23 Unique and unusual spa experiences

Believe it or not, people have been bathing in beer for centuries. Beer hops ease muscle tensions, improve circulation and detoxify the body. Enzymes in the yeast make the skin and hair wonderfully soft. And yes, most beer spas will serve you beer to drink while soaking.

Slather on mineral-rich clays, laced with your favourite essential oils and CBD, the super-calming legal cannabis extract. Then rest in a heated mud lounge or bask in the sun while the mud dries and your body is purified. After, soak in a tub of local thermal water before finishing in a state-of-the-art ‘sound’ chair.

At 423m below sea level, the Dead Sea marks the Earth’s lowest elevation on land. The sea is a natural collection point for salts and minerals, with salinity up to ten times that of ocean water – so dense that swimmers float on its surface, while animals and plants struggle to flourish (hence the name).

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.

Finns have used saunas for centuries – for hygiene, warmth and community. The traditional ritual alternates between intense heat and icy cold plunges into nearby frozen lakes.

It sounds unpleasant, but if you heat up enough first, you don’t feel the cold – only an exhilarating, full-body tingling and a deep physical, emotional and spiritual cleanse.

It’s best experienced in the tranquil Lapland wilderness, surrounded by forests and stars.

If a dip in the fabled Blue Lagoon isn’t enough of a spoil, then for the ultimate indulgence, book a night at this swanky spa hotel, located just a few steps from the lagoon’s western edge. Rooms are beautifully decorated, with expansive glass windows offering views over the Reykjanes lava fields of the lagoon.

There are three upscale restaurants to choose from – the Michelin-rated Moss, Lava or the Spa Restaurant.

Everything here is designed to indulge your every whim, from morning yoga sessions to spa treatments and massages. A section of the lagoon is reserved solely for guests’ use.

The hammam (steam bathhouse) has been an integral part of Islamic, notably Arabic, culture for centuries. Inspired by the Roman thermae, a bathhouse would include a cold room, a warm room and a hot room; in the latter, heat is produced by furnaces to supply hot water and steam.

The signature Marrakech hammam experience starts with a stint in the steam room, but then progresses to a special detoxication treatment; first, a scrub with locally-made black soap (containing olive oil) to prepare the skin for a gommage (exfoliation) with a kessa glove. After, locally-sourced rhassoul clay is applied, followed by a massage with local Argan oil.

For locals, a visit to the bathhouse is more than just a spa treatment. It serves three key purposes: one for hygiene, second for cleansing for before religious ablution before prayer, and third as a meeting place for the local community.

The world’s only natural sand bath sees participants buried up to their neck in the black sands of Ibusuki Beach for 15 minutes. Naturally occurring, geothermally-heated spring water flows under the beach, infusing the sand with 55°C steam. Benefits include  improve blood circulation, elimination of toxins, reduced respiratory problems and relief from rheumatism.

This hotel spa showcases traditional kampo therapies derived from traditional Chinese medicine. Try the Misogi Experience, gliding between traditional showers, hot baths and steam to achieve purification. From there, it’s an indulgent, hour-long head-to-toe scrub featuring balancing camphor, soothing kuromoji powder and Japanese clay. On the top floor of a Tokyo skyscraper, the spa’s 30m black granite pool comes with views through the clouds to Mount Fuji.

The Illume Room, devoid of natural light to maximise the colour therapy healing, is an extraordinary dance between the physical and metaphysical. You lie on a heated quartz-sand bed made of crushed crystals for a gently undulating massage, while entranced by site-specific music featuring seven crystal singing bowls.

Every ingredient of every spa product used at this organic spa is grown on site. The hotel’s healing garden and state-of-the-art laboratory will show you how its organic skincare is created, by fusing the ancient traditions of Franciscan monks with cutting-edge molecular science. Then you can make your own…

An indigenous Sami culture-inspired spa, featuring indigenous foods and spa-ing. Listen to reindeer herders sing Sami songs in a tent, have treatments featuring traditional herbs with aromatic scents, or soak in the spa’s pool of ice-cold river water, while a mindfulness instructor teaches you breathing techniques that allow you to stay for increasingly long periods in its freezing temperatures, interspersed between hot sauna stints.

Therapists provide beautiful white outfits for you for the Om Supti Spa Ritual, which takes place at night in a private jungle spa. After soothing massages, you soak in a sweet-scented bath in an al fresco stone tub. There’s a swing seat and a starry sky. You ring when you’re ready to be collected.

Japan is a mountainous country, jam-packed with volcanoes – and where there are volcanoes, there are hot springs. The underground geothermal activity heats water, that rises to the surface creating warm (even boiling), mineral-rich pools of water – fantastic for bathing in, if the temperature is right.

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.

For the real deal, you need to get out of the major cities to the natural sources of water. Public hot baths in cities, known as sento, don’t quite hit the spot.

Pranic healing is a system of energy medicine focused on cleaning and rebalancing the body’s chakras. During treatment, you inhale and the aroma of Palo Santo smoke, a sacred tree from the east coast of South America known for its mystical healing properties. In the background, Nepalese singing bowls harmonise and relax the brain and body through sound and vibration. After, relax in the huge hamam. The hotel itself is fabulously OTT, and filled with an extraordinary collection of contemporary art.

Banyas, or traditional Russian bathhouses, have been integral to Russian cultures for centuries. Alternating between hot saunas or steam rooms, and dips in icy pools or lakes, is nothing new, but the Russian version includes a (light) beating with birch, eucalyptus, oak or juniper branches to boost circulation.

The Banya Ritual, offered by the spa at the luxurious Hotel Le Bristol, reimagines the banya experience for discerning mesdames and messieurs. After an application of crushed ice in the heat of the hammam, your therapist ‘beats’ you with oil-infused birch branches to boost circulation. Finally, after a body exfoliation, you emerge 90 minutes’ later, exhilarated, purified and glowing. For the real thing, head to the 19th-century Sanduny bathhouse in Moscow.

The Deep Ocean Spa is the first thalassotherapy (seawater therapy) centre in the South Pacific, and provides a wide array of treatments that utilise nutrients extracted from the deep-sea waters, inspired by ancient Polynesian healing rituals, to rejuvenate and cure. The over-water rooms have glass-bottomed floors, making it possible to watch the fishes glide past during treatments.

A dazzling 18th-century fort palace, where traditional Ayurvedic therapies are combined with yoga. Go off menu and ask therapists to recreate an age-old custom, for which you sit on a ‘smoking stool’ while frankincense is burned beneath your chair, followed by a slow, deep massage using handcrafted, organic oils. It sounds underwhelming but it’s completely unforgettable.

Built on an ancient healing pathway, the Healing House spa offers treatments surrounded by the wild African bush. Opt for the signature ‘biophony’ treatment, using specific sound frequencies from nature to bolster your nervous system and balance your body’s natural electromagnetic field. It woos you into a deep state of relaxation, guaranteeing your best night’s sleep ever (despite the roar of any nearby lion).

The Tierra spa experience is all about soaking up the landscapes, and reconnecting with nature. Practice outdoor yoga, meditate or simply bathe in the waters of the al fresco hot tub, while admiring the Licancabur Volcano and surrounding lunar-like desert. Treatments incorporate natural ingredients from the region, such as sheep’s milk, honey, clay and volcanic mud.

In the late 1980s, long before today’s wellness trend hit its stride, Costa Rican architect Jaime Mikowski recognised the healing powers of the Tabacón Thermal River and the Arenal Volcano and set about developing this 900-acre rainforest resort.

Channelling the country’s largest network of natural thermal springs, he constructed waterfalls and pools, planted lush gardens featuring more than 200 native plants and built sleek, fuss-free rooms with walls of glass to bring the outdoors indoors and offer a confidently pared-back refuge from the 21st century.

This is a spa for water babies: the action centres around the mineral-rich pools, which range from 25°C to 50°C, all heated by the now-dormant volcano. One has a swim-up bar and thermal waterslide, others are dotted through the gardens. To intensify that connection with nature, treatments are taken in open-sided thatched cabins and use lotions made from local plants, blending Costa Rican customs with ancient practices from around the world.

This ancient Mayan purification ceremony is designed to cause an intense physical, emotional and mental release – and a transformative, almost mystical feeling of rebirth. It cleanses and reunites the physical, mental and spiritual forms.

The ceremony takes place in a temazcal, or ‘steam house’ – a small, circular dome made of rocks and mud. The structure has several symbolic components: the dome house (signifying a mother’s womb), the entrance, symbolising rebirth when you come out, a burner where wood is set on fire and a bonfire where the water is heated. All four basic elements – earth, wind, fire and water – are represented.

It’s led by a local shaman (X’Men, or Mayan priest). Red-hot lava rocks are placed in the center, and doused with water infused with local aromatic herbs. The searing heat generated causes profuse sweating, which combined with inhaling the therapeutic herbs, promotes detoxification. The complete darkness inside liberates the senses from distraction, enabling deep contemplation and meditation, leading to mental balance and mindfulness (presence from the mind). A group energy is generated through chanting and music. At the end, you’ll cool off in a cold river or pool, which  closes the pores and activates the immune system.

A proper ceremony usually lasts up to 3 hours (though shorter, more touristy ones can be as short as one hour). After, you’ll leave with a sense of inner harmony, enlightenment and rejuvenation. Other reputed benefits include detoxification, skin cleansing, reduced depression, and reduced risk of dementia.

Get drummed barefoot into the piping hot, turf-covered outdoor Viking Sauna where you’ll learn special breathing techniques – followed by an exhilarating dip in the al fresco ice plunge pool. You may see the Northern Lights from the geothermal indoor/outdoor pool, or from fur-strewn loungers through the ultra-modern spa’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

This hotel is an oenophile’s dream – the perfect place to unwind in Bordeaux’s wine country.

Just 20 minutes from the city, it consists of wooden buildings in an enchanting garden setting. Rustic French barn meets zen minimalism here.

You sleep in rustic chic rooms, suites and cottages, and laze between the hydrotherapy pools, steam room, loungers and an outdoor hot tub, created – naturally – from a giant barrel.

Two gastronomic restaurants, including the two Michelin-starred La Grand’Vigne, add yet another layer of lacquer.

The superb concierge service can arrange anything you want to do or visit around Bordeaux, though you will need a car to get around the wine region.