Eons before wellness became a buzzword, the world was turning to water for healing. The customs may look different: Japan has onsens, Finland has saunas, and Mexico has the dome-shaped sweat lodges known as temazcales. But they all invite restoration, connection and ritual through a universal element.
Enter hydrotherapy, a trendy, modern wellness practice that builds on these ancient ideas, harnessing the therapeutic power of water to promote physical and emotional well-being. Studies show that soaking in water — warm or cold — can calm the nervous system, relieve joint pain and reduce inflammation as well as improve circulation, lower blood pressure and stimulate lymphatic flow. It can also relax muscles, ease stress, and enhance mood and sleep.
While there are a variety of ways to experience hydrotherapy, including sauna, steam and cold plunges, one of the most popular involves alternating between the extremes, a practice known as contrast therapy.
“Changing the temperature environment, from hot to cold or vice versa, prompts your metabolism to help the body adapt and become more resilient,” said Susanna Soberg, a metabolic scientist who has studied exposure to heat and cold.
Whether you prefer hot, cold or both, communal sauna and plunge spaces may offer meaningful connection. “Ice baths and saunas are one of the few places where I can find peace and a reset,” said Lauren Hendel, a 28-year-old event manager for the tech industry. Once, in a near-freezing cold plunge with four people, she recalled, it was the sense of community that motivated her to stay in the icy water. “You’re breathing together and feeding off of each other’s energy,” she said. “Once you get through that initial shock, you feel a sense of inner power that you can really get through anything.”
Here are six wellness centers and resorts that offer hydrotherapy treatments and contrast circuits.
Pagosa Springs, Colo.
Surrounded by the San Juan Mountains in Southern Colorado, the Springs Resort has more than 50 soaking pools with water coming from the world’s deepest known geothermal hot spring. With a new expansion, the resort has further developed its approach to wellness, called Soakology, blending the healing properties of the water — containing 13 minerals and ranging from 35 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit — with guided practices.
Visitors to the Springs can take a bracing plunge in the wild San Juan River, accessible via a platform and stairs, after a hot soak. You can follow the Contrast Circuit, three rounds of bathing in different pools of different temperatures, or try the new Contrast Falls, a waterfall element with two feeds — hot from the spring and cold from the river. When you’re done getting wet, take in the panoramic mountain views from a salt-enriched sauna.
Rooms from $339 per night; day passes $67 to $119.
Othership emphasizes the social benefits of water therapy with sessions designed to get people breathing, sweating, moving and plunging as they improve wellness and build connection. The 75-minute guided classes weave in breath work, body-focused movement, visualization, live music, European-style towel waving that infuses the air with essential oils, and group sharing, in which participants can reflect on the experience. The Free-Flow option lets you explore the benefits of contrast hydrotherapy solo for 75 minutes, while the two-hour Social includes music, dancing, towel waving and using aromatic snowballs to increase humidity. A location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is scheduled to open this fall.
Rates from $64 for a single session, with ticket packs available; monthly memberships start at $51.
Lake Louise, Alberta
On the shores of aquamarine Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Basin Glacial Waters, part of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, will offer guests a thermal experience fed by the towering Victoria Glacier starting on Sept. 15, when it’s scheduled to open. Visitors will be able to take in the jaw-dropping surroundings while contrast bathing — indoors and out — in pools filled with glacial meltwater. The experience will continue in the spa’s saunas, Himalayan salt room and hammam, a traditional Middle Eastern or North African steam bath.
Rooms from $699 per night, depending on the season; day passes about $200.
This eclectic complex — think thermal spa meets indoor rainforest meets water park — on the outskirts of the Romanian capital blends ancient bathing traditions with modern hydrotherapy practices.
Flooded in natural light and filled with tropical foliage, it is laid out in three zones: Galaxy for families, with water slides and playgrounds; the adults-only Palm, with an urban beach, thermal pools and hydromassage beds; and Elysium, for a more focused wellness experience with saunas, steam rooms and spa treatments. The Therme Group, which runs the spa, aims to create accessible wellness in and close to urban centers and has plans to open locations in Washington, Dallas, Glasgow, Toronto, Frankfurt and Manchester, England.
Admission from 45 to 207 Romanian lei, or roughly $11 to $48.
Inspired by the three monthly anahulu (10-day periods) of the Hawaiian lunar calendar — representing intention-setting, mind-body alignment and transformation — the new Kilolani Spa offers guests a range of thermal wellness elements, both indoors and out. The Hydrotherapy Gardens feature a circuit that focuses on contrast therapy and includes waterfall showers, a Hawaiian-inspired hammam, saunas and steam rooms. Salt plays a big role here, showing up in a sauna where salt particles infuse the air and the saltwater Vitality pool — a place to drift and float, relax your muscles and rebalance your system after the hot-cold water circuit.
Rooms from $599; day passes $150.
San Francisco
Alchemy Springs, a “social spa” in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, offers plenty of chances to mingle in an environment that includes water, movement, sound and play. In its Sauna Garden, visitors can move through sessions alternating between sauna time and cold plunge tubs — guided or solo. The spa also features yoga classes and special events, including the late-night Acroyoga Community Jam, which blends yoga and acrobatics; the Sacred Sound and Movement class, featuring a vibrational gong sound bath; and the Speak-Teasy pop-up, which offers herbal elixirs and teas. Alchemy Springs is set to open a full bathhouse, an immersive refuge with thermal pools and communal spaces, at the end of this year.
Sessions or events $25 to $85. Yoga classes from $15.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/travel/water-spa-breaks-resorts.html