Thermae Boetfort Hotel

Found out on arrival that regular swim shorts are not allowed. So you have to rent tight ones. Would have been good to know before arrival as to aquire. The room I has was wonderful. Large, spacious, great shower. Just in a building located at the far end of the parking. Only the suites are at the main complex. I would recommend to take tight swim shorts and a robe, towel and slippers of your own. The drink prices at the restaurant were not overpriced. The breakfast was of a moderate to low level except for the chef in attendance who would fix eggs for you. He was great. Overall a good experience and would return.

The good things: a lovely setting in the spacious grounds of a castle, with plenty of space for sunbathing in summer. Also beautifully designed saunas: around half a dozen in the naturist section and three or four in the costumed area. Despite the airport nearby planes rarely fly overhead and it is peaceful setting. The restaurant is fairly good. The bad things: there are no buckets of water with ladles in any of the saunas. So sauna users are not able to put water on the rocks to create steam. This is the main point of being in a sauna, so not being able to do this is just dumb. Certainly anybody who has attended a sauna in Finland, Russia, the Baltic States will be very surprised and frustrated by this. It means that the saunas simply stay at constant level of humidity/dryness. I guess the management of Boetfort Thermae do this to avoid arguments in the sauna about how much water is ladled onto the stoves. But the whole point of a sauna experience is to vary the humidity level by ladling water onto the stove, with a dynamic level of steam. Perhaps they could designate at least some saunas as places where people are free to add steam, and designate one or two saunas for people who like dry saunas with no steam. This means that, if you want to experience dynamic steam, the only way of doing this to attend one of their Aufguss sessions (a ritual where a saunameister circulates steam and essential oils around the sauna using a towel). Personally, when I go to Boetfort, I only go to a sauna when there is an Aufguss session scheduled, as there is no point going into any of their other saunas which are too dry and because there are no buckets or ladles of water. Unfortunately, the Aufguss sessions don't happen very often: only three a day in the naturist section at 1530, 1730 and 2030. So time your visit to coincide with these rituals - or else you won't experience real sauna steam. Also disappointing is that these Aufguss rituals do not last very long: about 15 minutes or so and they only offer one round. (Many other wellness centres offer hourly Aufguss sessions, with sometimes two or three rounds lasting half an hour). Also unfortunately, the Aufguss sessions at Boetfort are sometimes cancelled at short notice. This might mean that you have a wasted trip, if your main aim of attending was to experience sauna steam. The "banya" sessions on Thursdays are completely unlike a real Russian banya experience. The leaves are supposed to be sweet smelling the leaf whisking needs to be done in a sauna with a temperature of at least 70 degrees, for the steam to be effective. Boetfort's weekly banya session are carried out in the steam room, where the steam is too cool to be effective (opening up the pores of the skin). And they seemed to be using fairly old leaves, which had lost their fragrance. I liked the fact that they have designated one sauna where talking is allowed. Sauna is often regarded as a social experience in other countri

gisteren geweest, het eten laat te wensen ook alsook de drank, ik vroeg een mochito en vroeg expres nog of het verse was, volmondig ja, toen ze die serveerder lag er welgeteld 1 blaadje munt en 1 stukje limoen in, er zat geen drank in, terug gegeven, zelfde glas terug gekregen met wat drank bij gedaan, leek op citroen water, dan risotto met boschampingons besteld, het was zoekend naar een champingon, heel weinig en ik ben al geen grote eter, op de koop toe, gans de nacht ziek geweest, maagkrampen, misselijk en diaree, we zijn nu 16 uur later en nog steeds misselijk, krampen en diaree. heb gebeld en er was niemand van de directie, ze hebben mijn e mail gevraagd, maandag bel ik terug, ze kunnen mijn eten terug betalen of ik leg klacht neer Service1,0 de ligging voor de sauna was mooi al waren er heel veel steile trappen, dat mag ook wel op voorhand aangegeven worden