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Extraordinary sauna experiences
There has been a very special sauna culture in Estonia for centuries.
© Visit Estonia, Ott-Erik Eendra
More than just sweating? These sauna experiences guarantee variety.
Sweating is healthy, as the saying goes. Regular sauna use therefore promotes health and protects against heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, among other things. Many people are drawn to thermal baths and saunas, especially on wet and cold days. The 2G plus rule currently applies in many places. This means that in addition to proof of vaccination or recovery, visitors need a current negative test. If you don’t want to do without regular sweating even when traveling, you will now find a large selection of particularly extraordinary sauna experiences.
A lot of smoke around the sauna
In Estonia, for example, there has been a very special sauna culture for centuries. Traditional sweating in a smoke sauna, as practiced in the south of the country, has even been recognized by UNESCO as an “intangible cultural heritage of mankind”. The sauna is preheated here for several hours – without the smoke being extracted through a chimney – when the door is opened the smoke dissipates and the sauna-goers take a seat. A portion of honey is distributed over the body, which is supposed to ensure soft skin. Depending on whether you want to promote blood circulation, strengthen the immune system or open the pores, birch, linden or juniper branches are used: light hits on the back achieve the desired effect. The traditional smoke sauna can be experienced during a visit to Vana-Võromaa at the Mooska farm.
Infusion with special effects
The Quellenhof Luxury Resort (Belvita Leading Wellnesshotels) also offers a special sauna experience with its show and event infusions. The sauna area welcomes national and international wellness fans as well as current and former world, European and national champions in the infusion discipline. Five sauna masters take care of the guests and make sure that they work up a sweat in the 23 saunas.
The interplay of light, technology, music and water becomes a choreography with special effects in the new lake event sauna. Various infusion themes such as “Our Huamit” with fragrant alpine meadow hay and snowballs provide entertainment. You can then relax in the infinity sky pool made of glass with a view of the surrounding mountains and soon also in the Finnish sauna in the middle of the lake villas, surrounded by a bathing lake with direct access.
Relax in the hemp herbal sauna
The legal hemp active ingredient cannabidiol (CBD) is already established in trendy wellness oases in Asia and America and is now also finding its way into the Swiss Alps. In the SchlossHotel Zermatt you can relax in the luxurious hemp spa. Soothing for the body, there are not only massages, peelings and facial treatments with the active ingredient cannabidiol (CBD), but also a 60 degrees warm hemp herbal sauna, after which hemp tea and hemp biscuits are served. The ancient cultivated and medicinal plant hemp gives off aromatic scents and provides the right climate to relax with a humidity of up to 60 percent. CBD is a natural active ingredient, has – in contrast to THC – no psychoactive effects and is legal in Switzerland. Those who prefer it classic will also find a Finnish sauna as well as a steam and textile sauna in the hotel.
Sweating around the world
The Hotel Das Weitblick in Allgäu offers a variety of experiences from all over the world. Different types of sauna are used in one place – whether a Finnish panorama sauna, Tyrolean sweat room, African Berber steam bath or a hot Himalayan salt cave. The colorido sauna is colorful and stylish in the Mexican ambience, while the relaxation rooms invite you into the warm, earthy atmosphere of Africa or the colorful Orient.
The Arabic wellness culture, on the other hand, is at home in Italy’s largest hotel hamam: the Garberhof in South Tyrol. The hamam impresses with sensory impressions from 1001 nights. Play of light and essential oils as well as ancient rituals with soap foam massages, steam baths and peelings bring mind and body back into harmony.