These are the world's most bizarre spa treatments
21.07.2023 - 07:55
/ roughguides.com
/ Lake Baikal
If you’re after some rejuvenation on your next break but still fancy a bit of an adventure, there are a whole host of alternative therapies offered around the world. From snail facials to a spot of sauna whipping, you can invigorate your body and soul with a smorgasbord of weird but wonderful wellness treatments. Here we’ve rounded up ten of the best.
Sake isn’t just the steamy accompaniment to a plate of tempura. This fermented rice drink is also a tonic for the skin. In Hakone's Yunessun Spa, an enormous cask drips sake straight into a pool. Believers swear that a soak prevents age spots forming, and others get a kick out of the heady fumes. Not to your taste? Take the plunge in Yunessun’s coffee, red wine or green tea baths instead.
The grime you acquire riding the Trans-Siberian Railway won’t steam itself out. In a Russianbanya (steam room) birch twigs and leaves are bundled up and moistened with hot water, then swished against the skin in between steaming sessions. Light whipping with branches is thought to encourage circulation, so banyas are especially popular in Siberia where temperatures dip below -35°C. Plenty of hostels and hotels have them on site; check out Belka on the shores of Lake Baikal.
Banya, Russia @ Shutterstock
Scandinavians are known for indulging in (or enduring) a plunge into ice-topped lakes in between sauna visits. But cryotherapy turns the temperature gauge even lower… right down to -110°C. Less than three minutes in the chill chamber at Finland’s Haikko Spa is all it takes, and if the promised benefits of pain relief and glowing skin don’t appear, the feeling of sheer exhilaration – that you survived – should suffice.
Planning a trip to Finland? Don't miss our guide to the best things to do in Finland.
Wieliczka Caves are an eye-boggling series of subterranean grottoes, 90 minutes from Krakow, and today they’re bedecked with glitzy chandeliers and intricate statues – all carved out of salt. Hundreds of years ago, locals noticed a lower incidence of lung disease in salt mine workers which began a vogue for salt cave pampering; supposed benefits include improvements to asthma and allergies. Descend 135m down into Wieliczka’s Lake Wessel Chamber to try for yourself.
© Jaroslaw Pawlak/Shutterstock
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When you spy the glint of amber on Baltic beaches, don't dismiss it as hardened tree resin. Amber has a powerful place in Lithuanian legend, infusing it with ritual significance when worn as jewellery or used in beauty products. Lithuanian folk tales tell of a mermaid queen, Jūratė, and how her passionate affair with a mortal enraged the thunder god Perkūnas, who then smashed her amber palace to pieces. You can be scrubbed, polished and wrapped in the tragic siren's amber