© Landhotel Moorhof / Hannelore Kirchner
Austria’s wellness hotels and thermal spas keep reimagening the concept of relaxation – and sometimes it gets pretty quirky.
Baking bread in a sauna, relaxing in a beer bath or a massage with pumpkin seed oil. If you think you’ve seen it all in the world of wellness, get ready to be surprised! Austria’s wellness hotels and thermal spas keep reimagening the concept of relaxation – and sometimes the results are quite surprising to say the least.
Austria proofs that effective treatments don’t always have to follow the known paths. Sometimes, they can also just be fun and quirky.
© Landhotel Moorhof / Hannelore Kirchner
Only in Austria: Take a beer bath – and relax on a straw bed
It might sound strange at first glance, but once you’ve made yourself comfy in one of the rustic wooden tubs at Hotel Moorhof in Upper Austria’s Innviertel region, we dare you to not fall in love with this wellness treatment. While your body fully relaxes in the warm hop blossom bath, you can treat yourself to a cold beer from the tap (optional!). And afterwards? An “après bath” of a special kind awaits: a four-poster bed filled with oat straw. The dried grasses are believed to have a detoxifying, circulation-boosting and warming effect, while also supporting relaxation and overall mental wellbeing.
Guests can either book a single beer tub session or make it a whole themed weekend with an additional 4-course dinner and beer tasting, beer cosmetics, a massage with hop oil, and a beer and cheese fondue.
Thermal Spa Bad Schallerbach © Eurothermen Resorts / Robert Maybach
Austria: Sweat it out, then enjoy bread baked right in the sauna
Who says you can’t enjoy a snack during a sauna session? The EurothermenResort Bad Schallerbach in Upper Austria, just half an hour from Linz, offers exactly that. One of their saunas is built entirely from clay, using gentle radiant heat to create the perfect environment for slow, soothing sweating at 70°C. As an added surprise, a baker prepares fresh bread right inside the sauna several times a day. Yes, you read that right. As you relax and let the heat work its magic, the whole room will be filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread, and it will be served warm straight to guests.
Re-energised, you can then spend the rest of the day bouncing between the spa’s 40 other saunas and roughly 15 indoor and outdoor pools.
Hotel Sacher, “Time To Chocolate” © Hotel Sacher
Get your whole body wrapped in chocolate
The Sacher cake is famous around the world. But Hotel Sacher Vienna takes things one step further: Here, the cocoa bean isn’t just turned into a tasty treat – but also into four luxurious wellness experiences: Their signature “A Taste of Chocolate” treatment includes a firming peeling and a chocolatey body massage, while the 90-minute “Symphony of Chocolate” features a cocoa bean peeling, a full body chocolate wrap and a relaxing massage. Those who like it particularly rich can book the “Dream of Chocolate” option, a revitalising mix of an exfoliating massage and body wrap. Or how about the “Sensation of Chocolate” treatment, a firming peeling followed by a moisturising cocoa butter body wrap?
Unlike the classic Sacher cake, none of the spa treats are edible – but they will pamper your body and soul just as much, minus the calories!
Relax during a pumpkin seed oil massage
Styria in Austria’s southeast is known for it’s “green gold” – pumpkin seed oil. And at the Heiltherme Bad Waltersdorf this local superfood isn’t just used in the kitchen, but is also part of their unique down-to-earth and highly effective wellness concept: The “Traditional Styrian Medicine” (TSM) combines centuries-old local healing methods with the latest treatment trends. The pumpkin oil massage was developed by the in-house team and is part of a range of traditional spa offers that are all deeply rooted in Styrian culture, making the most of the power of regional products. There are also soapstone massages with honey and herbal oil or facial treatments with cereal-pumpkin seed packs.
Verwöhnhotel Kristall, floating in the salt grotto © Verwöhnhotel Kristall
Float in a beautiful salt grotto
Floating – lying in warm water that contains a high concentration of Dead Sea salt – has been trendy for years, but Verwöhnhotel Kristall at Lake Achensee takes it to the next level. Here, you don’t lie in a closed tank or pod, but float in a beautiful grotto shimmering in soft colours, with stars on the ceiling and relaxing underwater music. Not only will physical boundadries dissolve quickly in this setting, the outside world will equally slowly drift away, allowing complete relaxation for body and mind.
You can either float all by yourself or book a session for two.
TPN 21-08-26
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