Best Places for Hot Springs
There is a moment in a good hot spring that resets everything. You lower yourself in, the cold air bites your shoulders, and then your whole body goes slack in a way no heating pad and no spa massage has ever come close to. I have hunted them across four continents, and I have learned that the best ones are rarely the prettiest. They are the ones with character, a bit of sulfur, a mountain view, or a history that makes you feel like you are bathing in a tradition rather than a pool. Here are the ones that stayed with me.
Iceland
Iceland is the obvious starting point and it earns it. The Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik is the famous one, a milky blue pool in a black lava field, and it is lovely, though crowded and priced like a luxury item. The ones I prefer are farther out. The Secret Lagoon near Fludir is small and simple and fronts a simmering geyser field, and you can soak while mist rolls off the surrounding fields. The remote hot springs along the volcanic north, like the natural pools near Husavik and Myvatn, are a coin flip between heaven and nothing, since water temperature depends on the volcano’s mood. Half the ritual is the walk out across the moss in a swimsuit with steam rising in ribbons from the ground.
Japan
Japan does not have hot springs, it has onsen culture, and the difference matters. The baths at Hakone and Noboribetsu are built around mineral-rich water, and there is a whole etiquette of washing before you enter and soaking quietly. I will never forget an onsen at the foot of a snow-covered mountain in the winter, the top of the water barely steaming against the cold and my breath hanging in white clouds while the rest of the world stayed silent. Many town baths are cheap and local and meditative, and the ryokan experience, where you soak, rest, and eat a formal dinner, is worth saving for.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s thermal region around Rotorua piles everything into one corner. You can soak in a modern spa on Lake Rotorua, or wander to the natural hot pools that bubble up along the Kerosene Creek and the Waimangu Valley, where you sit in warm milky water surrounded by ferns. The place smells faintly of eggs, which nobody warns you about. It is the smell of real geothermal water, and once you associate it with relaxation your brain flips it from odd to comforting. Some pools are free and open, the kind where you just pull off the road, and those are my favorites.
Alaska and the Western United States
Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks pairs a natural hot pool with the nearly guaranteed chance of seeing the aurora overhead on a clear winter night. Soaking in hot water while the sky turns green above you is a combination that has no rivals. Further south, the hot springs of Colorado like Glenwood and Mount Princeton are developed and reliable, and the undeveloped ones in Idaho and Oregon appeal to anyone who wants a forest and a tub and no price tag.
More Soaks Worth It
Turkey’s Pamukkale is the odd one out, since the hot water there builds brilliant white terraces of travertine that cascade down a hillside like frozen waterfalls. You wade through the warm mineral pools on the steps and look out over the plain below, while the whole place glows white and pale blue in the afternoon light. It is more of a sightseeing spectacle than a classic long soak, but the water is genuinely warm and the setting has no equal. Closer to home, the Banff and Jasper region of the Canadian Rockies pairs developed hot pools against snow-capped peaks, and the many half-wild springs scattered through the interior states reward anyone who likes a soak with no entrance fee and no staff. I have had excellent afternoons at springs that were nothing more than a metal tub and a good view.
The best hot spring is the one you are in at the right moment.
Practical Notes
Pack a pair of cheap flip-flops and a quick-dry towel, because the stone around pools is always colder than you expect and nobody wants to walk barefoot on it. Drink a lot of water, since you will sweat without realizing it. Check the temperature before you get all the way in, because a natural pool that feels perfect can be scalding an hour later as the volcano shifts. And give yourself time to cool down slowly before you drive or head back inside. Stumbling straight from a hot bath into freezing air is a shock your heart did not sign up for.
A good hot spring is one of the few travel experiences that never has a letdown moment. You arrive dirty and tired and tense, you leave slow and sweet and half asleep. It is simple, and that is exactly why it works. These places have never let me down, no matter how long the walk in.
