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This modern public spa is well worth the very reasonable entry fee - I'd advise you go for the maximum four-hour ticket. Downstairs there is a large indoor pool and two outside pools (both very warm) and lots of steam rooms and saunas to visit.
Up a spiral staircase is the sauna world where there are many different saunas and steam rooms, including two outside in log cabins. At the top of the stairs you must remove your costumes and place then in an open pigeon-hole, as this is a strictly nude-only area. Occasionally a visitor doesn't realise this and is usually quickly approached by a staff member and told to disrobe or leave! Good really I suppose as it stops any voyeur element being there. Although the nudity feels odd at first we got used to it incredibly quickly and it just felt right. However you must have a towel with you when you enter the saunas or use the loungers in the rest areas - this must be placed underneath you so that no part of your body is directly touching the seat - this includes your feet. Wandering around or sitting in the communal area it seems about half the people wrap themselves in a towel the other half go naked - either is perfectly acceptable. The whole place is a quiet area with people talking quietly, there is piped ambient music throughout, and combined with the nudity make this one of the most relaxing few hours anyone could spend. Went there a few times when we were in the Baden area and at all times in the sauna world area there was a fairly 'normal' mix of genders and ages, and all shapes and sizes - again helping make this a great place to be.
Baden Baden - near centre of town.
Beijing bathhouses are fascinating places, and hours can be blissfully whiled away getting clean, being scrubbed and massaged, and lounging in front of someone else's choice of bizarre TV.
On top of massage, exfoliant and other treatments, many offer food and drink, and you can sometimes stay overnight at no extra charge.
Ranging from gaudy-baubley hangouts for China's newly-rich to the unassumingly traditional, my favourites are somewhere in between.
The best of these that I've been to is Hanjiang, with great staff, good treatments, basic surroundings and an interesting mix of clientele.
Xiaoyun Lu - from the junction with the third ring road, walk five to ten minutes northeast and Hanjiang is on the left side of the road.
Stromovka park is very worth visiting. It's popular but you can find quiet parts as it is huge, and it has a few lakes. The planetarium is here, near the entrance in the park, and is a good diversion. Outside the park and nearby is the Exhibition Grounds, in a few buildings, which I thoroughly recommend as there are very interesting exhibitions for the public on nearly all of the time, and a few really good permanent exhibitions (and a famous big fountain). Take a look at what is on.
The modern art palace of the National Gallery is not far from here and is a great gallery which many tourists miss because it is not near the Old Town, the Castle or Malostranska. It is usually quite quiet and I really recommend seeing it. It could take most of a whole day with a lunch break to visit all of the floors, so one and a half hours is the minimum time I recommend. You can have tea or coffee or a cold drink and snacks there.
The vast majority of people who visit Prague see only the three main areas with maybe also the Jewish Quarter and/or New Town and miss these attractions I mention. But especially if you have been to Prague before, make a point not to miss them. Don't forget the great value of Pension Vltava and recommend it to those who would like a very basic, clean and quiet place to stay with the added bonus of cheap drinks in your room at any hour.
For £7 or £8, have a sauna for a few hours in a basement private day spa near Holesovice station. Another similarly priced sauna in Holesovice is infinit (infinit.cz) which also has a jacuzzi.
This comfortable hotel is situated only a few steps away from the Old Town Hall Square in Tallinn. Made from two houses linked together, it is a pleasant warren of twisting corridors, staircases, unusually shaped rooms and what appears to be a number of original features such as wooden beams and painted frescos. There is also a lovely courtyard off which some of the rooms lead.
The fixtures and decor are a mixture of contemporary, such as the wonderful rectangular sink in the bathroom, and classic, there are some very attractive Chinese and Asian style cabinets and chests in the corridors. The room we were in was long and quite narrow but still spacious and decorated in muted gold and brown giving it a pleasingly relaxed atmosphere. This was also aided by the bed which was provoked a pleasing "Oooooh" as we rested our tired limbs on it.
Breakfast, which was served in either the cellar restaurant or the upstairs coffee room, depending on the number of visitors, was very good and consisted of a wide range of hot and cold food sometimes in a buffet format and sometimes cooked to order.
Body and beauty treatments are available and, best of all, the sauna is free to guests. A good way to warm up (a lot) and relax after a day of sightseeing in the city.
The staff were friendly and efficient and the service we received always excellent.
My one minor criticism of the hotel is that I would have liked a hotel manual/services guide in the room. There is an excellent one on the website and this service was advertised as being on the interactive TV in the room but ours, sadly, didn't seem to be. It is a very minor criticism, however, and I dare say had we asked for more information or mentioned that the service channel on the TV wasn't working it would have been dealt with.
All in all this is a great hotel, very reasonably priced for the standard of service (200 Euro/136 GB sterling/251 USD for a standard room plus breakfast and taxes during summer) and a perfect base from which to enjoy the fascinating city of Tallinn.
Dunkri 4/6 Tallinn, Estonia
www.merchantshousehotel.com
Terme di Merano is a brand new spa centre opened last year in the spa town of Merano, in Italy near the Austrian border. It features a large number of pools (open air -even in winter - and not) and saunas, Turkish baths etc. in a stunning modern building and park from where you can see the mountains. You can book massages and treatments such as wine baths and hay baths...and the prices are reasonable.
The town is lovely, warm (it is set in a south-facing valley) and lively, the mountains around are gorgeous and the trekking fabulous.
The food, beer and wine are excellent (northern Italian and Austrian style food both available).
Just search on the internet for Merano Terme (or Meran in German) and you will find plenty of info.
You should definitely visit the modern Caracalla spa (Friedrichsbad is the older, rougher around the edges and also more expensive bath house) when in Baden-Baden or the local area.
Entry can be purchased for 2, 3 or 4 hours for 12, 14, 16 Euro accordingly. I'd advise picking 4 hours for the extra 4 euro as time flies once you're inside. With over 3000 square metres of indoor and outdoor pools, it rivals any spa I have visited at 4 times the price elsewhere in Europe.
Once you have spent an hour or so relaxing in the pool and loungers make your way upstairs to the Roman sauna scape. Be warned though, this area is completely nude as a multilingual sign warns you on the door and you discover quite abruptly upon entering.
My boyfriend and I were quite shocked at first being of a classically prudish English nature but when in Rome as they say. After removing your swimwear you are free to enjoy a wonderful series of connected saunas, steam rooms, plunge pools, hot tubs and relaxation areas at your leisure. Especially recommended are the outdoor Swedish and Norwegian log cabin saunas (and ice cold outdoor showers between the two) along with the blue space room where you lie on plastic pods in a dimmed blue aura and feel ambient music vibrate inside the bed and through your body. Be careful not to fall asleep as we did though and miss your time limit, a penalty fare of 3 euros per 15 minutes is charged when leaving the spa.
For those who may also feel a little prudish, I can say after our initial nerves we found the atmosphere upstairs to be very respectful and relaxed as well as obviously highly liberating and invigorating. The unwritten rule seems to be very much a stare into middle distance with the odd curious glance down or across permitted, definitely no staring or pointing though. We visited on a weekday afternoon and the majority of visitors were middle aged men and women both single and in couples but it was also refreshing to find younger French and German couples and singles in their early twenties, like us, enjoying the sauna without any qualms.
One final word of warning for ladies though, 95% of girls on the continent seem to be opting to visit waxing salons for Brazilians or Hollywoods before their visits, whether or not this was inspired by our own WAGs visit to Baden Baden earlier this year I wouldn't like to say.
Caracalla Therme Spa website:
www.carasana.de/home/en/caracalla.html
Throw off your clothes, ditch that tiresome British reserve, and unwind in a series of saunas and pools in a wonderful setting just across the river on Rosenheimer Straße. It's a gloriously relaxing way to spend a chilly winter's afternoon in Munich. You might want to rehydrate before hitting the beerhalls afterwards, mind.
Rosenheimer Strasse 1, Haidhausen, Munich, 81667
Tel: 49 89 2361 3434
Having spent just a few days in Singapore as a stop over, I'd like to highly recommend one activity: Jacuzzi, sauna and swim at the airport.
It's well known that Singapore's airport is one of the best in the world, and for around £10-15, you can have the ultimate luxury.
Check-in first, and go straight through to departures. You can then enter the health club and lie back in an outdoor Jacuzzi and watch planes over your head, just an hour before boarding your plane. I've never felt so refreshed for a flight!
Singapore Airport, after Check-In
www.changiairport.com/changi/en/index.html
Sauna is a ritual in Austria.
Saunas are mixed and nobody bothers with swimsuits.
Saunas have often got a small bar or rest room where one can recover before plunging back into the heat to sweat out the toxins and stress of the day.
The ritual of adding aromatic oils to the water before dropping it on the coals is highly refreshing. However the leader of whatever group is in the sauna makes sure that the steam is evenly distributed by waving a towel over the coals. There is no escape.
The civilised conversation and chat among ten or fifteen people naked in a darkened overheated room is one of the best ways to get to know the Viennese and Vienna.
Most hotels and swimming baths
The hamam is a women-only Turkish bath and sauna where you can have a good, inexpensive massage and invigorating body scrubs/lathers by the all-female Turkish staff. Costs around 13 euros for three hours, with additional prices for massages.
Mariannenstr, just off Oranienstr. close to Kottbusser Tor Underground
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