The World's Great Hot Springs
Geothermal water worth building a cold-season trip around. 16 places, mapped and ready to build a trip around.
Plan a trip on Trailwind →Banff Upper Hot Springs
CanadaBestDec–MarClimate5–72°FCurrencyCADLanguageEnglishForty degree water at 1,585m with the Rockies over the rim. Best in a snowstorm.
Beppu
JapanBestNov–MarClimate37–88°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseMore hot water rises here than anywhere on earth outside Yellowstone. Steam comes out of the street drains.
Chena Hot Springs
United StatesBestSep–MarClimate-8–68°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAn hour from Fairbanks and directly under the auroral oval. Soak at 40C while it is minus 40 and the sky is moving.
Gellert Baths
HungaryBestNov–MarClimate30–84°FCurrencyHUFLanguageHungarianArt nouveau tile, stained glass and a vaulted hall that looks more like a cathedral than a spa.
Glenwood Hot Springs
United StatesEst. 1888BestNov–MarCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishThe largest hot springs pool in the world, in a Colorado river valley, open since 1888.
Hakone
JapanBestNov–MarClimate37–86°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseRyokan soaking with Mount Fuji across the valley, ninety minutes from Tokyo. Clearest views are in the cold months.
Jigokudani Monkey Park
JapanBestDec–FebClimate21–82°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseThe snow monkeys. They only bathe when it is genuinely cold, so the photograph everyone knows requires winter.
Kurokawa Onsen
JapanBestDec–MarClimate28–81°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseA whole village that agreed to ban neon and concrete. One wooden pass gets you into three different open-air baths.
Kusatsu Onsen
JapanBestDec–MarClimate16–75°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseJapan's most acidic major spring, so hot it is cooled by hand with wooden paddles in a performance called yumomi.
Liard River Hot Springs
CanadaBestDec–MarClimate-2–73°FCurrencyCADLanguageEnglishSecond largest hot spring in Canada, deep on the Alaska Highway. The warm microclimate keeps a boreal oasis alive at minus 30.
Myvatn Nature Baths
IcelandBestOct–MarClimate16–55°FCurrencyISKLanguageIcelandicThe Blue Lagoon without the queue, up in the north where the aurora oval sits directly overhead. Steam and green light in the same frame.
Noboribetsu
JapanBestDec–MarClimate21–77°FCurrencyJPYLanguageJapaneseHokkaido's Hell Valley vents sulphur straight into the town's baths. Nine different water types in one place.
Papallacta
EcuadorBestJun–AugClimate37–52°FCurrencyUSDLanguageSpanishAndean thermal pools at 3,300m on the edge of the cloud forest, an hour from Quito. Warmest water, coldest air.
Szechenyi Thermal Bath
HungaryBestNov–MarClimate30–84°FCurrencyHUFLanguageHungarianNeo-baroque palace, eighteen pools, old men playing chess in the steam while it snows. Budapest sits on more thermal water than any capital in the world.
Termas Geometricas
ChileBestJun–SepClimate32–68°FCurrencyCLPLanguageSpanishSeventeen slate pools linked by a scarlet boardwalk through a Patagonian rainforest ravine. Southern hemisphere, so it peaks in the northern summer.
Terme di Saturnia
ItalyBestOct–MarClimate39–90°FCurrencyEURLanguageItalianSulphur water at 37C falling down limestone terraces in open Tuscan countryside. Free, and busiest at dawn for good reason.