Thermal Halls | Spring-Fed Basins, Cold Plunge & Silent Room

The water, and where it comes from

The Aureline spring emerges 240 metres above the lodge at a constant 41.2 degrees and is piped down under gravity alone — no pumps, no reheating. By the time it reaches the upper basin it has cooled to 38.4 degrees, which is the temperature the halls have run at since the bath house was cut into the hillside in 1927. The lower basin sits at 34.5 degrees for longer immersion, and the plunge, fed directly from snowmelt, holds between 6 and 9 degrees depending on the month.

The water is calcium-magnesium bicarbonate with a mild sulphate note and a measurable lithium trace. It is soft on the skin and leaves a faint mineral film that we ask you not to shower off immediately — wait an hour and you will understand why guests have been writing about this water for a century. The basins turn over completely every four hours and are drained, scrubbed and refilled each Tuesday before seven.

The four rooms

The halls are a sequence rather than a spa menu. From the changing corridor you enter the upper basin, a stone rectangle for eight under a barrel-vaulted ceiling with a single high window. Beyond it the lower basin is wider and shallower, with a ledge to sit on and a view down the gorge through a slot in the rock. The larch sauna runs at 82 degrees with a water bucket and no scheduled rituals. The plunge is three steps down into cold bedrock and takes considerably more courage in April than in January.

Then the silent room: eight loungers, wool blankets, no screens, no music, no conversation. Phones stay in the lockers. It is the room guests remember, and the only one where staff will politely ask you to stop talking.

Its own stair, on purpose

The halls have a dedicated stair from the west corridor, so nobody in a bathrobe crosses the dining room or the reading room, and nobody arriving for dinner walks through wet stone. That separation runs right through the building — the residences, the table, the thermal halls and the gaming annexe each have their own entrance and their own hours, and none of them requires you to pass through another.

Twenty-two at a time

Slot times, and how to get the good one

Capacity is capped at twenty-two bathers so the halls stay quiet. Slots are two hours and are booked at the desk, in person, the day before — never online.

07:00–09:00: Cold startPopular with walkers. The upper basin is at its hottest before the first turnover.
09:00–12:00: Family hoursUnder-fourteens admitted with an adult. The sauna stays open.
10:30–12:30: The best slotLight through the high window hits the upper basin at eleven. Ask for it early.
13:00–17:00: Quiet afternoonRarely more than eight bathers. Walk-in usually possible.
18:00–20:00: Pre-dinnerShort sessions; most guests take twenty minutes and the silent room.
20:00–22:00: Adults onlyLamplight, no children, textile-free sauna. Last entry 21:15.

Health at altitude

Hot water and thin air are a demanding combination. If you have arrived from sea level in the last twenty-four hours, keep your first session to fifteen minutes in the lower basin and drink more than you think you need. The plunge is not a competition; three breaths is a complete visit.

Please speak to the desk before bathing if you are pregnant, have a heart or circulatory condition, uncontrolled blood pressure, epilepsy, or an open wound. We are not a clinic and our staff are not clinicians — they are trained in water safety and first aid, and they will always err on the side of asking you to wait.

A therapist visits four afternoons a week for deep-tissue and mountain-recovery treatments, booked at the desk. There are no cosmetic treatments, no wraps and no retail counter; this is a bath house, not a beauty salon.

Bathing and the evening

The order most guests get wrong: they bathe at eight, then walk down to the quarter and wonder why they are asleep by ten. The halls are at their best in the late morning. Keep the evening for the table, the terrace and — if it appeals — the annexe.

Separate from the gaming annexe

No gaming takes place in or near the thermal halls, and no wagering is offered anywhere on this website. The adults-only salon is a detached building across the courtyard with its own ID check at every entry, and visiting it is entirely optional.

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