Baring it all in Germany's spa towns

Celebrate the country's hot springs and history of wellness at Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden

- Ming E. Wong

BADEN-BADEN, Germany - My husband is generally a good sport and open to most adventures, but he is adamant: "I'm not going in naked to be spanked by old men."

"But it's a 200-year-old tradition - kings and queens experienced it this way too," I counter.

He holds his ground and so here I am, alone and ready to strip down to my birthday suit.

The signature experience of the Friedrichsbad in the German town of Baden-Baden is a 17-step Roman-Irish spa ritual, where participants can relax and soak in pools and steam rooms.

Germany has a long history of wellness and holistic spa treatments. Many towns have underground hot springs, which ancient Celtic and Germanic tribes and soldiers and officials of the Roman Empire learnt to harness.

In the 19th century, Eastern European aristocrats came to escape their countries' harsh winters, often staying for months. To cater to these visitors, spa towns built museums, theatres, ballrooms and casinos.

In 2021, the three German towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Kissingen and Bad Ems were honoured by Unesco as World Heritage sites, part of 11 historic spa towns and cities in seven countries known collectively as Great Spa Towns of Europe.

The German words "bad" and "zu baden" mean "bath" and "to bathe". A town with such a prefix is likely to have underground thermal water that could be used for a "kur" - therapy involving drinking of the thermal water, mineral baths, mud pack treatments and massages.

In the past, celebrity visitors included French emperor Napoleon, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian emperor Czar Nicholas and Thai king Chulalongkorn.

In 1907, the Thai king had come to the town of Bad Homburg to cure an illness in the thermal waters. He recovered and showed his gratitude to the town by sending it a Thai sala, or pavilion.