Overview
About this location
Mădăraș thermal strand, Bihor County, 5 km from Salonta: three pools, 32 °C in the large one and up to 38 °C in the covered one, open 08:00–22:00. No water analysis has ever been published for this site.
Weather – 3 day forecast
Details
General Information
Water temperature
31–32 °C in the outdoor pools, up to 38 °C in the covered pool; the source temperature is not published
Water type
Geothermal water from a 2,000 m borehole; no chemical analysis has ever been published
Entry price
No 2026 list is published; the documented figures are 25 lei adult / 15 lei child (2020) and 30 lei (2023). Check on WhatsApp at 0770 393 250
Accessibility
Seasonal, spring-autumn
Wellness
Therapeutic indications
Rheumatic and musculoskeletal, as claimed by the local tourist information centre; there is no treatment base and no medical source confirming them
About Mădăraș thermal strand
A village thermal strand in the commune of Mădăras, Bihor County — not Harghita, where the identically named localities lie. It sits 5 km from Salonta, 37 km from Oradea and about 5 km from the Hungarian border. Three pools, mature trees, and an unusually long day: 08:00 to 22:00. The strand has been running since 1979, and in December 2020 the commune was granted the status of tourist resort of local interest.
One thing needs saying plainly, because we had it wrong too. The description “sodium chloride water with bromine and iodine, 45–52 °C” has no source behind it. No analysis bulletin for Mădăraș has ever been made public, by the operator, the commune or any authority. What is documented is the borehole depth, 2,000 m, and the temperatures measured in the pools. The temperature at the source is not published either. The only official characterisation, in the Ministry of Economy’s reasoning when the resort was certified, contains no figure at all: “subsoil rich in geothermal water. Its mineral concentration and its temperature are the factors that give the beneficial effects.”
Region & access
- Mădăras is in Bihor County, in the plain south-west of Oradea. Listings that place it in Harghita are confusing it with the same-named localities in Harghita and Mureș.
- Salonta is 5 km away, Oradea 37 km, and the Hungarian border about 5 km. Hungarian visitors cross over for it, and the commune runs cross-border projects on the geothermal resource.
- The strand has always stood on what official documents call “the commune’s agrozootechnical platform” — it was originally ringed by barns and farm buildings.
What is documented
- The borehole goes down 2,000 m, a figure given by two independent sources. The deposit was found during communist-era geological surveys for the collective farms; for years the water heated the commune’s vegetable greenhouses before the borehole was turned into a strand.
- Measured in the pools: 32 °C in the large one, 32 °C in the children’s pool — a visitor photographed a label reading 31 °C — and up to 38 °C in the covered pool.
- The 75–88 °C figures and boreholes F-3001 and F-3003, which turn up in articles about Mădăraș, belong to Beiuș. Both resorts were certified in the same government sitting and the press piece covers them together.
Facilities
- Changing rooms, showers, toilets, a sports pitch, a large car park, kiosks, and card payment at the gate.
- There are no sun loungers. This is the one complaint visitors repeat year after year — bring a blanket or a folding chair.
- Green space with mature trees, which means real shade at midday. There is no medical treatment base; “the treatment pool” is a commercial name for the covered pool.
Three pools, and why one is warmer
- The large pool has a rising depth and is the one you can swim lengths in. Measured at 32 °C.
- The children’s pool is about 50 cm deep and has a slide. Also 32 °C, though a label photographed on site read 31 °C.
- The covered pool is the warmest, up to 38 °C, and it is warm for a mechanical reason: that is where the pipe reaches the surface. The water cools along the run to the other two, which is why the difference is consistent rather than a matter of the day’s weather.
- Being covered, it is also the one that works when the weather turns. The other two are open-air.
- The covered pool is marketed as a treatment pool, but there is no treatment base, no balneology doctor and no contract with the health insurance houses behind that name.
Opening hours
- 08:00–22:00, the timetable given by the Mădăras tourist information centre and confirmed on site in 2020. Fourteen hours is unusually long for a strand this size.
- The season the company declared to the public health authority in 2005 ran from 1 May to 30 September. The exact opening and closing dates for 2026 are not published.
- The strand has operated since 1979.
- turismmadaras.ro, listed as the official link, was dead on 3 August 2026. There is no website. The live channels are WhatsApp on +40 770 393 250, the Facebook and Instagram accounts @strand.termal.madaras, and TikTok.
- Mădăras town hall: 0259 379 432.
Two figures, five years apart
- No 2026 price list is published anywhere — not on social media, not by the commune.
- 25 lei per adult and 15 lei per child, with card payment accepted: a first-hand account from August 2020.
- 30 lei for entry: reported by the press on 19 July 2023.
- The two do not describe the same ticket structure, and neither is current. Message the WhatsApp number for this year’s price before you set out.
- The operator is ȘTRAND TERMAL MĂDĂRAS S.R.L., tax code 37516702, registered at Mădăras no. 347, with 8 employees and a 2025 turnover of 1,846,244 lei.
Good to know
- On 15 April 2005, the Bihor public health authority wrote to the operator of the day, Tauber Termal SRL, warning that the analysis bulletins showed a chemical composition below standard, the main problem being ammonia above permitted limits. The strand was running without a sanitary permit for thermal baths; that activity was only added to the company’s object of activity in March 2005, after thirteen years of operation. This is a 2005 fact, not a description of the water today — and no public statement from the health authority has followed since, in either direction.
- There is no treatment base, no balneology doctor and no contract with the health insurance houses. What is claimed — rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions — comes from the tourist information centre and from what regulars report, not from a medical source.
- The only list of contraindications in existence, published by a tourism source in 2020, says the water is not advised for people with cardiac or circulatory problems, for people prone to skin allergies, or for children under 3. The “dermatological” indication that circulates online is backed by nothing. Both documented mentions of skin point the other way: one is a contraindication, the other a 2005 claim by sources at Salonta Hospital about medical records citing “skin conditions caught from the Mădăras strand”.
- The chain of ownership is documentable and rarely told: a borehole for the collective farm greenhouses, a strand from 1979, Tauber Termal SRL from 1992, and ȘTRAND TERMAL MĂDĂRAS S.R.L. from 8 May 2017 — all at the same address. Tauber Termal was set up in 1992 and had the brothers Ioan and Gheorghe-Horia Stana as partners from August 2002. Tourism sources say only “running since 1979”.
- The resort status came by government decision in the sitting of 4 December 2020, together with Beiuș in Bihor and Bala in Mehedinți. No tourism site writing about Mădăraș mentions it.
- Staying over: Hotel-Restaurant Milenium at Mădăras no. 189 has two outdoor pools of its own, a restaurant and a mini-zoo, with the strand 3 km away; Han Mădăras at no. 333 is practically next door to the strand; Pensiunea Pretty Manson and Agropensiunea Rustică are also in the commune. In Salonta, 5 km off, there are Hotel Slavia and Ancora.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much is the entrance fee at Mădăraș Baths?
No 2026 list is published; the documented figures are 25 lei adult / 15 lei child (2020) and 30 lei (2023). Check on WhatsApp at 0770 393 250. Prices can change, so check the official information before visiting.
What are the opening hours at Mădăraș Baths?
Daily 08:00-22:00 (summer season – opening and closing dates are not published).
What is the water temperature at Mădăraș Baths?
31–32 °C in the outdoor pools, up to 38 °C in the covered pool; the source temperature is not published.
Is Mădăraș Baths open in winter?
Seasonal, spring-autumn.
What is the therapeutic profile of Mădăraș Baths?
Mădăraș Baths is a balneary resort with a profile covering: Rheumatic and musculoskeletal, as claimed by the local tourist information centre; there is no treatment base and no medical source confirming them. Whether a balneary cure is appropriate is a decision to make together with a physician.