For many people, travel is all about experiencing new things you wouldn’t have an opportunity to experience at home. That can mean glorious new food discoveries, testing your tongue around the words of a new language, or learning a few local dance steps and then putting them to practice in a bar. But if that “new experience” involves stripping down to your birthday suit and getting lathered up by a stranger, you might think twice, right?
On a trip to Istanbul, however, you might subject yourself to just such an experience in the form of a visit to a Istanbul Turkish Hammam (Turkish Baths), have been popular throughout different parts of Europe since the mid-1800s, but there’s nothing like visiting one while you’re actually in Turkey.
Here’s a simple guide to keeping your cool
- First, talk to the receptionist (most of them speak English) and decide on the level of treatment you want. DIY wash? Wash with attendant? Oil massage with that? You’ll pay the receptionist and they’ll take you to a change area, usually your own lockable room, where you’ll undress and leave your things.
- ‘Undress’ means pretty much what you want it to mean. Most hamams have separate steam rooms for men and women. In this situation, men are expected to maintain a certain loin-clothy level of coverage, but women can throw caution, as it were, to the winds. Most Turkish women subtly drape themselves with their cloth when they’re not actually bathing, but if you prefer to bask nude no-one will bat much of an eyelid. If you’re feeling shy, part or all of a swimsuit is acceptable; if you find yourself in the kind of hamam that has mixed-sex steam rooms and male attendants, it’s usual to keep on at least the bottom half of a swimsuit.
- The attendants will give you a cloth (resembling, in most establishments, an over-sized red gingham tea towel). You’ll keep this on to travel from the change rooms to the hamam.
- You’ll be given some shoes by your attendant – either traditional wooden clogs or fluorescent flip-flops. Stick with ’em. As a surface for pratfalls, only banana skins beat out wet marble.
- Once you’ve been shepherded into the hamam you’ll be left to lounge on the heated marble. In most cases, there’ll be a göbektaşı (belly stone), a round central platform where you can loll around like a sunning python. If not, take a seat and lean against the walls. The idea is to sweat, loosening dirt and toxins in preparation for your wash.
- If you’re going self-service, follow this up with a loofah-and-soap rub-down and douse yourself with water from the marble basins. If you’ve forked out for an attendant, they’ll catch up with you after you’ve had a good, 15-minute sweat. You’ll be laid down on the edge of the göbektaşı and sluiced with tepid water, then your attendant will take you in hand.
- First up is a dry massage with a kese (rough mitt). Depending on your attendant, this experience can be delicious (a little like being washed by a giant cat) or tumultuous (picture a tornado made of sandpaper). If you get to feeling like a flayed deer, use the international language of charade to bring it down a notch or two.
- Next will be the soap. The attendant will work up an almighty lather with an enormous sponge and squeeze it all over you: it’s a bit like taking a bubble bath without the bath. The foam (attar of roses? Asses’ milk? Sorry, it’s most likely good ole Head ‘n’ Shoulders) will be worked into every inch of you. Next, more sluicing, followed by a shampoo, and voila, you’re clean as a whistle. The shiny kind.
- If you’ve ordered an oil massage, you’ll be ushered into another room for it. Unless you’re particularly flush, it’s probably best to skip this bit: the massages are brief and often lack finesse, and the oils are hardly deluxe.
- After the massage, either soap or oil, you’re on your own. Many tourists splash-and-dash their way through the hamam experience, leaving immediately after their treatment. Don’t be one of them. Hang around. Overheat, cool down with a dousing, and repeat to fade. Let your muscles turn to toffee and your mind go pleasantly elastic. This is what the hamam is really all about.
Best 10 Hamams in Istanbul
- Çemberlitaş Hamam
- Cağaloğlu Hamam
- Galatasaray Hamam
- Beylerbeyi Hamam
- Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamam
- Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam
- Çinili Hamam
- Süleymaniye Hamam
- Mihrimah Sultan Hamam
- Firuzağa Hamam
Istanbul, Turkish Baths (Turkish Hammam in Istanbul)
What a great experience! Loved every minute of it. You leave feeling incredibly relaxed. My friend and I went at the end of our trip and it proved to be a great end. The staff were great, however they could/should have explained the whole process before hand. As first timers we werent sure where to go or what to do. We did the traditional massage and felt so great after, regretted not doing the package that included the oil massage as well. Maybe next time…Will definitely go back.
We found several recommendations to Hamam. Cemberlitas was one of them, and we are happy we came here. Set in a beautiful, old building, the whole procedure with bath, relaxation, scrubbing plus soarping treatment is something extra.
Lying on your back in the steamy bathing dome, watching the 400+ year old exquisite ceiling from beneath….truly priceless.
Afterwards, I would really recommend you to bring a good book, sit down in the lounge and just enjoy life, including a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
Beylerbeyi hamam was amazing. Please go there on a quiet time: we went there saturday night and that is just perfect! Almost no other people and the women of the massages really take care of you and the time.
For me there are 3 main parts of the hamam experience. The temperature of the hamam, the scrub and the massage. The heat of Cemberlitas hamam is perfect for me. Hot enough and if I need to I can cool down by coming out or splashing cold water on me. The bellystone is perfect.
We have been to a Hamam in Marrakech and thought it was great but the Suleymaniye Hamam was simply amazing. The space is quite beautiful, with wonderful service and the therapist whom I had was perfect, with men and women in their own spaces. If you are visiting Istanbul this must be on your to do list..
It's a traditional Turkish bath experience at Istanbul’s, a gorgeous 16th-century bath house. Cemberlitas Hamam was designed by the great Mimar Sinan, one of the most prominent architects of the Ottoman era.
I figured I was in Turkey so I should get a turkish bath. Cemberlitas was the closest one to my hotel and was one of the only ones that was open late. Believe it or not, I have had better hammam experiences here in Los Angeles. I felt like Cemberlitas was a little over priced and was very touristy. The only nice thing about it is the nice huge marble table where you lay down and relax.
Had a great time there. Massage was brief but solid, bath looks great and super clean.
If you are going to get a flavour of Istanbul, you really need to experience the Hamami. You really feel like you are immersing yourself into centuries of local tradition as you lay in the sauna, get exfoliated and washed and then finish with a hot oil massage. A must do experience in Istanbul!
I had a nice enough time in Cagaloglu hamam but I didn’t have just as good of an experience as he did. Once the scrubbing was over I was led straight out to my changing room again and wasn’t even aware that it is possible to hang around and douse yourself in deliciously tepid water in the steamy marble room for as long as you like. I think the experience depends very much on your attendant. We had a great one, mine was just alright. In any case it is worth doing and not overly expensive. Give it a try!