faster than it reads.
So is the Anna Baths day trip worth it?
Three honest answers, depending on which one is you.
Yes, if you want a day out of Budapest. You get a different city, a coherent 19th-century centre, a proper lunch and a two-hour soak for 11,000–15,000 HUF (~€30–41) all in — less than one Széchenyi ticket and a coffee. On a fourth or fifth day in Budapest, that is a good day.
No, if you are going for the bath. Five hours on a train for a small indoor city bath is not a trade that works. Anna Baths is a good local bath, not a destination.
And if what you want is “cheap, quiet, no tourists” — stay in Budapest and go to Lukács. Around 7,000 HUF (~€19) on a weekday, 20 minutes from the centre, and it gets you most of the way to what the Szeged trip promises with none of the travel. That is the answer we would give a friend, and it is the one that earns us nothing.
| Anna Baths, Szeged | Széchenyi | Lukács | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday day ticket | 4,200 HUF (~€12) | 13,200 HUF (~€36) | ~7,000 HUF (~€19) |
| Locker included | Yes | No, priced by tier | Yes |
| Travel from central Budapest | ~2h50 door to door | ~20 minutes | ~20 minutes |
| Scale | Small, indoor | Largest medicinal bath in Europe | Mid-sized |
| Crowds | Locals only | Heavy, year round | Light |
| Best for | A Szeged city day | A first visit | A second visit, quietly |
One seasonal note before you book a date: Anna Baths is indoors, so it does not deliver the 38°C-water-against-freezing-air effect that makes winter the correct season for Budapest’s outdoor baths. If you are choosing between a Szeged day and a Budapest bath day in January, choose Budapest.
Before you finalise anything, search Budapest hotels for your dates → — where you sleep in Budapest decides more about your bath days than which bath you pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Anna Baths open in August 2026?
No. Anna Baths is closed for planned maintenance from 17 to 30 August 2026, with the wellness section closed from 10 August. The operator, Szegedi Sport és Fürdők, gives 31 August 2026 as the reopening date. Check szegedsport.hu before you travel.
Can you buy Anna Baths tickets online in advance?
No. The bath’s own terms state that tickets cannot be bought in advance — you buy at the desk on the day, and the ticket is valid only for that date. No affiliate or ticket reseller sells Anna Baths entry, so there is nothing to pre-book.
Do you need to bring a towel to Anna Baths?
Yes. Bring your own towel, flip-flops and swimwear. The bath’s terms require your own towel for sauna use and list no towel hire. A locker is included in the entry price, which is not the case at Széchenyi. Our thermal bath etiquette guide covers the rest.
How long is the train from Budapest to Szeged?
Two hours 20 minutes to two hours 30 minutes each way on the Napfény InterCity from Budapest-Nyugati, running roughly hourly with around 12 direct services a day. A new Szeged timetable takes effect on 28 August 2026, so check jegy.mav.hu for exact times.
Is Anna Baths better than Széchenyi?
No, and it does not try to be. Széchenyi is the largest medicinal bath in Europe with outdoor thermal pools; Anna Baths is a small restored city bath with an indoor thermal section. Anna wins on price and quiet, Széchenyi wins on everything else.
Are there other thermal baths in Szeged?
Yes. Napfényfürdő Aquapolis is a much larger water park on the other side of the city, with slides and family pools. If a big water complex is what you want from Szeged, that is the better choice than Anna Baths.
Anna Baths is the right day trip for a specific person: someone with four days or more in Budapest who wants to see a second Hungarian city and happens to like bathing. Everyone else is better served by the Budapest baths ranked in order, or by the rest of our Budapest planning guides if the dates are still open.