Thermalbad & Spa Zürich: the Hürlimann brewery spa guide

A brewery that became a bathhouse

The Hürlimann brewery brewed beer in Zürich-Enge for more than a century before it closed in 1997. Rather than knock the site down, the developers kept the old fermentation cellars and grain stores and built a thermal bath and spa into the shell, opening in 2001 as Thermalbad & Spa Zürich, still widely known by the brewery’s name, Hürlimannbad. The result is unusual for a spa: thick brick vaulting, exposed steel beams and old brewery ironwork sit alongside a modern glass-and-steel rooftop pool.

It is one of the few places in the city where you can float outdoors in warm water in January while looking across the rooftops of Zürich towards the hills. That contrast, industrial bones with a genuinely relaxing spa layered inside, is the reason this address keeps coming up on lists of things to do on a wet or cold day in the city.

It sits in Enge, a quiet, mostly residential district a short ride south of the main station, not in the old town, so it is not somewhere you stumble on by accident. That is worth knowing before you plan a visit: budget real transit time either side of your slot, and do not expect to combine it casually with a walk around Zürich’s old town in the same afternoon unless you are comfortable moving briskly between the two.

The rooftop pool and the sauna world

The building has two separate zones and it is easy to book the wrong one if you are not paying attention.

The thermal bath and rooftop pool is the swimwear-required area. It includes an indoor thermal pool at a comfortable, not hot, temperature, a smaller warmer pool, and the rooftop pool itself, which is heated year-round and is the reason most first-time visitors come. On a clear winter evening, steam rising off the water with the city lights behind it is genuinely a good half hour, not a marketing photo. This area is open to anyone over a fairly low minimum age and is the one to book if you are travelling with teenagers or want a swimsuit-on experience.

The Römisch-Irisches Bad, the Roman-Irish bath, is a separate ticket and a separate building tradition entirely. It is a sequence of saunas, steam rooms and plunge pools taken in a set order, similar to the Roman-Irish bath format found in a handful of historic German spa towns. It follows the textile-free sauna convention used across German-speaking Switzerland, Austria and Germany, meaning no swimwear is worn inside it, and it is restricted to adults aged 16 and over.

If nudity in a sauna setting is not something you are comfortable with, this is not the ticket to buy; the rooftop pool area gives you most of the visual reward without that requirement. If you do book it, the ritual runs to roughly three hours and staff at the entrance will talk you through the order of rooms if you ask, since skipping the sequence rather defeats the point of it.

There is also a separate spa area offering massages and treatments booked on top of either ticket, priced individually and usually needing to be reserved a few days ahead in high season.

Booking a slot

The Hürlimannbad runs on a timed-entry system rather than open walk-in access, and this is the detail that catches out most visitors who assume they can just show up. Online booking opens some weeks ahead, and certain slots, particularly Friday and Saturday evenings and any weekend afternoon between November and March, sell out completely. If you have a fixed evening in Zürich and the rooftop pool is the point of the trip, book as soon as your dates are fixed rather than leaving it to the day before.

Weekday mornings and early afternoons are consistently the quietest, and if your schedule is flexible, that is when the pools feel closest to empty. Avoid public holidays and the week around Sechseläuten in spring, when locals treat the spa as a recovery day after the festival.

Time slot	Typical crowd level	Best for
Weekday, before 2pm	Low	A quiet float, photos without other bathers in frame
Weekday evening	Moderate	After-work locals, still manageable
Weekend afternoon	High, books out early	Avoid unless booked well ahead
Winter evening (rooftop)	High, books out early	The classic steam-and-city-lights visit, book early

What it costs

Treat any figure here as a guide rather than gospel, since spa operators in Switzerland revise prices annually and sometimes mid-year. As of this review, budget roughly the following.

Ticket	Approximate price (CHF)	Duration
Thermal bath and rooftop pool, standard entry	~43	2 hours
Thermal bath, extended entry	~55–60	Longer slot, check current list
Roman-Irish bath (Römisch-Irisches Bad)	~84–95	Around 3 hours
Towel rental	~8–10	Per visit
Robe rental	~10–12	Per visit

For a solo visitor on a short city break, the standard two-hour thermal bath ticket is the sensible choice: it covers the rooftop pool, which is the actual draw for most people, without the extra cost or the textile-free commitment of the Roman-Irish bath. Bring your own towel and the price drops further.

This is not a cheap outing by most European standards, and it sits comfortably inside what you should expect to pay for things in Zürich generally — this is a city where a coffee and a museum ticket already cost more than most visitors budget for, and a spa afternoon is no exception. If you are trying to keep the trip on a budget, treat this as a planned splurge rather than a routine stop.

Neither the Zürich Card nor the Swiss Travel Pass covers admission here; both are transport-and-museum products and the spa is a private operator outside that network, a detail worth knowing if you are relying on either pass to cover most of your spending as described in the Zürich Card versus Swiss Travel Pass comparison.

What to bring

• A swimsuit, for the thermal bath and rooftop pool area. It is not provided or sold in every size on site.
• Flip-flops or pool sandals. Brewery-era tiled floors get wet and are not the place for bare feet if you can avoid it.
• A towel, if you would rather not pay the rental fee. A compact microfibre travel towel packs down small and is worth carrying if you are staying in a hostel or budget hotel without a bathrobe of your own.
• Cash or a card for the locker deposit system, plus a little extra for the small café inside if you plan to make an afternoon of it.
• Nothing at all extra for the Roman-Irish bath beyond a towel, since swimwear is not worn there.

Lockers are keyed to a wristband, and most transactions inside, drinks, treatments, extra time, are billed to that same wristband and settled on the way out, so you are not fumbling for cash mid-soak.

Getting there from Zürich HB

The Hürlimannbad sits at Brandschenkestrasse 150 in the Enge district, close to the lake side of the city rather than the old town. Two practical routes:

• S-Bahn to Zürich Enge station, then an eight-minute walk. This is the fastest option if you are coming from the main station.
• Tram 5 or tram 7 to Bederstrasse, then a five-minute walk. Convenient if you are staying closer to the lake or the west side of town.

Either way, allow 15 to 20 minutes door to door from Zürich HB, and check the ZVV network and ticketing basics before you go if you have not used Zürich’s transport system yet; a single point-to-point ticket or a day pass both cover the short hop out to Enge without issue.

Is it worth it, and who should skip it

The honest answer is that it depends on what you want out of the visit. If the appeal is specifically the heated rooftop pool with a city view, especially in winter when steam rises off the water, it delivers exactly that and the standard two-hour ticket is fair value for a Swiss city where most paid attractions cost more than visitors expect, a pattern covered in more detail in the guide to first-time mistakes in Zürich. If you are coming with young children, the age restrictions on the Roman-Irish bath and the fairly serious, adult atmosphere of the whole complex make it a less natural fit than an outdoor lido in summer.

If a textile-free sauna sequence is not something you have tried and are not sure about, do not buy the Roman-Irish bath ticket as your first spa experience in Switzerland; the standard thermal bath ticket gives you the rooftop pool and a lower-key introduction, and you can decide about the Roman-Irish bath on a second visit. Travellers who want a broader look at thermal bathing options around the region, including day trips that are less central but sometimes better value, should compare this against the round-up of thermal baths near Zürich and the Bad Ragaz and Tamina Gorge day trip, which trades urban convenience for a genuinely dramatic gorge-side setting.

Making a day of it around Enge

Enge itself is quiet and mostly residential, so most visitors treat the spa as a self-contained stop rather than the centrepiece of a longer walk. If you want to build a fuller day around it, the lake shore is a short walk away and boat trips depart from nearby piers; the Lake Zürich boat trips guide covers routes and timings if you want to combine a cruise with your spa slot.

For a broader look at pacing an entire visit, the one-day Zürich itinerary and the fuller three-day Zürich itinerary both suggest where a spa afternoon fits against museum visits and old-town walking without overloading the day. For more ideas in the same wellness category, the wellness and spa category page lists other options across the region, and if you are visiting outside the warmer months, the Zürich in winter guide explains why this particular spa gets busiest exactly when the weather turns cold.

Beyond the spa itself, Zürich’s lake and hills offer a fair amount of active alternatives if you want to balance a relaxed spa afternoon with something more energetic. A guided ridge hike above the city with a local guide makes a good contrast to a day spent soaking, and a local-led bike tour through Zürich’s neighbourhoods covers ground the spa’s Enge location does not, including the old town and the lake promenade.

If the lake itself is the draw, a private one-hour guided boat tour on Lake Zürich pairs naturally with an afternoon spa slot, since both are within easy reach of the Enge waterfront.

Frequently asked questions about the Hürlimannbad & Spa Zürich

How much does the Hürlimannbad & Spa Zürich cost?

Expect around CHF 43 for a standard two-hour session in the thermal bath and rooftop pool area, and roughly CHF 84 to 95 for the Roman-Irish bath package, which includes a robe, towel and slippers over about three hours. Prices are revised yearly, so check the current list before you book.

Do I need to book a time slot in advance?

Yes. The spa runs on a slot system, especially on weekend afternoons and winter evenings, and popular slots sell out a day or more ahead. Book online rather than turning up, particularly from November to February when demand for the rooftop pool spikes.

Is swimwear required in the Roman-Irish bath?

No. The Roman-Irish bath follows the textile-free sauna tradition common across German-speaking Switzerland and Germany, so swimwear is not worn inside it. The separate thermal bath and rooftop pool area is swimwear-required and mixed. The Roman-Irish bath is for adults aged 16 and over.

What should I bring to the Hürlimannbad?

Bring a swimsuit for the thermal bath and rooftop pool, and flip-flops for the wet floors. Towels and robes can be rented on site if you would rather not carry your own, but rental adds to the bill, so a compact travel towel saves a few francs.

Is the Hürlimannbad suitable for children?

The rooftop thermal bath area allows children with a paying adult, but the Roman-Irish bath is strictly 16 and over and is not a family space. If you are travelling with younger children, a public lido or lake bath is a cheaper and more relaxed option.

How do I get to the Hürlimannbad & Spa from Zürich HB?

Take the S-Bahn to Zürich Enge station, then walk about eight minutes, or catch tram 5 or 7 to Bederstrasse and walk five minutes. The whole journey from Zürich HB rarely takes more than 15 to 20 minutes door to door.

Does the Zürich Card or Swiss Travel Pass cover entry?

No. Both passes cover public transport and some museum discounts, but the Hürlimannbad is a private operator and is not included. You still pay full admission on top of any travel pass.