The Waters of Well-being

A Glacier Runs Through it

Bellevue Hôtel & Spa, Cogne, Italy

Imagine a large but cozy chalet, with vaulted ceilings, roaring fireplaces and guest rooms with the softest bedding. As you enter, you are welcomed by staff in traditional regional dress. Outside lies a kitchen garden where ingredients are cultivated before being made into homemade jams. It makes for a wholesome recipe: a hotel that takes the form of a family home, where the instinct for caring hospitality has been passed down from generation to generation for nearly a century, a place where every detail is carefully considered.

The majestic summits of Mont Blanc and Gran Paradiso dominate the view. Melt-waters from their glaciers flow straight to the property—around its grounds, as if designed for forest strolls, and even into its taps. Immense slabs of green stone from the valley line one of two large swimming pools, which resemble mountain lakes.

And then, the spa itself: a small waterfall and a few birch trees have been invited inside, a clear link to the comforting beauty nature has to offer. In this 13,000-square-foot/1,200-square-meter facility, enjoy relaxing red-clay wraps, massages with arnica balm and pine oil, magical moments in a salt or ice cave, and therapeutic time in glacial water that has traveled through the heart of the mountain, absorbing minerals and trace elements. It is unthinkable to return to real life before completely soaking yourself in this extraordinary experience.
 

Immersed in the Vineyards

Zornitza Family Estate, Zornitza Village, Bulgaria

Welcome to a Bulgarian fairy tale: a discreet destination well known to spa connoisseurs, amid 740 acres/300 hectares of greenery. This is the perfect setting for catching your breath and recharging your batteries. On these almost-virgin lands burbles a natural hot spring that leaves the earth at a temperature of 55°C (131°F), soft and rich in phosphorus. This unique water flows into three indoor swimming pools that appear to blend into the landscape: the beautiful combination of nature and light are found everywhere here.

The large windows of the spa’s inner sanctuary look out onto a panorama of verdant harmony: in the distance are the hills of Melnik and, in between, vineyards as far as the eye can see, source of the wine served at the restaurant. In fact, much of what is served is grown, harvested and produced on site, while herbal teas, oil, lavender, local honey and mud from the neighboring extinct volcano are worked into its treatment formulas. Each guest room boasts its own crackling fireplace. 

But there is an additional experience to be enjoyed outside, one that is both warm and hypnotizing. A natural outdoor swimming pool is tucked away between vines and branches where, in winter and summer alike, the spring water remains at 35°C (95°F), generating clouds of steam in colder weather. Swimmers are occasionally greeted by a few frogs, who enjoy sharing the warmth.
 

_{© Stéphanie Têtu}

Aquatic Vibrations

Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort, New Taipei City, Taiwan

An hour’s drive from Taipei lies Wulai, where the Nanshi River flows, its turquoise waters winding gently through the landscape. Here, in one of the region’s best-preserved sites, discover the rural refuge provided by the Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort. Warm, minimalist decor graces guest rooms, which open onto the surrounding greenery and the elements. Each has its own plunge pool of alkaline spring water, known to stimulate metabolism and eliminate fatigue.

But the Volando Urai offers much more than a healthful dip embraced by mountains and river. The Dasha spa, steeped in the scent of cypress, is an oasis where treatments range from aromatherapy to belly or head massages, and from facials to wraps. It also creates an experience that seems to cause time to slow. Head to the small blue lake and observe a man and a woman sitting on a raft. Facing each other, they cause the bowls placed between them to vibrate, one after the other, like a game of acoustic chess. With their eyes closed, the vibrations resonate all the way to the shore and reverberate off the rock, enveloping observers in the serenity of the moment. An inimitable experience, like becoming part of a living painting. 
 

The Source of Spa Culture

La Bastide en Gascogne, Barbotan-les-Thermes, France

Prepare to journey to the center of the Earth, to return to the roots of hydrotherapy and renew your inner strength, literally and figuratively. You are in Barbotan, one of France’s pioneering spa towns, deep in the country’s Tuscan-like southwest. In this 18th-century country house, the water surges forth bearing all its terrestrial treasures.

At the end of a small lane, Éléonore Guérard, granddaughter of Adrien Barthélémy, founder of the Chaîne Thermale du Soleil, designed a 4,800-square-foot/445-square-meter spa like no other. In this burrow of stone and water, a wholesome hideaway of harmony and simplicity, the body is set free and the mind given license to wander. 

The very warm and slightly sulfurous water, recommended for relieving pain, rheumatism and circulation disorders, is celebrated in every possible form: weightless in the vaporium, bracing in jets, relaxing when channeled into hydromassage beds, enveloping when used in anti-inflammatory mud therapy, and entrancing in underwater massages. This is an approach to well-being that’s beautifully summed up by the phrase ‘health through water’.
 

_{© Marielsa Niels / Studio Chevojon}