Before you leave the hotel
We confirm your pickup time with you before the day. Eat only a light meal beforehand and skip the alcohol. Put your swimwear in a bag with a change of underwear and a comb — the peştemal, the towel and the slippers are waiting for you at the hamam.
An air-conditioned vehicle collects you from your hotel. You do not need to know where the hamam is: it is chosen according to your hotel and the area it is in, and the ride there is part of the price.
Arriving and changing
You change into your swimwear in the changing facilities and wrap the peştemal around you. Swimwear stays on for the whole visit; nobody is asked to be naked.
The heat: sauna and steam room
The visit starts with warmth. The sauna is dry heat; the steam room is warm and saturated with steam. Together they are the warm-up for everything that follows.
The warm marble
Next you lie on the göbektaşı, the heated marble platform at the centre of the hamam. This is the traditional heart of the bath: warm stone underneath you, warm air around you, and water for rinsing in the marble basins along the walls.
The kese
An attendant scrubs you with the kese, a coarse-textured mitt, from your shoulders to your feet. It is a firm, thorough scrub. You can read more about it in our guide to the kese.
The foam
Then the soap: you are covered in a thick layer of foam and washed and massaged through it. This is the foam wash and foam massage, and it is as soft as the kese was firm. Our guide to the foam massage has the details.
The oil massage
The final treatment is a basic aromatic oil massage, about 20 minutes long. Longer or premium massages are not part of this programme; longer ones are sold by the hamam itself, at its own prices.
Rinse, rest and the ride back
You rinse off, rest for a while and change back into your own clothes. The vehicle then takes you back to your hotel. From pickup to return, the whole visit takes about 2.5 to 3 hours.
The order above is the usual one. The exact order and timing can vary a little with the hamam and with how busy it is on the day.
Questions about this
In what order do the steps come?
Normally the sauna and steam room come first, then the warm marble and the kese scrub, then the foam wash and foam massage, with the aromatic oil massage at the end. The exact order and timing can vary a little with the hamam and how busy it is.
Last updated: · Murat Atalay Travel Agency · TÜRSAB-licensed travel agency · No. 11294