Miskolctapolca Cave Bath: 2026 Prices, Hours and What Reopened

Miskolctapolca is the one place in Hungary where you swim through natural limestone caves, and for almost two years you couldn’t: a fire in September 2024 shut the cave pools. The good news is that the cave bath reopened on August 20, 2026, and the passages are open to swimmers again. Here is what is open now, what a ticket costs, when to go, and how to get there from Budapest.

Photo: Midmar Nonprofit Kft, CC BY-SA 4.0. The underground cave pools at Miskolctapolca, photographed in 2013, well before the September 2024 fire closed this section.

📋 At a Glance

Item	Detail
📍 Address	Pazár István sétány 1, Miskolctapolca 3519 (Google Maps)
🕐 Hours	Daily 09:00-19:00 | Ticket office to 18:00, pools to 18:30 | Sauna park 09:00-19:00 | Aquatherapy temporarily closed
💰 Price	Adult all-day: 8,500 HUF (~27 USD) | Child/Student/Senior: 6,400 HUF (~20 USD) | 3-hour adult: 6,000 HUF
🚌 Transport	Bus 20 (20A on school-term weekdays) from Miskolc city center (Centrum), about 20 min ride
🌐 Website	barlangfurdo.hu

Miskolctapolca Cave Bath (Barlangfürdő) is Hungary’s only natural thermal cave bath, located in the Bükk Mountains of northeastern Hungary. The bath is built into a limestone cave system several hundred thousand years old, filled with 30°C natural karst water, and its pools run from 29°C to 35°C. The water is low in minerals (under 1,000 mg/l, mostly calcium bicarbonate), which keeps long soaks comfortable, and the bath recommends it mainly for joint and musculoskeletal complaints. The complex includes the famous cave pools, seasonal outdoor pools (the Kagyló area), a sauna park, and an aquatherapy center that is still closed.

Miskolctapolca Cave Bath Prices 2026

The tariff for the reopened bath is published and valid to 31 December 2026. Two durations are sold for almost every ticket type, and the three-hour version is the one most day visitors actually want.

Ticket	All day	3 hours
Adult	8,500 HUF	6,000 HUF
Child (4 to 14), student (to 25), senior	6,400 HUF	4,500 HUF
Adult, Miskolc address	5,100 HUF	2,400 HUF
Child, student, senior with Miskolc address	3,800 HUF	1,800 HUF
Family, 2 adults and 1 child	18,700 HUF	14,000 HUF
Family, 1 adult and 1 child	11,900 HUF	8,900 HUF
Each additional child on a family ticket	5,100 HUF	3,800 HUF
Group adult, from 15 people	7,300 HUF	5,200 HUF
Group child, student, senior, from 15 people	5,500 HUF	3,900 HUF
Visitors with disabilities	3,800 HUF	not sold

The extras are priced separately, and the last-minute ticket is the one worth knowing about:

Extra	Price
Last minute entry, from 16:00	4,300 HUF
Sauna added to a bath ticket	2,200 HUF
Sauna only, 2 hours	4,500 HUF
Lost RFID wristwatch	5,000 HUF
Going over your time limit	40 HUF per minute

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Converted at 1 USD = 316 HUF, the ECB rate on 1 September 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative. An adult all-day ticket is about 27 USD, the three-hour about 19 USD.

Prices read on barlangfurdo.hu/jegyek and hours on barlangfurdo.hu/nyitvatartas on 19 October 2026.

A few conditions attached to those numbers. Child tickets cover ages 4 to 14 and student tickets run to 25, both on proof; discounts do not stack. On a group booking of 15 or more entering together, one escort goes in free. Payment is cash, bank card, or SZÉP card (OTP, MKB and K&H). Swimwear or a swim diaper is compulsory for every bather including the under-fours, and the lockers work off an RFID wristwatch rather than a coin. Towels and robes cannot be hired, so bring your own.

You can buy tickets at the desk or online through the link on barlangfurdo.hu. On the busiest days the bath can stop selling tickets and accepting gift vouchers once it reaches its permitted capacity, so on a summer weekend or a holiday it pays to arrive in the morning.

Pro tip: If you’re visiting Miskolc for multiple days, grab a Miskolc Pass tourist card. It includes one free three-hour entry to either the cave bath or the nearby Ellipsum bath (you pick one), a one-time 20% discount on full-price entry to the other, and discounts at other attractions around the city.

What’s the Current Status of Miskolctapolca Cave Bath in 2026?

Let me be straight with you: the famous underground cave pools are open again. On September 6, 2024, the roof of the Aquatherapy section caught fire and the fire spread to the main cave building, seriously damaging its roof structure, so bathing and treatments stopped. In summer 2025 only the outdoor part opened, as the Kagyló Strand, until August 31, 2025, and preparation for the rebuild started after that. The cave bath reopened on August 20, 2026, and the outdoor pools are back on the same ticket.

It opened on the date it had announced, with a four-day celebration called Pezsgés Miskolctapolcán from 20 to 23 August. The ticket tariff runs to 31 December 2026, so prices for 2027 are not out yet.

One part of the complex stays shut. Aquatherapy is still closed: the bath says its renovation belongs to the next phase of the reconstruction and gives no date, so if that section was the reason for your trip, it is not back yet. In the meantime, water exercise led by physiotherapists and massage treatments run at the nearby Ellipsum bath, which itself closes for planned maintenance from November 9 to 12, 2026 and reopens on November 13. The Sauna Park does open with the bath, on the same hours. The nearby Demjén Thermal Valley has Central Europe’s largest cave bath, and now that both are open it works as a second stop rather than a replacement.

Fire date read on the operator’s notice at miskolcifurdok.hu/fontos-informaciok-tuzeset-utan, the outdoor-only 2025 Kagyló Strand season and its 31 August 2025 close at miskolcifurdok.hu/augusztus-31-ig-tart-nyitva-kagylo-strand-koszonjuk-kozos-elmenyeket, the reopening and the Ellipsum maintenance closure (9 to 12 November 2026, reopening 13 November) on the miskolcifurdok.hu front page, Aquatherapy status on barlangfurdo.hu/aquaterapia, on 19 October 2026.

Why Was Miskolctapolca Cave Bath So Famous?

Picture this: you’re floating through a network of natural limestone caves, turquoise thermal water holding you weightless while stalactites hang overhead. Light filters through the rock formations, creating this almost otherworldly atmosphere that feels more like a movie set than a public bath. That’s what made Miskolctapolca unique. It wasn’t just a thermal bath, it was an experience you couldn’t replicate anywhere else in Hungary.

People have bathed here for centuries. In 1711 the local abbot pushed for the run-down bath to be restored, and the first known description of its wooden bath house dates from 1743. The bath building you walk into today opened on 28 May 1941, and the first cave section followed in 1959. Further passages were explored from the early 1980s and turned into the newer cave halls during the big 1998 to 2005 expansion, which made this one of Hungary’s most distinctive wellness destinations.

The water comes out of the hill at about 30°C, and the pools stay between 29 and 35°C all year. The cave’s steady, humid microclimate is part of the appeal. Entering the caves feels like stepping into another world, with the sound of splashing water echoing off ancient rock walls.

What Can You Actually Do at Miskolctapolca Right Now?

One ticket covers the lot, indoors and out. Here is what that ticket actually gets you:

The cave halls. The main bath hall (Fürdőcsarnok) sits at about 30°C, with a thermal sitting pool and a thermal swimming pool at 33-35°C if you want it warmer. The old cave pool is a little cooler at 29-30°C. The three newer cave halls all hold 32°C: the Hidas terem, with a bridge over the water, the Csillagterem, with a star map projected onto its domed ceiling, and the brick-lined Római terem. Between them they are the reason this place has no equivalent anywhere else in the country.

The outdoor pools. The Kagyló pool with hydromassage, the Kagyló swimming pool, a lake-style leisure pool and three children’s pools of different depths sit in a landscaped 3.6 hectare park, with shade and that distinctly Hungarian strand atmosphere where families spread out for the entire day. They run in the summer season only, so from autumn to spring your visit is the indoor and cave pools plus the sauna park.

Sauna Park. Open 09:00 to 19:00 like the bath, with six saunas (Finnish, steam and infrared), regular Aufguss sessions, relaxation areas and a plunge pool.

Csónakázó-tó (Boating Lake). From Friday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00 (weather permitting), you can rent a rowing boat or a pedal boat on the lake next to the bath, from 4,000 HUF for two people for 30 minutes. It is surprisingly peaceful, and the Bükk hills behind it do most of the work in a photograph.

What Are the Opening Hours for Miskolctapolca?

These are the hours the bath publishes. Note the two closing times that are not the closing time: the ticket office shuts an hour before the doors, and the pools empty half an hour before that.

Section	Hours
Cave bath	Daily 09:00 to 19:00
Ticket office	Closes 18:00
Pools	Close 18:30
Sauna park	Daily 09:00 to 19:00
Outdoor pools	Summer season only
Boating lake	Friday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, weather permitting
Aquatherapy	Closed, renovation planned for the next phase of the rebuild, no date given

Over Christmas and New Year the bath keeps shorter hours: 24 December 09:00 to 14:00, 25 to 30 December 09:00 to 19:00, 31 December 09:00 to 17:00, and 1 January 2027 14:00 to 19:00. Normal hours return on 2 January.

Arriving after 16:00 changes the math in your favor, because that is when the last-minute ticket kicks in at 4,300 HUF and you still get two and a half hours before the pools close.

How Do You Get to Miskolctapolca?

Miskolctapolca sits about 10 kilometers southwest of Miskolc city center and roughly 180 km northeast of Budapest. Here’s how to get there:

From Budapest by Car: Take the M3 motorway toward Miskolc (about 2 hours), then follow signs to Miskolctapolca. The drive is straightforward, and there’s paid parking at the bath complex.

From Budapest by Train: IC trains run every hour from Budapest-Keleti to Miskolc-Tiszai and take about 2 hours. A second-class one-way ticket is 4,060 HUF (about 13 USD) including the IC supplement. At Miskolc-Tiszai, take tram 1 to Szinvapark / Centrum (about 7 minutes), then bus 20 (20A on school-term weekdays) to Miskolctapolca.

From Miskolc City Center: Bus 20 runs from Búza tér and Centrum to Miskolctapolca, and on school-term weekdays bus 20A covers the same route. The ride from Centrum takes about 20 minutes, and buses come every 15 to 30 minutes in the daytime. Get off at Miskolctapolcai Strandfürdő or at the Miskolctapolca terminus.

Train times and fare checked at MÁV, bus routes at MVK (mvkzrt.hu), on 17 October 2026.

Day Trip from Budapest: It’s doable but makes for a long day. I’d recommend staying overnight in Miskolc to explore the region properly, including Lillafüred, Diósgyőr Castle, and the Bükk National Park.

What Are the Nearby Alternatives and Add-Ons?

If you want a second underground swim on the same trip, or the cave bath is packed on the day you are there, you have options:

Demjén Thermal Valley. Located about 60 km southwest of Miskolctapolca (roughly an hour’s drive), Demjén boasts Central Europe’s largest cave bath. Its underground thermal pools make a good second cave swim on the same trip. It’s fully operational and absolutely worth the detour.

Ellipsum Adventure Bath. Right in Miskolctapolca, just 650 meters from the Barlangfürdő entrance, this modern water park offers slides, pools, and family fun. Not the same vibe as the cave bath, but excellent for families with kids. Keep your Barlangfürdő receipt: it gets you 20% off at Ellipsum.

Eger Thermal Bath. The beautiful baroque town of Eger is about 45 minutes from Miskolc and offers several thermal options, plus world-class wine cellars to complement your wellness day.

Is There Anything to Do Near Miskolctapolca?

The Bükk region offers plenty beyond thermal waters:

Lillafüred. Just 10 minutes from Miskolctapolca, this fairy-tale-like resort area features the stunning Palace Hotel perched above Lake Hámori, the Anna Cave, and the István Cave with its impressive stalactites. There’s also Hungary’s only narrow-gauge forest railway connecting to Miskolc.

Diósgyőr Castle. A beautifully restored medieval fortress that hosts jousting tournaments and historical reenactments during summer months.

Bükk National Park. Hungary’s largest forested national park offers hiking trails, rock climbing, and cave exploration. The Szeleta Cave here contains some of Europe’s earliest evidence of human habitation.

Miskolc City. Don’t overlook the city itself. The pedestrian Széchenyi Street, the Orthodox Church (largest in Hungary), and the emerging craft beer scene make for a pleasant afternoon of exploration.

What Miskolctapolca Is Actually Like

The cave pools are the whole argument for coming, and they earn it. Warm water, limestone overhead, passages you swim through rather than around: it is the one bathing experience in Hungary that has no substitute, and people who came once tended to still be talking about it years later.

A few practical points are worth planning around. It gets crowded on peak summer weekends, so a weekday or that 16:00 last-minute ticket buys you a great deal of space. Parts of the complex looked their age before the fire, though the rebuilt sections are new by definition. English signage is thin on the ground, so read the ticket table before you get to the desk rather than at it. And the distance from Budapest is real: this is a trip you commit to, not one you slot into an afternoon.

The last two years were the genuinely bad ones, when people arrived for a cave swim and found the caves shut. That specific disappointment is over.

Is Miskolctapolca Worth Visiting in 2026?

Since 20 August 2026 that is a straightforward yes rather than a qualified one. The reopened section has been modernized throughout, from mechanical systems to floor heating, and the caves themselves are the same caves.

Demjén is still worth the detour on the same trip, with the largest cave bath in Central Europe. The one thing worth thinking twice about is timing: a bath that sat shut for two years will run busy for a while yet, so a weekday beats a weekend if you have the choice.

For a Miskolc trip, I’d recommend combining the outdoor strand with visits to Lillafüred, Diósgyőr Castle, and the Bükk forests. The region deserves more than just a thermal bath visit. There’s genuine beauty here that most tourists overlook while racing between Budapest and the more famous destinations.

One Realistic Downside You Should Know

Even when the cave bath was fully operational, Miskolctapolca had a timing problem. The two-hour journey from Budapest meant you’d spend four hours round-trip for what is, ultimately, a few hours of bathing. Unless you’re staying in the region overnight, the day-trip math doesn’t always work out, especially when Budapest has excellent thermal baths that don’t require highway driving.

So plan it as part of a proper northeast Hungary trip, not a solo dash from Budapest. If you’re going purely for thermal bathing on a tight schedule, Budapest’s thermal baths offer more convenience and variety. Save Miskolctapolca for when you can pair the reopened caves with Lillafüred, Diósgyőr, and the Bükk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has the Miskolctapolca Cave Bath reopened?

Yes, on 20 August 2026, with the cave passages and the outdoor pools. The ticket tariff is published with a validity window to 31 December 2026. Aquatherapy is the one section that did not come back with it: it is still closed, its renovation is planned for the next phase of the reconstruction, and no date is given. The outdoor pools are seasonal and run in summer. If your trip depends on a particular section, barlangfurdo.hu is worth a look the week before you travel.

What happened to gift vouchers issued during the closure?

During the closure, bath vouchers were accepted at Ellipsum Adventure Bath (650m away), massage vouchers at Selyemréti Strand, and management extended voucher validity for the duration. Those were closure-period arrangements. Now that the bath is open again, vouchers are used at the bath itself, but on the busiest days the bath can stop accepting gift vouchers once it is full, so redeem yours on a quieter day. A Barlangfürdő receipt now gets you 20% off at Ellipsum.

Is Miskolctapolca suitable for children?

Yes. In summer the outdoor area has three children’s pools of different depths; from autumn to spring it is the indoor and cave pools only. Child tickets cover ages 4 to 14, and family tickets are priced for two adults with one child or one adult with one child, with each extra child added on. Swimwear or a swim diaper is compulsory for every bather, including the under-fours.

What should I bring to Miskolctapolca?

Swimsuit, towel and flip-flops, plus a robe if you’re doing the sauna circuit, because neither towels nor robes can be hired. Pay with cash, card or SZÉP card. No coin is needed for the lockers: they open with the RFID wristwatch you get at the entrance. In summer, bring sunscreen for the outdoor pools.

How does Miskolctapolca compare to Budapest thermal baths?

The cave bath offers something completely unique: you literally swim through ancient limestone caves. Budapest’s baths are grander and more architecturally impressive (think Széchenyi or Gellért), but none can match the geological experience of Miskolctapolca. The trade-off is the journey: 2+ hours from Budapest versus walking to your neighborhood fürdő.

How do I get to Miskolctapolca from Budapest without a car?

Take an IC train from Budapest-Keleti to Miskolc-Tiszai. They run every hour, take about 2 hours and cost 4,060 HUF one way in second class. From the station, tram 1 takes you to Szinvapark / Centrum, where bus 20 (20A on school-term weekdays) continues to Miskolctapolca in about 20 minutes. Allow about 3 hours from Budapest-Keleti to the bath.

When is the best time to visit Miskolctapolca?

The cave halls and indoor pools are open all year, so any season works for the caves. Come in summer if you also want the outdoor pools, and pick a weekday over a weekend if you can. The 16:00 last-minute ticket (4,300 HUF) is the cheapest way in and still gives you two and a half hours in the water. Over Christmas and New Year, check the shorter holiday hours first.

Summary

So there you have it: Miskolctapolca at the end of a two year wait rather than in the middle of one. The cave bath that made this place worth the drive reopened on 20 August 2026, the prices are published, the hours are set, and the only section still shut is Aquatherapy. Go on a weekday if you can, bring proof of age if anyone in your group is claiming a student or senior rate, and give the region more than the bath. Lillafüred, Diósgyőr and the Bükk are the reason to stay a night instead of driving home damp.

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