Is Therme Bucharest Worth the TikTok Hype? My Honest Review
If you’ve spent any time scrolling through travel TikTok, chances are you’ve seen videos of Therme Bucharest—the tropical-style thermal spa that looks like a luxurious getaway straight out of Bali. With its stunning pools, themed saunas, and lush palm trees, it’s no surprise that it’s become a social media sensation. But does it live up to the hype?
Well the only way to find out is to pay it a visit. So me and a friend hopped on some cheap flights to explore it for ourselves. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting the”largest wellness and relaxation complex in Europe”.
Getting to Therme Bucharest
I was travelling from Manchester, and my friend from Margate, so we got separate flights, but both cheap Ryaniar flights from Manchester and Stansted. From Manchester it cost me £75 for a return (Friday - Monday) with no extra luggage, and was exactly what you would expect from a cheap flight.
As the spa was the main purpose of our trip, we decided to stay nearby, which is right by the airport. So we stayed at the Ramada by Wyndham Bucharest Otopeni Airport which was a bargain at £160 for 3 nights for a twin room. The room was very clean, comfortable and spacious and was perfect for what we needed.
We used Uber to get from the hotel to Therme Bucharest which was about £4 each way, and into Bucharest Old Town was £8 and took 30 mins. The hotel had a bar and restaurant (which we didn’t use), the staff were lovely, and there is a petrol station right next door where we stocked up on room snacks!
Therme Bucharest: First Impressions
We actually went to the spa twice, because we had time to kill on Monday before our flights. But our first day was Saturday. And from the moment the taxi pulled into the car park our first impression was “it’s so busy!’. The car park was full, there were streams of people heading to the entrance, and when we got inside it was just queues / crowds.
We’d booked online, but still had to queue to check-in. Having said that, it did go down relatively quickly. We arrived at 10am (it opened at 9am) and queued for about 20minutes to get our electronic wristband (this acts as your locker key and payment method, so you don’t need to carry cash or cards around the spa). By 10am there were announcements that there were no sunloungers left, and we spoke to someone who’d arrived at 9.20am and they were already full.
But despite the crowds, it's so well organised that things move quickly. We hired robes, towels and flip-flops (cheap flights = no luggage space) and found our allocated numbers in the sprawling maze of lockers, changed and headed into the pools.
Therme is divided into three main areas:
The Galaxy Zone – More family-friendly, with waterslides and a wave pool.
The Palm Zone – The most Instagrammable part, featuring thermal pools, a swim-up bar, and a jungle-like atmosphere.
The Elysium Zone – The premium spa area with themed saunas, a panoramic pool, and luxurious relaxation spaces.
Our ticket gave us access to all 3 areas and we spent most of our time between The Palm and Elysium, but we did go on to one waterslide later on in the night, just so we could say that we’d been brave!
The Palm is the first area we went into and it’s very impressive. This is the image that you see all over the internet with the tropical oasis pool - over 1,500 real palm trees have been imported to create a completely immersive experience. But it’s also where you’ll find (yet more) queues of people waiting to get the best spot for a selfie with a good backdrop..
So Many Pools…
The main attraction of Therme is the thermal pools, filled with mineral-rich, geothermally heated water that’s said to be great for your skin. The outdoor pools were my favourite—we were there in January so it was gorgeous in really crisp air and in the dark.
There are also smaller pools with different minerals which you can float in like the Dead Sea, and then other smaller standard pools dotted around in different areas. And the majority of these pools all have swim-up bars, which on a day that was so busy as when we were there, was the only place that you could sit down. We saw it as a perfect excuse to drink cocktails. Drinking is pretty heavily encouraged with bars in all the pools, and the majority of people had a Pina Colada in hand for most of the day.
After dark the main pool turned into a pool party with a DJ, which was a great vibe. But it took us so long to get served at the bar that it had settled down a bit by the time that we joined in 🤦
The Saunas
The saunas and steam rooms were some of the best I’ve ever been to, and were impeccably clean. There are 10 themed saunas, each offering a different sensory experience including:
Himalaya – A salt sauna with glowing pink Himalayan salt walls, meant to be great for respiratory health.
Hollywood – A cinema sauna (yes, really) where you can watch films while sweating it out - we watched a lot of documentaries about dinosaurs!
Amazon – A rainforest-inspired sauna with tropical scents and mist.
My favourite was one located outside with a big window overlooking the gardens and views. And because this was located separately from the others, I think most people didn't realise that it was there so I had it to myself. Bliss.
The Cost
We paid £32.50 each for entrance, which included all areas. You pay for everything in there on your wristband and pay up at the end - a risky game when drinking! Our final bill was £115, for 2 of us and that included towel, robe and flip-flop hire, a morning snack and dinner, and drinks throughout the day. We had 3-4 soft drinks each plus 4 cocktails, so it is definitely cheaper than it would be in the UK.
Is Therme Worth the Hype?
Absolutely. But only if you know what to expect. If you want a really chilled and relaxing quiet spa experience then this is not the place for you. But if you’re OK with crowds and busy places then it’s 100% worth visiting. It’s more water park / Centre Parcs atmosphere than 5-star spa day, but great facilities and fun.
As I mentioned, we went back on the Monday and it was a lot quieter. We managed to get beds and relaxed a lot more, but it was still really busy. So if it’s more chilled that you’re looking for then definitely avoid a weekend.
Have you been to Therme Bucharest? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! ✨
