The Best Thermal Baths & Spas in Austria

Thermen

Austria calls its thermal baths Thermen, and the largest group of them lies in the east of the country, in Styria and Burgenland, where warm mineral water was found by drilling in the last century. A Therme there is a destination for a day or a weekend: pools indoors and out, a hotel alongside, and a sauna area that is textile-free, as in Germany.

Styria and Burgenland

Rogner Bad Blumau in Styria is the one people recognise in photographs. The artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed it with grass on the roofs, coloured facades and hardly a straight line. Loipersdorf, also in Styria, is a large family Therme whose adult sauna area, the Schaffelbad, is ticketed separately. In Burgenland, AVITA in Bad Tatzmannsdorf names its sauna garden the Garden of Eden and pours infusions with the local Uhudler wine, and St. Martins near Lake Neusiedl sets its pools beside a natural lake.

The Alps

The Alps offer the other kind. Aqua Dome in the Ötztal valley in Tyrol is known for three bowl-shaped outdoor pools raised on stems, with the mountains behind them. Guests arrive from the ski slopes in winter and from hiking trails in summer.

Sauna etiquette

Sauna infusions, called Aufguss, run to a timetable in the Austrian houses as they do in Germany, and the same etiquette applies: no swimwear in the sauna, and a towel under the whole body.