This guide is for Arabic-speaking people who are in Turkey, whether as tourists, hotel guests or residents. It is also for English-speaking friends, relatives and hosts who are travelling with them or looking after them. We are not trying to give you a list of services. We want to answer the practical questions in the order they come up: which city, which location, what language to write in, how women's areas are arranged, what a hammam session is like, what to wear, and when to go. If you are wondering what a massage is in general, see our article on what a massage is, and if this is your first time in a hotel spa, our first-time hotel spa guide is a good place to begin.
What does "massage" mean at a hotel spa in Turkey?
At a hotel spa in Turkey, a massage is a booked session in a private room with a massage specialist.
Most hotel spas also have a Turkish bath, a sauna and a steam room next to the massage rooms, and you can combine them on the same day.
This sounds simple, but it matters. Here we mean only the spa session inside a hotel: a room, towels, oil and a massage specialist. Our own menu defines the sessions by length and content, with options such as the Beatus Signature Massage, the Relaxing Massage, the Deep Tissue Massage, Thai Massage and the couples' massage listed on our massage page. Which massage is offered at which location varies, so ask when you book.
You settle the details of a session together at the start: pressure, oil and length are chosen with the massage specialist. If you want to work on one area only, a session can focus on the back, neck, shoulders, arms, legs, feet or head. If the pressure is too much or too little, say so; you can also ask to stop the session. We make no promise here about cancellation or refund terms; ask the location about them when you book.
You do not need to write any health information in a WhatsApp message. You can tell the massage specialist at the start of the session.
Do I need to stay at the hotel to book?
No. Our locations are inside hotels, but guests who are not staying there are welcome by appointment.
You usually enter through the hotel lobby, as at our Trabzon Boztepe location, and the spa is on a lower floor or on the ground floor. For short stays in Istanbul and Trabzon, we wrote a booking guide for visitors.
For someone travelling in Turkey this means flexibility. During a city tour you might be staying at another hotel, in a rented flat or with relatives, and you can still book a hammam and massage for the evening. The floor you enter on differs by location. The Harbiye location is on the lower floor of the Radisson Hotel Istanbul Harbiye (floor -1), and the Trabzon location is on a lower floor of the Radisson Blu Hotel Trabzon (floor -4). At Harbiye you reach the spa by stairs only; there is no lift. The Mahmutbey location is on the ground floor of Wanda Vista Istanbul and you go in through the main hotel lobby; it has wheelchair access. If you have an access need, tell the location when you write.
A short note on parking. At Mahmutbey the open car park is free and there is no valet. At Harbiye the hotel car park is open to spa guests and valet is free. In Trabzon the car park is free and there is no valet.
Which cities have a location, and which suits you?
Our locations are in Istanbul, Trabzon, Ordu and the Sapanca area of Sakarya. Uzungöl is a seasonal location and is currently out of season.
If you are in Turkey for only a few days, the choice is usually between Istanbul and Trabzon.
In Istanbul the locations are in Şişli (Osmanbey and Harbiye), Bağcılar (Mahmutbey and Güneşli), Esenyurt and Maltepe. Rather than present every one of them, we focus on the two that matter most for writing in Arabic: Harbiye and Mahmutbey. You can reach all of the Istanbul locations from our page on spa locations in Istanbul.
The Turkish Culture Portal reminds us how old the hammam tradition is in Istanbul. Before the ceremonies that made the city capital of the Roman Empire in 330, temples, palaces, a hippodrome and baths had already been built there. The hammam, that ritual of cleansing with water, steam and heat, has been part of daily life in this city for centuries. That history is one reason visitors look for the hammam as an experience in itself.
On the Black Sea side we have the Trabzon and Ordu locations. The Culture Portal describes Trabzon as a city whose historic fabric includes museums, monasteries, mosques, inns, hammams, a covered bazaar and the walls that once surrounded it. In Ordu our Boztepe location is in the Boztepe district; the Portal presents Boztepe as a viewpoint about 450 metres above the sea, reached by road or by cable car. For a stay in a green, quiet and rainy climate that is different from Istanbul, these two cities are an option. You can see all our Black Sea locations on the Black Sea spa locations page.
Which locations can answer WhatsApp messages in Arabic?
The locations that can answer Arabic WhatsApp messages in Arabic are Harbiye and Mahmutbey. Ordu does not reply in Arabic.
At the other locations no Arabic information has been given, so we suggest you write in English.
There is a deliberate distinction in that sentence. We do not say "Arabic-speaking staff"; we say that an Arabic message can be answered in Arabic. That is what the locations have told us, and it applies to the messaging channel. For the language spoken in the treatment room, the position location by location is as follows:
| Location | Languages the staff speak | Reply in Arabic on WhatsApp | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harbiye (Istanbul) | Turkish, English, Indonesian | Possible | Separate hammams for women and men |
| Mahmutbey (Istanbul) | Turkish, English, Chinese | Possible | Separate hammams for women and men |
| Trabzon | English-speaking staff | Ask the location first | Floor reserved for women |
| Ordu | English | Not offered | One shared hammam |
There are two ways to read this table. First: if you want to write in Arabic in Istanbul, Harbiye and Mahmutbey are the places to look at first. Second: for Trabzon, write in English, or ask the location first whether Arabic replies are given. For Ordu we say plainly that Arabic replies are not given, so that you do not write to the wrong location and wait for an answer.
The picture at our other Istanbul locations is this. At Osmanbey the staff speak Persian, Spanish and English; ask the location about Arabic. At Güneşli, English and Persian are spoken, and at Esenyurt English, Turkish and Persian; Esenyurt does not reply in Arabic, and answers are given in English or with a translation app. At Sapanca English is spoken and a translation app is used for other languages. At Maltepe a translation app is used. In short: for writing in Arabic, Harbiye and Mahmutbey, and everywhere else, English. If you are comparing Trabzon, Ordu and Harbiye in detail, have a look at our guide to the hotel spa locations in those three cities.
Are there areas reserved for women?
Yes, but it differs by location. In Trabzon the hammam, steam room and massage floor are reserved for women all day.
Harbiye and Mahmutbey have separate hammams for women and for men. In Ordu the hammam is shared.
It is important to be exact about this, especially for families and for women travelling with female relatives, so here is each location:
- Trabzon: the spa has two floors. The lower floor is mixed and holds the pool, sauna, steam room and fitness room. The upper floor has the massage rooms, women's changing rooms, a steam room and the Turkish hammam, and it is reserved for women all day.
- Harbiye (more about this location): separate hammams for women and men, and next to them a hammam for couples and single-person hammams.
- Mahmutbey (our spa and fitness centre in Mahmutbey): separate saunas, steam rooms and hammams for women and men. The pool is shared.
- Esenyurt: the women's section has a hammam, sauna, steam room, massage room and relaxation area, and it is open to women during all opening hours.
- Osmanbey: a sauna, steam room and hammam reserved for women.
- Ordu: the hammam, sauna and steam room are a shared area. A woman guest's scrub and foam is planned at booking, and for the length of the session the hammam is kept for her alone.
These arrangements are the locations' own. It helps to say in your booking message that women will be using the hammam, so the location can describe the arrangement correctly. Whether you can ask for a female or male massage specialist varies by location, so we cannot promise it; ask the location when you book. For more on this subject, see our guide to the women-only hammam and massage floor.
What is a Turkish bath, and what happens in a session?
A Turkish bath, or hammam, is a centuries-old bathing tradition: warming up in steam, a kese scrub, then foam. A session usually runs warm-up, scrub and foam, then rest.
The Turkey Tourism Encyclopaedia lists the sections of a hammam as the changing room, the warm room and the hot room. The changing room is the resting and undressing area at the entrance, the warm room is a transition zone between hot and cold, and the hot room is the main heated area. The same source explains that in Ottoman times hammams were used not only for washing but also for social occasions and rituals such as bride-viewing and henna nights. The TDV Islamic Encyclopaedia has a long entry on the hammam covering its history in the Islamic world and in Anatolia, and it mentions the central heated stone (göbek taşı) and the double hammam. The Turkish bath you may know in Arabic as "الحمام التركي" is, in its modern hotel form, a simplified version of that tradition.
A hammam session on our menu comes in three steps. First, your body warms up on the heated stone and in the steam room. Then you are scrubbed with a kese mitt and washed with foam. Last, you wrap in a pestemal and rest in the relaxation room with a glass of sherbet or herbal tea. The menu has the Pasha Hammam (40 minutes), the Scheherazade Hammam (55 minutes) and the Sultan Hammam (80 minutes), and the details are on our Turkish bath page. At some locations the hammam is kept for each booking: at Güneşli, for example, the one hammam closes for every booking, and only the guest and the massage specialist are inside.
If hammam terms are new to you, our Turkish bath glossary helps. A hammam and a sauna are hot environments. If you have a health condition, are sensitive to heat or are pregnant, speak to your doctor before the hammam or sauna. Harvard Health Publishing lists general precautions for the sauna: avoid alcohol before and after, keep the session short, cool down gradually afterwards, drink plenty of water, and leave the sauna if you do not feel well.
What do I wear, what is provided and what do I bring?
A pestemal is provided at the location for the hammam. The sheets and towels for a massage also belong to the location.
If you will use a pool, you need a swimsuit and a swim cap; in the pools at Mahmutbey and Trabzon both are required.
A pestemal is the thin traditional wrap used in the hammam. Because the locations provide one, you do not need to bring anything. Towels, slippers and other details differ by location: at Mahmutbey a pestemal and towel are provided, at Güneşli a towel, slippers and pestemal, and at Esenyurt a towel, pestemal and slippers for the hammam and massage. At Maltepe massage guests are given a towel and pestemal. Whichever location you go to, it is enough to ask "what do I need to bring?" in your booking message. For more on this, see our article on what to wear for a massage.
A general note on pools. The Ministry of Health's General Directorate of Public Health says swimming pools are inspected every month, that the water is analysed for physical, chemical and microbiological quality, and that chlorine, temperature and pH readings should be posted on a board users can see. It is a sensible habit to look at that board before you get into any pool.
What are the opening hours and last bookings?
Harbiye is open from 10:00 to 22:00 and the last booking is at 21:00.
At Mahmutbey the spa and fitness are open from 08:00 to 22:00, massage starts at 12:30 and bookings are taken until 21:00. Trabzon is open from 07:00 to 23:00.
In Ordu the spa opens at 12:30, massage sessions start at 13:00 and the last session is at 22:00. One detail for visitors: at Mahmutbey the spa and fitness are open in the morning, but massage starts in the afternoon. So if you want a morning massage, Mahmutbey does not suit; at the other locations, ask beforehand when massage starts. In Trabzon the last booking is 1 hour before closing for a massage alone and 2 hours before closing for a massage with a hammam.
The hours are the ones on the location pages. To find out whether they change for public holidays and special days, ask the location.
How do I write a WhatsApp message in Arabic?
Your message should contain the location, date, time, number of people and service. You can add your name if you like.
You do not need to give health information, a passport or a room number.
The sample below is a template for writing to the Harbiye or Mahmutbey location. Fill in the parts in square brackets as you need.
مرحبًا، أودّ حجز موعد في فرع [Harbiye / Mahmutbey] يوم [اليوم] الساعة [الوقت] لعدد [العدد] أشخاص: [مساج / حمام تركي / الاثنان معًا]. هل يتوفر موعد؟ وكم تبلغ مدة الجلسة؟ شكرًا.
In English that reads: "Hello, I would like to book at the [Harbiye / Mahmutbey] location on [day] at [time] for [number] people: [massage / Turkish bath / both together]. Is there a slot available? How long is the session? Thank you."
If women guests want to ask about the hammam arrangement, you can add this sentence:
نرغب في استخدام الحمام التركي مع التقشير والرغوة لسيدتين. هل الحمام مخصص للنساء خلال هذا الموعد؟
In English: "We would like to use the Turkish bath with scrub and foam for two women. Is the hammam reserved for women during this booking?"
For Trabzon, Ordu and the other locations, write the same message in English:
Hello, we would like to book a massage and a Turkish bath for two people on Saturday at 5 pm at your Trabzon location. Are there available times? How long is the session? Thank you.
After you send the message, wait for the location's reply; the locations tell us they usually answer within a short time, and at busy hours it may take longer. The phone and WhatsApp numbers are on the call card of each location page: the hammam and massage location in Harbiye and the spa and fitness location in Mahmutbey. There is no central booking line.
Istanbul or Trabzon: which should I choose?
If you want to write in Arabic and be easy to reach while you are out in the city, Harbiye or Mahmutbey in Istanbul may suit you.
If you want a hammam floor reserved for women all day and a pool, look at Trabzon.
Read the list below as a match of needs to locations, not as a ranking.
- Writing in Arabic is the priority: Harbiye or Mahmutbey.
- A break between Taksim and Nişantaşı: our hammam and massage location in Harbiye, about a 10-minute walk from Taksim metro station.
- A spa and a fitness centre in one place: Mahmutbey or Trabzon.
- An indoor pool and, in summer, an outdoor pool: Mahmutbey has an indoor pool, and its outdoor pool is used between 15 June and 15 September. Trabzon has an indoor pool; its outdoor pool runs between June and September and depends each year on the hotel's decision.
- A hammam floor reserved for women: Trabzon.
- Using the hammam together as a couple: Harbiye has a couples' hammam and a two-person VIP room.
- Nature and calm, a break away from the city: Trabzon or Ordu. The Trabzon location is about a 10-minute drive from the city centre and about 14 minutes from the airport. The Ordu location is a 4-minute walk from the Boztepe cable car station; remember that Arabic replies are not given in Ordu.
If you are planning a trip between cities, booking your sessions in advance will make your schedule firmer. For distances and journey times, check the General Directorate of Highways and airline timetables; we do not give intercity times here.
The number of visitors arriving in Turkey and their nationalities are published in the border statistics bulletins of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Investments and Enterprises. We give no country ranking or proportions in this guide, because which location a visitor writes to, and in which language, depends on what they need and not on where they come from.
