10 of the most extraordinary places to take a bath

Beppu, Japan

This town on the coast of Kyushu is associated in Japanese minds with one thing: hot springs. Millions of liters of steaming hot water spill daily out of around 3000 springs, providing a dazzling array of bath-time treats.
On offer for your bathing pleasure are mammoth modern indoor spa complexes, small outdoor springs, simmering mud baths and even "sand baths" where you can be buried up to your neck in hot sand by a lady with a shovel.
When you're done getting wet, it's time to discover why Beppu is nicknamed the "Las Vegas of Japan".




Széchenyi Baths, Hungary

Budapest is a city famed for its thermal baths, and was dedicated a spa city as far back as the 1930s.
Sample the city's bathing habits at the Széchenyi Baths - a meandering neo-baroque complex of pools, ranging from icy cold to steaming hot - smack bang in the middle of the city park. Originally a medical treatment centre, this is the place to come for a massage, a sauna and a dip in the huge open-air thermal pool filled with local families, tourists and gentlemen playing chess on floating boards.




Blue Lagoon, Iceland

Iceland's answer to Disneyland and the country's number one tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon is sometimes dismissed as overcrowded and overpriced. But what's not to like about floating in a steaming pool of milky blue (at a spot-on 38°C), surrounded by a landscape of dark and twisted lava fields, with a futuristic geothermal plant puffing away in the background?
When you're fed up of the main pools, you can have a steam bath in a lava cave, a waterfall massage or a sauna. You'll no doubt leave with your spirits renewed - and baby-soft skin.





Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

Thermal waters brew just below the sand at Hot Water Beach in the North Island. During the peak tourist season it looks like it's just been set upon by giant rabbits - for two hours, at either side of low tide, you can dig your own hole in the sand with a spade rented from the local café, then sit back, relax and warm your behind in your own natural spa.
Luckily your rapidly roasting limbs will be regularly refreshed by cool waves from the incoming sea water!


Champagne Glass Whirlpool Bath, USA

If you've ever dreamed of soaking your troubles away in a mammoth glass of champagne this could be your lucky day. That's right, at Pocono Palace only a couple of hours' drive away from New York City, you too could be relaxing in a 2.13m tall champagne glass whirlpool bath for two.
If that's not cheesy enough for you, look around your suite and savour the faux Roman columns, the circular beds, the mirrored walls and the private heart-shaped swimming pool.



Les Bains de Marrakesh, Morocco

For a bathing experience that indulges all your Thousand and One Nights fantasies - think glorious sunlit court-yards, tinkling fountains, carved alcoves and scattered rose petals - Les Bains de Marrakech is just the ticket.
As well as the traditional hammam (bathhouse) experience, involving an unceremonious scrub down with black soap and a wire mitten, you can chose from gentler options such as chocolate body massages or candlelit oriental baths for two. In between treatments you're encouraged to sprawl out on an indecently comfortable pile of cushions and drink your own body weight in mint tea.




Dogo Onsen, Japan

Japan's oldest hot springs facility at a rumoured 3000 years old, Dogo Onsen is at the center of many an old folk tale. Its centerpiece, the Honkan bathhouse, is the oldest public bath house in Japan.
An intricate three-storey timber structure, it looks like a fairy-tale castle and is said to be the inspiration behind the enchanted bathhouse in Miyazaki's animated film Spirited Away. Splash out on a first-class ticket and you'll get a hot soak, your own relaxation room, a yukata (kimono) and a post-bath snack of green tea and crackers.




Chodovar Brewery Beer Baths, Czech Republic

For the ultimate beer on skin experience, you can relax in the Czech Republic's first underground beer spa. Large stainless steel Victorian-style tubs (including double tubs for two!) are filled with a specially brewed bathing beer and crushed herbs and topped off with a creamy foam "head".
As you bubble away in all that malty goodness you can partake in a glass of two of the local brew from the bathside bar. Apparently it's all excellent for the pores.




The Dead Sea, Israel & Jordan

King Solomon, Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba were among the early believers in the benefIts of a Dead Sea spa, one of the world's first health resorts owing to the medicinal properties of the area's waters and minerals. Since then, the climate has inspired a huge array of therapies such as thalassotherapy (bathing in Dead Sea water) and balneotherapy (a treatment using the black mineral mud of the Dead Sea).
There are resorts on both the Israeli and Jordanian sides, offering health packages to cure everything from psoriasis to arthritis.