Kızılcahamam Kaplıcaları (Büyük Kaplıca and Küçük Kaplıca)

What to expect

Kızılcahamam is a forested district town about an hour north of Ankara, and its name says what it is known for: the “reddish bath”. The town has been a weekend thermal escape for the capital for generations. It has two municipal baths in the centre, Büyük Kaplıca (the big spa) and Küçük Kaplıca (the small spa), plus a ring of thermal hotels on the hillsides.

These are public bathhouses, not resort pools. You pay at the door, go to the men’s or women’s section, and soak in indoor thermal pools with locals, retirees on a cure and families up from Ankara for the day. The rebuilt Büyük Kaplıca is the showpiece. Küçük Kaplıca is the cheaper, older option and the one with the clearest published prices.

The water is a sodium bicarbonate, chloride and fluoride thermal water, according to the municipality. The Kızılcahamam-Çamlıdere Geopark gives the springs as about 187°F86°C at depth and 122-124°F50-51°C at the surface, and the town uses some of it to heat homes. The municipality’s own guidance puts proper bathing temperature at 97-106°F36-41°C.

The baths

Büyük Kaplıca. The old Büyük Kaplıca dated from 1945 and was worn out. In 2022 the municipality announced it would demolish the building, along with nearby pension houses and the Aşiyan building, and replace them with a two-level complex: parking on the ground floor, with the hamam and jacuzzis above. President Erdoğan opened it on July 12, 2025, alongside 16 shop units, and the municipality calls it Turkey’s largest hamam. It received 116,000 visitors in its first year. It closes occasionally for maintenance, for example a deep clean until 2 p.m. on December 2, 2025, and it shut for a few days during a town water cut in August 2025. We could not find a published price list for it.

Küçük Kaplıca. The smaller municipal bath has men’s and women’s sections and private cabins. In January 2025 the municipality raised prices by 50%: general entry ₺180, scrub (kese) ₺120, massage ₺120 and a private cabin ₺500, with ₺120 “public days” on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For 2026 it extended the ₺120 public-day rate to five days a week. The 2025 schedule had it open from 7 a.m. to midnight.

History

The municipality says the springs were used in Roman times, citing old bath ruins beside the Büyük Kaplıca. A local legend says the Mongol ruler Timur, nursing his bad leg after the Battle of Ankara in 1402, jumped into the scalding water and shouted “Aman bre, kızılca hamam!”, giving the town its name. Ottoman geographers recorded one spring at Seyhamamı and two at Kızılca, and reported 60-room inns full of people from Ankara and beyond.

Atatürk visited both baths on July 16-17, 1934 and asked for them to be improved. Until then the pools sat right on the spring outlets and bathers went down stone steps into them. In 1943 the governor of Ankara, Nevzat Tandoğan, laid the foundation of a modern building, finished in 1945 with separate men’s and women’s sections, marble pools, changing rooms and rest areas. That is the building replaced in 2025.

Getting there

Kızılcahamam is about 80 km (50 miles) north-west of central Ankara, roughly an hour by car via the D750 Ankara-Bolu road or the Anatolian Motorway (TEM). Esenboğa Airport is about an hour away, and Istanbul about 350 km (217 miles) to the west. Buses and minibuses run often from Ankara’s AŞTİ bus terminal.

Both municipal baths are in the town centre near Küçük Hamam Caddesi and Kaplıca Sokak, a short walk from the main square. Büyük Kaplıca has its own underground car park.

When to go

The baths are open all year. The municipality says the busiest season for cure visitors is June to October, when people come from Zonguldak, Malatya, Trabzon, Çorum and Kastamonu and often stay ten days or more. Weekends bring day-trippers from Ankara at any time of year. For a quieter soak, go on a weekday morning in spring, late autumn or winter, when the forest around town is cold and the hot water is at its best.

Rules and etiquette

The municipality publishes bathing advice rather than a formal rulebook:

• Soak for 15 to 20 minutes, once or twice a day, not back to back.
• Do not bathe hungry or straight after a big meal; wait 1 to 1.5 hours after a light meal.
• Sit or stand still in the pool rather than swimming about.
• Dry off well and rest for 20 minutes afterwards; massage comes after the rest.
• People over 70 should use the baths only with a doctor’s approval.
• The municipality advises women not to bathe during menstruation, pregnancy or just after giving birth.

Shower before you get in. In single-sex sections most people wear a swimsuit or a peştemal (a thin cotton wrap). Bring flip-flops and your own soap and shampoo for the showers, not the pools.

Bathing culture

Kızılcahamam is a classic Turkish kaplıca town. People come for a cure: ten days or more, two short soaks a day, a scrub with a kese mitt and perhaps a massage, then tea and a walk. The public baths are split by sex, while private cabins (özel kabin) let couples and families bathe together for a set time. The municipality markets the water for osteoarthritis, soft-tissue rheumatism and neck, back and lower-back pain, and lists acute illness, fever, infections and organ failure as reasons not to bathe. We make no health claims. Ankara’s other old thermal town, Haymana, lies south of the capital and works the same way.

Where to stay nearby

The hills around town hold many thermal hotels with their own pools, including Akasya Termal Otel and Kızılca Vadi Termal Otel on the southern edge. Pensions near the centre suit a budget stay close to the municipal baths. Soğuksu National Park, just west of town, has forest walks and picnic areas; its management passed to the Kızılcahamam municipality in March 2026, which said it would repair the neglected facilities.

Safety notes

• Heat: Even at 97-106°F36-41°C, long soaks raise your heart rate. Keep to 15 to 20 minutes and drink water.
• Health conditions: Ask a doctor first if you are pregnant, over 70, or have heart, kidney or blood pressure problems.
• Wet floors: Marble and tile floors are slippery. Wear flip-flops with grip.
• Weekend crowds: Pools and changing rooms get crowded on weekends. Keep valuables in a locker.