Usually, the prospect of sweating out toxins in a bus is more appalling than appealing – but this activity is a healthy pleasure aboard Budapest’s “Mobile Sauna”, a customized wellness facility on wheels that seats six people, which can be strategically parked to offer panoramic views over the Danube and the capital through its steamy windows. After making heat waves on the city streets during the past two winters, this unique vehicle of Budapest’s Valyo association is back this January, welcoming the public at an especially scenic spot atop Gellért Hill.
After rolling out to great acclaim again last winter, it is becoming a tradition that sometime around January, Valyo (a Hungarian abbreviation for the City and River Association) rolls out its mobile sauna, so that anyone can cleanse their pores by staying in the heated bus for an hour and a half while enjoying the beautiful panorama outside (depending on what parking spots are available).
The sauna bus is back for the third time; this year it’s parked by the Citadel atop Gellért Hill.
Everyone is welcom to use the Mobile Sauna by reserving a time slot, arriving to the parking spot, and enjoying the view and the sweaty pleasures. Valyo has been working on the renewal of the Danube shores for five years now; they try to raise awareness of their aims through various events. They see Budapest and the Danube in it as a whole, they say the two things cannot be separated. That's why they’ve chosen the Citadel, from where you can see the whole Budapest segment of the river.
The Mobile Sauna is wood-heated, it can host six people, and there is cold shower in it. By the time you get there, they’ll heat the sauna so that you can step aboard immediately – the only thing you have to do is bring slippers, swimming suits, and towels.
