Where to go in spring: 10 Russian spa hotels, where you can recover
Belated parish Russian Spring is usually accompanied by inhuman fatigue, even if the previous six months you did not move bags, but just sadly lay on the couch. Rehab, detox and smoothies promise to immediately get rid of seasonal blues, gray complexion and vitamin deficiency, but most of all lures the exciting word "wellness", promising that everything will be fine. Spring is probably the best time to go to a spa resort, even if you have never allowed yourself anything like that. We have chosen remarkable hotels in Russia, living in which, given the current rate, is not much different from a trip to Europe. In this case, this is a plus.
"Romanov Forest"
Kostroma
Kostroma, Mon Amour, how the classic sang - five hours from the capital, on the banks of the Volga, which makes it no longer the Moscow region, but not the Far North. The subtitle "eco-hotel" is the last argument for a haggard Muscovite, and he does not lie. You can live in a hotel (in fact, this is a three-story building in the spirit of Finnish honky, like from the movie "Force Majeure") or in forest cottages. Here cycling routes and a helipad coexist in a human way: in the Romanov Forest, they definitely appreciate comfort, but without a touch of elitism. Rooms start at 3600 rubles for a double room on weekdays and end at 26,300 rubles for a villa for 8 guests at the weekend.
Spa here is not a pleasant application for leisure, but the main program number with a huge menu. You can take baths from alpine herbs or milk donkeys or send them to your hammam and partner for peeling, since some procedures here are strategically marked "for men". You can go for a classic in the inevitable bath complex and try one of the 25 types of massage, including Hawaiian lymphatic drainage and yumeiho therapy. Of the other necessary services at the spa, there are indoor and outdoor pools, as well as a full cosmetology package. For future and young mothers, they offer a procedure to improve elasticity and skin tone, for organics fans - cleansing and nourishing of the components selected in accordance with the requirements of the international organization Ecocert. There are also special spa complexes designed for several days.
"Scandinavia"
Sestroretsk
The first attempt to turn Sestroretsk into a popular resort among Russians, spoiled by Europe, was made a little more than a hundred years ago - exactly at the turn of the century. The idea initially caused little enthusiasm among Petersburgers, but then the sapropelic mud and water from the local well was appreciated at an exhibition in the Belgian city of Spa, and life began to boil, and "northern dachas" began to grow around. In the 20s, the Sestroretsk resort was converted into a cardiology resort, and in the 60s a mud bath was built. Country Club "Scandinavia" on the shores of the Gulf of Finland with unobtrusive imperial aplomb tries to revive the pre-revolutionary spirit, while actually restoring two of the summer cottages of the beginning of the XX century - merchant Vasily Likhachev and mathematician Dmitry Shelepin.
One now has 8 suites overlooking the Gulf of Finland, the other has seven family suites with kitchens, plus a 150-meter "summer family apartment" with two bedrooms, where you can simply arrange a birthday. The most affordable rooms are located in the main building and cost from 6500 rubles per day for two. You can come to the spa separately, since it’s only 35 km from the center of St. Petersburg, but there are discounts for hotel guests. Among the services carbon dioxide baths and wraps, aromatherapy and massages, cosmetology and of course the Finnish sauna. The pride of the complex is a heated outdoor pool and jacuzzi, which can be used all year round.
"Siberia"
Tyumen
It is no secret that some modern Russian spa hotels are converted former sanatoriums, which in fact is not at all as scary as it sounds. The Siberia Center for Restorative Medicine and Rehabilitation is one of those: in the old building, indeed, the spirit of the old school is still preserved with numbers that twenty years ago could be considered a luxury. If it scares you, then a few years ago a new building was opened here with much more approximate to the modern hotel standards the rooms “studio”, “suite” and “grand suite”. In the same building is a spa, which is actually only a part of the extensive therapeutic and preventive activities of the sanatorium. Here you can buy a ticket, for example, to the 2-week program "Academy of Healthy Living", and you can rent a room at the rate of guest accommodation: in both, three meals a day, including 15 types of dietary.
In addition to the usual procedures such as massages and wraps, there are baths of non-combustible naphthalan oil, which is located in Azerbaijan, procedures with curative mud from the local lake Tulubayevo and baths and pools with mineral water from a well in the sanatorium. This is not counting physiotherapy, cryotherapy, acupuncture, and so on. As in the "Scandinavia", there is an outdoor heated swimming pool with thermal water, but also several closed different temperatures, including for children. A little scared of the enthusiastic and in some places unscientific description of landscape therapy, on the other hand, they don't seem to force you to hug trees here forcibly, and you can always send older relatives to qigong.
"Luciano"
Kazan
Unlike most hotels from this list, LUCIANO is located in the center of the city: if you wish, you can always combine rehab with a guided tour, if you don’t want to, you can’t leave the local spa and don’t even notice it. It is important to keep in mind that there is a LUCIANO spa complex and the LUCIANO Rezidence Kazan hotel. The aqua zone can be visited unlimited both by guests of all categories of rooms in the spa complex, as well as by apartments of LUCIANO Rezidence Kazan. The former guests call the spa complex only “chic”, and the hotel management also prefers to describe it exclusively in terms of “grandiose” and “super modern”.
In the spa center there are thermal complexes "Winter" and "Summer", in which, for example, there are soaring in the hay and taiga soaring, which uses fir brooms. Among the general procedures, there is a flower peeling or “ritual of washing the feet with a scrub”, as well as a more patriotic massage with bast bast, a spa bath with various oils or types of hydromassage. Massages are full - including anti-cellulite and eight types of Thai, including for children. There is traditionally associated with complete relaxation stone therapy and three Ayurvedic procedures, such as pouring warm medicated oil or buttermilk with herbs on the head to the forehead for half an hour for 4800 rubles. At the center, you can also be tested for food intolerance or thyroid hormones, bold offer acupuncture and even treatment with medical leeches, and there is an oxygen chamber in the beauty clinic.
"Takmak"
Krasnoyarsk
This complex is formally located within the city, but on a pleasant suburb - on the banks of the Yenisei tributary, the Bazaihi river. To say that the surrounding landscape is beautiful is not to say anything: the hotel is located on a slope, and we must understand that on March 8 there is still snow. By today's standards, it's quite cheap to rest here. You can choose from standard hotel rooms, studios and three-room suites in the hotel building or two-level rooms in townhouses, but twelve separate log cottages for 1-3 families look most attractive, and for large companies, the Hunting izba wooden huts are suitable.
It makes sense to go here for walks and the so-called Siberian spa with the corresponding intriguing procedures: cedar sauna or traditional Russian steam bath, pine baths with the addition of Hypericum and eucalyptus, relaxing in a salt grotto, rubbing honey and preparation based on the blood of Altai maral, burning ice massage or copyright - cones. There are more familiar procedures like wrappings or hardware cosmetology, but whoever would prefer them to massage with cones is hard to imagine.
"Grand Hotel Polyana"
Sochi
The task of turning Sochi and its surroundings into a prestigious resort of a European level took place at least in the area of prices - and one cannot wait for mercy for a wallet from any local hotel with the prefix "spa". On the shore there is the "Radisson Blu Paradise Resort & Spa" and the absolutely chic "Rodina Grand Hotel and Spa", but since the beach season starts well in Sochi in June and the ski season ends in April (and for a number of other reasons) we would prefer to look towards the mountains. The Grand Hotel Polyana is located on one of the four mountain tourist complexes of Krasnaya Polyana - Gazprom, which is also called the Laura by the name of a local river. The resort is loved for general respectability and infrastructure, and also for pleasant tracks for beginners. But if you did not get up on skis or a board in your life, nothing prevents you from admiring the wheelchair from the window of the room or, excuse me, the balcony of a two-story wooden villa.
The cost of living is the same as on the website, that through Booking.com: for example, today at the beginning of April they offer double deluxe for 8500 rubles, and a noble family suite for four with a fireplace, two bedrooms and two bathrooms - for 20 000 rubles per day. It does not make sense to go into the list of local spa procedures in detail - it has everything you expect from a high-class spa at a five-star hotel, and it costs that much. Hour massage from après-ski to hot herbal bags - 4000-4500 rubles, 70 minutes in the Russian bath with classical soaring, honey and salt scrub, tea drinking and relaxing massage will cost as much as 70 minutes. Two-hour lymphatic drainage procedure with algae Bora-Bora - 7,000 rubles, one-hour body biostimulation - 3,500 rubles.
"Plaza"
Kislovodsk
It is difficult to live in Russia and know nothing about the Caucasian Mineral Waters resort region. It was there that Lermontov regularly sent his heroes - to heal with healing water and restore composure, a third of the inhabitants of the former USSR had time to relax here. We see nothing wrong with following the advice of a classic of Russian literature and go to Kislovodsk to recover after winter. Immediately make a reservation, hope for a budget vacation in the sanatorium "Plaza" is not necessary. The cost of a basic 10-day spa voucher starts from 59 thousand, but it includes almost a complete medical examination with subsequent treatment with mud, mineral waters (and even baths), herbs and health paths - dosed walking along a special route.
Looking at the list of services and procedures of Kislovodsk "Plaza", it is easy to take her for the hospital - such a comprehensive examination and complex specialized treatment programs are offered by the resort. However, no one bothers to go here, what is called a savage, to rent the simplest room in the Plaza, and buy everything else separately and at will. It is good to choose from: narzanny baths, a cult Charcot's douche and a huge choice of cosmetology services - from cleansing and massage to wraps and rejuvenating procedures.
"Riviera Club"
Anapa
The popular Russian family resort, known for its sandy beach, a gentle entry into the water and an earlier swimming season than in neighboring Sochi, is indeed an adequate alternative to democratic foreign destinations, to which you can fly longer, and there are no less compatriots there. "Riviera Club" works on the system "all inclusive", which reduces the differences and does to a minimum, and the territory and numbers are drawn to the four without any special claims. Of course, a specific idea of beauty in places makes itself felt - for example, in the luxurious suite "Dolce Vita" you can step into the bath directly from the carpet, but you hardly want to do it. Standard room and double studio look much nicer.
What really distinguishes the Riviera Club from analogs is the sanatorium-and-medical heritage of the former Soviet resorts, in particular, several weekly or two-week programs. "Movement without pain" is designed for anyone who suffers from arthritis or recovers from fractures, "Free breathing" - for asthmatics or prone to chronic bronchitis, and so on. All programs include medical consultations, as well as, depending on the specifics of the treatment, aero hydro-massage baths, various types of massage, galvanic mud, speleotherapy, magnetic laser therapy, dry carbon dioxide bath, and so on. In addition, there is a spa with oriental care (especially attracting the ritual of "Fig and date"), hydrotherapy and a truly luxurious indoor pool with hydromassage.
"Demidkovo"
Permian
In recent years, we have had several opportunities to make up our own perception of Perm, so there has never been there. In the late 2000s, local authorities and gallery owner Marat Gelman tried to turn the city into a new cultural capital, but gradually a series of bold art projects, theater productions and festivals came to naught. All that remains is a new cultural policy and the famous inscription "Happiness is not far off" on the local quay. Next, Perm boomed all over the country with the TV show “Real Guys”, in which it appeared as the patsan capital. It's time to get to know the city from a new side: the “Demidkovo” sanatorium is located 40 km from it - a wellness corner in a pine forest on the bank of the Kama River.
Here, according to tradition, people are treated with mud and water, and special programs include, for example, rehabilitation for children and big bosses (“Schoolboy. Restart” and “Director. Restart”). The spa program at Demidkovo is interesting for geographic specialists: in addition to massage with pine cones, they can arrange heating in a cedar term with fir balsam, arrange a detox ritual "Flax shirt" and hold a Russian Shaman bath ceremony. You can live in the hotel complex or rent a separate cottage, and in the intervals between soothing and healing baths play tennis, volleyball and ride bicycles.
"Old House"
Rostov-on-Don
The "Old House" hotel turns its language to describe with one of two clichés: "Russia is a country of contrasts" or "Russian glamor, senseless and merciless," a five-star Resort & Spa 35 kilometers from Rostov is located near the Ust-Koysug hamlet, where the main gas started to spend only a couple of years ago. If you do not take into account that there is still no school on the farm, and the most charming hotel room costs 25 thousand rubles a day, then it definitely makes sense to go here - as they say, we live once. First of all, "Old House" boasts a royal decoration, where, within the same room, decorators could famously combine Provence, Classicism and a log Russian log cabin. As they say on the site, a photo session in the interior of the hotel will still please the eye for a long time. From additional entertainments they offer hunting for a boar and a walk on a yacht along the Don or the river Koysug flowing into it, at the confluence of which the hotel is located. An hour walk on a six-seater boat will cost 10 thousand rubles, a river transfer from Rostov-on-Don or back - 15 000 rubles.
In a separate spa there is a 15-meter swimming pool and an ice font with a water temperature of 13 degrees, a hammam and a Finnish bath, massage, soap peeling, the main set of procedures for the face and body and, for example, a "Hollywood complex" - an hour and a half preparation face makeup and styling. Of the more original proposals, there is wine therapy, including body wrapping based on red wine extract. For those who like to take wine not only externally, but also orally, there is a pleasant opportunity to drink a glass of white or red Italian wine before or after any procedure of wine therapy (for an additional 480 rubles).
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