Harkányi Gyógyfürdő (Harkány Thermal Bath)

What to expect

Harkány is a spa town in southern Baranya, a few kilometres from the Drava and the Croatian border, and the bath is the reason the town exists. The medicinal water was found in 1823 while the marshy ground here was being drained; local tradition credits a well digger who noticed the warm water helped his bad leg. The Batthyány family built the first bathhouses the next year. By 1990 the bath was getting close to 2 million visits a year, one of the busiest in Hungary, and Harkány town has owned it since 2006.

The bath fills a 13.5-hectare park with old trees. It has three parts:

• The medicinal bath (Gyógyfürdő): the core, renovated in 2003, with three medicinal pools and a treatment department.
• Harka Vízivilág: a covered water park with three slides and an outdoor pool, open all year with no age limit.
• The lido (Strandfürdő): outdoor pools and the Lepke slide park, summer only.

There is also a sauna world and an indoor children’s world.

The water

Harkány’s water rises from 50 to 70 m down at about 144°F62°C and carries more than 1,000 mg of minerals per litre. What sets it apart, the bath says, is carbonyl sulphide, a gas first identified in the 1860s during an analysis of this water. Under pressure it stays dissolved; at the surface it breaks down into hydrogen sulphide, which gives the bath its smell. Tiny grains of elemental sulphur form in the pools and catch the light.

The bath markets the water for joint and spine problems, chronic gynaecological inflammation and psoriasis, and publishes its own medical research. Those are the operator’s claims. The listed contraindications include fever, open wounds, very high blood pressure, heart failure, active cancer, pregnancy and menstruation.

The pools

Medicinal pools, all in use in October 2026:

• Pool 1: open-air, 95-99°F35-37°C.
• Pool 1B: covered, 97-100°F36-38°C.
• Pool 2: half-covered, 91-97°F33-36°C.

Together they cover 2,098 square metres, 1.1 to 1.53 m deep.

Harka Vízivilág (766 square metres of water):

• Adventure pool: 86-90°F30-32°C, with two Turbo slides, a family slide, a climbing wall and a lazy river. Slides need a shoulder height of 120 cm.
• Experience pool: 86-90°F30-32°C, with neck showers and bubble benches.
• Outdoor pool: 86-97°F30-36°C, split in two, with swim lanes and lounging benches, open summer and winter.

Summer lido pools: an open-air swimming pool at 75-79°F24-26°C, the two Lepke pools at 79-82°F26-28°C and 86-90°F30-32°C, a children’s pool at 86-95°F30-35°C and a slide splash pool at 75-79°F24-26°C. The slide park gained five extra lanes in 2016.

Getting there

The bath is in the centre of Harkány, at Kossuth Lajos utca 7. Harkány is about 25 km (16 miles) south of Pécs in a straight line, 5 km (3 miles) west of Siklós and its castle, and about 17 km (11 miles) from the wine village of Villány. Budapest is roughly 195 km (121 miles) away in a straight line, so plan on a long half day by car via Pécs.

Since October 1, 2026, the south entrance on the Zsigmondy promenade is closed. Go in through the main entrance on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca or the Platán gate on Kossuth Lajos utca. The town’s Tourinform office is also on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca.

When to go

The medicinal bath, the Harka Vízivilág and the saunas are open all year. The outdoor lido runs in summer only: May 21 to September 6 in 2026. Summer is the busy season, and the whole of it counts as peak pricing.

For a quiet soak and the lower price, come Monday to Thursday outside school holidays. Fridays and Saturdays the water park and saunas stay open to 8 p.m. In the 2026 autumn school break the bath ran changed hours, so check the news page around holidays. The bath also holds an annual bath festival in late August.

Prices and booking

Tickets are sold at the gates and online via Tixa; no booking is needed. 2026 day tickets (off-peak / peak):

• Adult: HUF 7,500 / HUF 8,000.
• Reduced (65+ and ages 4-18, with photo ID): HUF 6,500 / HUF 7,000.
• Under 4: HUF 500 / HUF 700.
• Afternoon from 3 p.m. (off-peak only): HUF 6,800 adults, HUF 5,800 reduced.
• Family (2 adults and 1 child aged 4-14): HUF 17,500 / HUF 18,500, plus HUF 4,500 / HUF 4,700 per extra child.
• 7-visit pass: HUF 49,500 / HUF 51,500.

Peak days are Friday to Sunday, public holidays, school holidays and the summer season. In summer you can also buy a cheaper lido-only ticket: HUF 5,400 adults, HUF 4,400 reduced, with a HUF 3,000 upgrade into the medicinal bath and water park.

Extras: locker HUF 1,300 a day, towel HUF 2,200 (with a deposit or ID), sheet HUF 1,800, lounger HUF 2,200, private cabin HUF 2,700 a day. Treatments with Hungarian health insurance support, such as mud packs, carbonic baths and underwater exercise, are priced separately, and the rheumatology clinic works by appointment.

Bathing culture

Swimsuits are worn in all the pools. Shower before getting in, bring slippers, and keep quiet in the medicinal pools, where most people are older regulars on a cure. Short sessions are the norm in medicinal water, and the bath doctors set times for those on treatment.

Where to stay nearby

Harkány is a spa town, and hotels and guesthouses line the streets around the bath, many selling packages with bath tickets. The bath’s own site has an accommodation page, and the Tourinform office can help. Siklós, 5 km (3 miles) away, and Pécs, about 25 km (16 miles) north, have more choice.

Safety notes

• Heat: pools of 97-100°F36-38°C put real load on the heart. Keep soaks short and leave if you feel dizzy.
• Children: under-14s may use the medicinal pools only with a treatment sheet and a parent watching.
• Health: read the contraindications above; ask the bath doctor if you have a heart condition or are pregnant.
• Slippery floors: wear slippers on the wet tiles around the pools.

Nearby stops worth adding

Siklós Castle is a five-minute drive east. Villány, Hungary’s best-known red wine village, is a short drive further, and Pécs, with its cathedral and the Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, makes a good day out from a Harkány base.