Your wife and daughter go to the women's side, you go to the men's side. And take the full treatment, you will notice that you have a lot of dirty, grey skin, although you thought that you are clean. I have been 100 % satisfied, my husband not so, but that was not the fault of the treatment, that was the fault of too much body hair. Body hair does not like rough massage.

Hi Marko,
Stephen describes the hammam experience quite well. During my Istanbul time, I went every Friday afternoon to the Cemberlitas-hammam, close to the Bazar. It was the most relaxing way to begin the weekend. Men-only hammam at this time, but now it is mixed. Cagaloglu was and still is very touristy, allthough Cemberlitas has evolved since long in the same way. In these days, there were still some hammams in different quarters of town, but, as a foreigner, you hardly knew of their existence.

Massage can be very relaxing. Don't hesitate to intervene if you find the massage a bit to 'forceful'. In general, they know how to touch every joint in your body. But if you have some old serious sports injuries, it might be better to take care! But in general I have very good memories from my Friday afternoon hammam sessions. You should also plan, if possible, an hour of rest after your hammam session. I always slept 2 hours in my hammam cell after bathing. You may feel very tired after the hammam.

The Istanbul hammam are 'dry' hammams, with the huge marble plates/tables, 6 or 7 m in diameter. I also went to the Eski hammam in Bursa, where the central part is a pool, with the water of the source coming in at 53?C if I remember well! It took me about 10 minutes to get into the pool and 20 minutes more to get under the water tube!!!

You may be sure it will be one of the highlights of your trip.

The Eski hammam in Bursa was a far more authentic experience for me in that I was the only tourist in the place. Very relaxed atmosphere. Young Turks lounging, sipping tea, chain smoking, taking football, or finance, or nothing at all.

ncanavan
good to hear eski hammam is still not that touristy, allthough you don't mention when you went there.

What do you mean by "dry" ?

Marko,
By "dry", I mean it is one with a marble table, generally octogonal and centrally placed, and no "pool" or "oversize bathtub".
The Eski hammam in Bursa has the octogonal bathtub, about 1.40 m deep and 6 m in diameter.
"Dry" doesn't mean there isn't any water in the hamam, don't worry!

Ncanavan says that his Eski hamam experience was very authentic because he was the only foreigner. It is indeed very relaxed in non touristic hamams, they leave you alone and you can stay as long as you want. Even at Cemberlitas, where I went, they only left me alone once they had noticed I was a 'regular'.
When do you leave?

Baldrick, 2nd April. A long flight from downunder but we are looking forward to arriving in Istanbul early in the morning and discovering a wonderfull city!