14 Best destinations for hot springs and natural spas

Centred on Bordeaux and the Basque coast, this region is France’s undisputed spa capital, home to 30 of the country’s 170 spa resorts. The region’s unique sub-soils enrich the water with mineral salts and trace elements. Being the world’s biggest region of fine wines, it’s the go-to place for innovative wine-themed treatments.

Magical Bali has hot, natural springs scattered across the island; just look for the Hindu temples built by them to source the ‘holy’ water. There’s a mix of private retreats and public facilities ­– like the fine public one at Banjar. It’s a wonderfully zen spot for a soak, amid lush landscapes, rice paddies and colourful Hindu architecture.

Roman Britain’s favourite spa resort is home to the UK’s only natural thermal spa. The original Roman Baths are no longer open for bathing due to healthy reasons, but visitors can bathe in the same natural mineral-rich waters as Celts and Romans did – supplemented by modern treatments of course – at the nearby Thermae Bath Spa complex.

Known as the ‘City of Spas’, Budapest has more thermal and medicinal water springs than any other city – 118 in fact, providing over 70 million litres of thermal water a day. Although used by the Romans, spa bathing didn’t become an integral part of Budapest culture until the 16th-century Turkish occupation.

Set at the northern end of the Napa Valley, this region is rich in geothermal mineral waters and naturally-occurring hot springs. It’s famous for its mud baths, which have been used for thousands of years to treat health and skin problems. The mud originates from mixing the local volcanic ash with hot spring water. Its most famous spa, the Calistoga Spa Hot Springs Resort, has operated there since 1900.

Among Costa Rica’s verdant rainforests and smouldering volcanic peaks are hundreds of hot springs and some excellent spa resorts offering everything from volcanic mud massages to temazcal – a shamanic steam bath ritual with chanting, meditation and aromatherapy. Soak to the soothing soundtrack of the rainforest all around.

The surrounding desert’s reputation as a spa mecca isn’t just fluff: the area is full of mineral-rich hot springs that people have visited since Native American days. And no destination in the desert has capitalized on that better than this town, 15 minutes north of Palm Springs.

The world capital of ‘volcanic tourism’, Iceland offers spa-seekers mineral-rich geothermal pools, sourced from underground geological layers and set amid dramatic volcanic scenery. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s most visited attraction, has naturally warm waters especially rich in sulphur and silicate minerals – responsible of the beautiful milky blue shade and believed to be beneficial to skin conditions like psoriasis.

This a spectacular volcanic island in the Bay of Naples is a dedicated spa destination, boasting thermo-mineral pools, steam holes, rich volcanic mud and dozens of natural springs. Many of the island’s resorts operate as day-parks and the focus is primarily therapeutic rather than pampering. One for the spa aficionados.

It’s estimated that Japan has over 3,000 hot springs – known as onsen – across the country. Good for health, especially skin, relaxing and sociable, it’s not surprisingly, then, that over the centuries a soak in an onsen has become an integral part of Japanese life and culture.

Many naturally occurring onsen have been converted into indoor (noten-buro) or outdoor (roten-buro) pleasure baths. They can be public or private facilities and sometimes contained within your hotel or ryokan.

New Zealand sits on a geothermal fault line, making it prime country for bubbling, geothermal hot springs ­known in Maori as waiariki. Although found across both islands, the Central Plateau region of the North Island, underlain by the Taupo Volcanic Zone, is particularly good, especially near Rotorua.

This small region in southwest Colorado sits over the Mother Spring aquifer – the world’s deepest aquifer. Public hot spring bathing pools abound here, all filled with mineral-rich thermal waters that soothe the skin, muscles and joints. Local indigenous people have used them for centuries for healing; now you can soak away surrounded by the rugged San Juan Mountains.

Probably the world’s most famous – and largest – natural spa, the Dead Sea is a natural collection point for salts and minerals, with salinity up to ten times that of ocean water.

The sea’s mineral-laden waters ease discomfort from arthritis, soothe fiery skin conditions like acne and eczema, heal allergies and boost circulation so helping with detoxing. They’ve been revered for their magic healing properties for thousands of years – King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, Cleopatra and King Herod all came to bathe here.

No surprise then that the Dead Sea is home to some world-class spas today.

Tuscany is full of natural hot springs or terme, many of which date from Roman or even Etruscan times and whose waters, originating from deep within the earth’s crust and emerging at around 35°-37°C, have long been known to have therapeutic properties. See our round-up of the best, both private and public.