Igal Gyógyfürdő: 13 Pools for 4,500 Ft in the Somogy Hills

Igal sells a full day on certified medicinal water for 4,500 Ft, sauna world included. That makes it worth it as a leg of a Balaton trip or the base for a treatment week; as a standalone day trip from Budapest, four hours of driving for four hours in the water is too thin.

What you get for it is a 13-pool municipal bath in a small Somogy town, where the water comes out of the ground at 76°C, the sauna world is included in the ticket rather than sold as an upgrade, and state-insured treatment courses run on weekends too. It is a working medicinal bath rather than a resort, and that is its strength.

Right now the beach pools and the giant slide are shut for the season and the bath closes at 18:00, but the indoor experience pool and the children’s paddling pool are running again, so a winter visit still gets the indoor pools, the courtyard jacuzzi, the outdoor thermal pools the operator lists as open all year, and the sauna world at the same price.

Photo: Civertan Grafikai Stúdió, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. An older aerial of the complex, taken before the water slides were added.

📋 At a Glance

What	Detail
Adult ticket	4,500 Ft (about $13.50), full day, everything included
Evening ticket	3,700 Ft (about $11) from 14:00
Hours	Daily 9:00-18:00, ticket desk until 17:00, pools clear at 17:30
Water	76°C at the well, alkaline chloride and hydrogen carbonate, iodic
Pools	13 in total, indoor and outdoor thermal pools year-round, beach section May to September
Closed for the season	Beach pools and giant slide, since 1 October 2026
Distance from Budapest	158 km, about 2 hours by car on the M7
Distance from Balaton	40 km from the southern shore, 24 km from Kaposvár
Address	7275 Igal, Rákóczi tér 30
Phone	+36 70 338 6446
Website	igalfurdo.hu

What Igal Actually Is

A municipal bath, owned by the town outright, running since 1962 and certified as a medicinal bath since spring 2001. The first drilling here in the 1940s went looking for oil on the old market ground and found 81°C water at 651 meters instead, which is how a farming village in outer Somogy ended up with a spa economy.

The site grew in slow municipal increments rather than one investor’s masterplan: two pools handed over on 20 August 1962, winterized three years later, a swimming pool and three children’s pools in 1967, the indoor bath in 2003, a shade canopy over the two outdoor thermal pools in 2008, and a 600 million Ft EU-backed extension in June 2012 that added 1,400 m² of building, two 300-person changing rooms, five treatment rooms and the sauna world. The operator puts its visitors at over 200,000 a year.

Photo: Igali Gyógyfürdő

On 7 October 2016 Igal was certified as a gyógyhely, a state-recognized healing place: Hungary’s 26th, and the first in Somogy county. The certified area covers the wider surroundings of the bath, not the bath alone. It also has a practical consequence for treatments, covered below.

Expect a traditional medicinal bath rather than a designer spa. Much of the signage is in Hungarian, and a common remark from visitors is that some buildings feel a little retro, while the water, the cleanliness and the friendly staff get the praise.

What Is Open and Closed Right Now

Two changes, both stated on the operator’s own site.

The indoor experience section is open again. The operator states that it has been running again since Saturday 26 September 2026, after a closure for technical reasons. That brings back the indoor experience pool and the indoor children’s paddling pool, the two indoor pools a family with a toddler comes for, which matters most between October and April.

The beach pools are closed for the season. The operator’s hours page states that the beach pools do not run from 1 October 2026, which takes out the pools marked May to September in the table below, the giant slide included, until next summer. The pools page lists the outdoor thermal pools, under their canopy, as open January to December. On its pools page the operator gives the 50-meter triple-lane slide a season from the Whitsun period to mid-September, and it never runs in rain or storms. The house rules add that the slides are used at your own risk, that non-swimmers may not use the giant slide, and that the bath takes no responsibility for damage to swimwear from the medicinal water or the pool features.

Before a trip built around either of those, call +36 70 338 6446, since pool status can change at short notice.

Since 14 October 2026 the bath’s main medicinal well, B1, has been under cleaning and renovation. The operator says the bath runs as normal throughout and every service stays available.

What It Costs

Entry is a single ticket covering the medicinal section, the beach section, the sauna world and the giant slide. There is no zone system and no upgrade tier.

Ticket	Price	About
Adult, 20-60	4,500 Ft	$13.50
Senior, over 60	3,900 Ft	$12
Youth, 4-20	3,500 Ft	$10.50
Child under 4	Free	Free
Adult, in and out all day	4,700 Ft	$14.50
Senior, in and out all day	4,200 Ft	$13
Youth, in and out all day	3,900 Ft	$12
Adult, from 14:00	3,700 Ft	$11
Senior, from 14:00	3,300 Ft	$10
Youth, from 14:00	3,200 Ft	$9.50

The evening tickets go on sale at the desk from 12:00, so you can buy the cheaper one two hours before it starts. Discounted categories need photo ID at the desk. Groups over 20 get 10% off, and parties of 45 or more are told to ask for a quote. SZÉP card and bank cards are both accepted.

Igal residents pay 2,100 Ft as an adult, 1,900 Ft over 60 and 1,700 Ft for ages 4 to 20; that rate is for residents only.

Family tickets

Valid for a minimum of three people, with children aged 4 to 14.

Party	Full day	From 14:00
1 adult + 2 children	9,000 Ft	7,500 Ft
2 adults + 1 child	10,000 Ft	8,200 Ft
2 adults + 2 children	12,800 Ft	10,900 Ft
2 adults + 3 children	15,000 Ft	13,500 Ft

Passes, if you are staying for a course

Each pass allows one entry per person per day. The 7-day pass has to be used up within 30 days of purchase, the 14-day within 60.

Pass	Adult	Senior	Youth
7 days, one entry a day	27,000 Ft	23,400 Ft	21,000 Ft
7 days, in and out	28,200 Ft	25,200 Ft	23,400 Ft
14 days, one entry a day	54,000 Ft	46,800 Ft	42,000 Ft

A 7-day adult pass works out at about 3,857 Ft a visit against 4,500 Ft on the gate, so it pays back on day seven rather than day two. Buy it because you are doing a treatment course, not because you expect a bargain.

Extras and parking

Item	Price	Note
Locker key deposit	1,000 Ft	Refundable when you hand the key back
Value safe	1,000 Ft	Rental, not a deposit
Sun lounger, one day	1,500 Ft	Summer season
Changing cabin, one day	1,500 Ft	Worth it with children
Changing cabin, seven days	9,000 Ft	Pairs with the weekly pass
Car parking	700 Ft/hour or 800 Ft/day	Run by the town, not the bath
Coach parking	1,400 Ft/hour or 1,600 Ft/day	Run by the town, not the bath

The daily parking rate is barely more than one hour, so pay for the day the moment you arrive and stop thinking about it.

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Converted at 1 USD = 329 HUF, the ECB rate on 2 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.

For the wider picture, the thermal bath price versus quality breakdown sets what Budapest’s baths charge against what they deliver.

The Pools, and What Temperature Each One Runs

The operator counts 13 pools in total. The indoor pools and the outdoor thermal pools run year-round, and the beach section opens from May to September. Here is what the bath’s own pool page gives for each.

Photo: Civertan Grafikai Stúdió, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. An older aerial of two of the outdoor pools; deck furniture and signage have changed since.

Pool	Depth	Temperature	Season
Indoor thermal pool	70 cm	34-36°C	Year-round
Indoor medicinal pool	70 cm	36-38°C	Year-round
Thermal jacuzzi	90 cm	35-38°C	Year-round
Indoor experience pool	120 cm	32-34°C	Year-round
Indoor children’s paddling pool	30 cm	32-34°C	Year-round
Sauna plunge pool	140 cm	18-20°C	Year-round
Outdoor thermal pools	110 cm	35-38°C	Year-round
Outdoor family pools	35-115 cm	30-34°C	May to September
33-meter swimming pool	150-180 cm	23-25°C	May to September
Castiglione pool	95-110 cm	23-25°C	May to September
Slide arrival pool	100 cm	28-32°C	May to September

Photo: Igali Gyógyfürdő

Two details worth planning around. The 70 cm depth on both indoor thermal pools means these are sitting pools, not swimming pools; the only real swimming here is the 33-meter outdoor pool, and that is summer only. And the jacuzzi is in the inner courtyard, so in January you step outside to reach it.

The children’s slide, the Fáncsi, has a 40 kg weight limit and lands in a 56 cm paddling pool. The 50-meter giant slide is three lanes wide, included in the ticket, and runs from the Whitsun period to mid-September.

The Sauna World Is Included in Every Ticket

Every entry ticket carries unlimited use of the sauna world. It is simply part of the 4,500 Ft, with no add-on to buy.

What is in it: two Finnish saunas running at different temperatures, one at roughly 90°C and one at roughly 70°C, two infrared cabins, and a cold plunge pool. The hotter Finnish cabin is where staff run Aufguss sessions. Occasional sauna séances with visiting sauna masters are announced in advance and charged separately, so those are the exception to “included”.

Two house rules that catch people: a shower is compulsory every single time before the plunge pool, and the sauna world has to be cleared at the same time as the pools, half an hour before the bath closes. Since 1 October that means everyone is out of the water by 17:30, not 18:00.

The Water, and What It Is Certified to Treat

The water comes up at 76°C, and each pool is set to its own temperature. The composition is alkaline chloride and hydrogen carbonate, and the iodide content puts it in the iodic group.

Component	mg per liter
Total dissolved solids	10,358
Chloride	3,829
Sodium	3,370
Hydrogen carbonate	2,763
Potassium	142
Sulfate	69.8
Calcium	54.5
Bromide	13.1
Magnesium	13.0
Fluoride	7.2
Iodide	3.3

The operator lists the water as helping rheumatic musculoskeletal complaints, circulation problems after an injury, joint complaints, chronic gynecological inflammation including bleeding disorders and cystitis, urological problems, spinal complaints and fertility problems. Recommended bathing time is 20 minutes in the medicinal pools and 40 minutes in the thermal pools, repeatable several times a day, so the intended pattern is several short sessions rather than one long soak.

There is a drinking fountain next to the outdoor thermal pools, fed straight from the well. As a drinking cure the water is put forward for metabolic and digestive complaints, gastritis, hyperacidity, reflux, ulcers and sluggish bowels, at 0.5 to 1 deciliter in the morning on an empty stomach. At 3,829 mg of chloride and 3,370 mg of sodium per liter, half a deciliter is genuinely the dose.

The contraindication list is real and the operator publishes it: malignant tumors, cardiovascular disease, very high blood pressure, coronary sclerosis, recovery after a heart attack, severe varicose veins, acute inflammation, acute or chronic infectious illness, asthma with frequent attacks, kidney failure, hyperthyroidism, and severe weight loss or gain. If any of those apply, ask a doctor before you book a course, not after.

Treatments, and the Hungarian Prescription System

There are two price lists here and the gap between them is enormous.

Private prices, which is what you pay as a visitor:

Massage	20 min	30 min	40 min	60 min
Standard	3,800 Ft	4,800 Ft	5,900 Ft	8,200 Ft
Aromatic oil	4,100 Ft	5,100 Ft	6,200 Ft	8,600 Ft
Igal medicinal-water cream	4,500 Ft	5,500 Ft	6,500 Ft	9,000 Ft
Lymphatic drainage	not offered	not offered	6,200 Ft	8,700 Ft

Treatment	Duration	Price
Tangentor, underwater jet massage	20 min	3,800 Ft
Parafango mud pack	20 min	4,200 Ft
Hot stone massage	30 min	6,200 Ft
Cellulite massage with cupping	30 min	6,200 Ft
Body peel	20 min	3,700 Ft

State-insured prices, between 500 Ft and 1,200 Ft a session depending on the treatment, which is roughly a quarter of the private rate. Those need a Hungarian TB card. The route is a GP referral to a rheumatologist, who writes a kezelőlap for four blocks of 15 treatments, twice a year. The course has to start within 28 days of being written and stays valid for 56 days after that. Appointments have to be booked in advance, in person at the cash desk or on +36 70 338 6446, and treatments run on weekends too.

A rheumatology clinic runs at the bath on Tuesday afternoons for a limited number of patients, on a GP referral plus registration.

Two practical traps. For a state-insured medical massage, a massage sheet is compulsory under public-health rules and a towel does not count; if you do not own one, buy it at the cash desk for 600 Ft when you register and bring it to every session. And the healing-place certification can matter here: ask your own insurer whether it covers balneotherapy at a certified gyógyhely, which Igal is, before assuming you will pay the full private rate.

Worth the Trip from Budapest?

As a standalone day trip, no. As a leg of a Balaton trip or the base for a treatment week, yes, comfortably.

By car it is 158 km and roughly 2 hours, out on the M7 toward Balaton, off at the Bálványos exit just before the Kőröshegy viaduct, then south toward Kaposvár. That is four hours of driving for a bath you will have finished with in four, which is a thin day out when Budapest’s own baths are on a metro line.

Without a car, there is a daily direct coach from Budapest’s Népliget bus station that runs through Igal on its way to Kaposvár, and there are trains to Kaposvár with local buses covering the last 24 km. Both are doable and neither is quick.

The trip that works starts somewhere else. From Balaton’s southern shore, Siófok, Zamárdi or Balatonföldvár, Igal is 40 km inland and a good rainy-afternoon answer when the lake is gray. The Balaton day trip guide covers that side of the drive. And if you are in the region for the water rather than the scenery, Igal is one of a cluster: Harkány is the sulfur specialist further south, Csokonyavisonta is the closest thing to Igal in temperament, and Zalakaros is the one to pick if you actually want slides and a resort.

When to Go

When	What you get	Worth it?
Weekday after 14:00	3,700 Ft entry, the cheaper afternoon rate	The best value for a short visit
Weekday morning	Full price; book massages ahead, slots can fill up	Fine if you are booked in for a treatment
Summer weekend	Every pool, the slide, the sports pitches, and the busiest days	Best with children
Winter, October to April	The indoor pools, the outdoor thermal pools, the courtyard jacuzzi, the sauna world	The therapeutic season
31 December 2026	Pool party with a DJ, bath closes at 15:00	Arrive early: the desk closes at 13:30

Photo: Igali Gyógyfürdő

Winter is the underrated call. The beach pools shut from October, but the indoor pools, the outdoor thermal pools, the courtyard jacuzzi and the sauna world all run, and the price does not change.

The bath runs events through the year, close to fifty by its own count. On the Wednesdays of November 2026 (11, 18 and 25 November), guests over 50 get in for 2,250 Ft all day, half the full adult price. On 31 December 2026 there is a New Year’s Eve pool party with a retro DJ set from 10:00 to 14:30, on a normal ticket. That day the bath closes at 15:00, the ticket desk at 13:30, everyone has to be out of the pools by 14:30, and guests coming with a treatment prescription card cannot be received. For 24 to 26 December and 1 January, check the hours page closer to the date.

Where to Stay

Igal is a small town and the accommodation reflects that: family-run guesthouses, apartments, and the Termál Panzió immediately next to the bath with 20 rooms including singles and family rooms. The bath’s own site keeps a list of partner accommodation, which is a practical starting point.

If you want restaurants, a cinema and a proper high street in the evening, base yourself in Kaposvár 24 km away and drive in. If you want the lake, base yourself on the southern shore 40 km away. Staying in Igal itself makes sense for exactly one reason, a treatment course, and for that reason it makes total sense.

Good to Know Before You Go

Igal is a small town with quiet evenings and a handful of places to eat. Come for the bath as a day stop, or for a week with a prescription and a book.

Food on site comes from a buffet, a restaurant and a wine bar; the operator lists a wide choice of food for the summer season, so in winter check what is open before you count on a hot lunch.

Much of the signage and most staff conversation is in Hungarian. The bath’s website also has German and English versions, and a translation app helps at the desk.

The reopening matters. Two of the indoor pools are the two built for small children, and since 26 September 2026 they are running again, which makes a winter family trip a much better deal than it was in September.

The Verdict

Go on a weekday, buy the 3,700 Ft ticket at noon, walk in at 14:00 and stay until the pools clear at 17:30. Three and a half hours of 38°C water, unlimited sauna, and change from 4,000 Ft.

Igal makes its case on price, on the sauna being included, and on the healing-place certification behind the pools. If you are within an hour of it, go. If you are in Budapest with one free day, the cheaper end of the Budapest baths will serve you better, and the countryside bath roundup will tell you which of the others is worth a longer drive.

Sources

• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, opening hours and prices for every figure in the ticket, family, pass, rental, treatment and parking tables, plus the hours and current closure notices
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, pools and slides for pool depths, temperatures and seasons
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, the Igal medicinal water for the mineral analysis and indications
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, state-insured treatments for the prescription route, contraindications and treatment durations
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, history and healing-place status for the 1962 opening, the 2012 extension and the 2016 certification
• Igal town, getting here for the coach and rail routes and the regional distances
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, medicinal and experience bath for the summer and winter seasons and the on-site services
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, house rules (PDF) for the age rules, the slide rules and the swimwear note
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, New Year’s Eve pool party for the 31 December 2026 hours
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, Fifty-Fifty offer in November for the over-50 Wednesdays
• Igali-Gyógyfürdő, well renovation for the B1 well works

All operator figures, hours, pool seasons, house rules and events checked on 8 November 2026 at igalfurdo.hu, hours and prices and the operator pages listed above.