HOT SPRINGS TOURING · THE WORLD’S WARMEST WATER
Find the warm water worth travelling for.
Reviews of the best hot springs on earth, country by country. Volcano-sunrise pools above Bali, the steaming onsen towns of Japan, the geothermal fields of Rotorua, the milky-blue lagoons of Iceland and the white terraces of Pamukkale. We read through the listings so you book the right soak.
Worth the airfare
Three soaks that belong to one place on earth.
You can find a warm pool almost anywhere. But the volcano-sunrise spring above Bali, the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale, and a milky-blue lagoon under an Icelandic sky happen here and nowhere else.
Bali, Indonesia
Sunrise on Mount Batur, then the hot springs
You start in the dark, headlamp on, climbing an active volcano so you are at the rim when the sun breaks over the caldera and the lake below. Then you come back down to a natural hot spring fed by the mountain itself and lower tired legs into warm, mineral-rich water with that same volcano filling the view. Hike and soak in one morning, the most-booked day on the whole site, and a thing you can really only do here.
- 1 Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option
- 2 Mount Batur Sunrise Jeep Tour with Optional Activities
- 3 Mount Batur Jeep Tour and Hot Spring
Pamukkale, Turkey
Wading the white terraces of Pamukkale
Mineral-rich water has been spilling down this hillside for millennia, leaving blinding-white travertine terraces stacked with warm, shin-deep pools you walk barefoot between. Above them lies the ruined Roman spa city of Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s pool, where you swim among fallen marble columns in 36C water. The cotton castle, the locals call it, and there is nowhere on earth quite like it.
See all 1 →Iceland
A geothermal lagoon under a cold sky
Iceland turns its volcanic plumbing into pure pleasure: milky-blue, mineral-heavy water held at bath temperature in the middle of a black lava field or out on a lake in the east. You sit shoulder-deep with steam curling off the surface and the cold Atlantic air on your face, often with snow on the ground. Pair it with the Golden Circle and it is the warmest, strangest hour of any Iceland trip.
- 1 Small-Group Golden Circle, Hvammsvík Spa with Ticket & Crater
- 2 A day in Kerlingarfjöll: Highlands and hot springs
The one everyone books
If you only book one soak.
More travellers reach for this one than any other on the site. A safe first booking in a place you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Hot Springs
Mount Batur, Pamukkale, Rotorua, the Blue Lagoon, the Tokyo onsen. The volcano pools and geothermal soaks travellers reach for first, in the places they most want to warm up.
Where to take the waters
Pick your kind of warm.
Bali for volcano-sunrise pools. Japan for the deep onsen ritual. New Zealand for bubbling geothermal fields, Iceland for milky-blue lagoons, Pamukkale for white travertine terraces, Costa Rica for hot rivers under a volcano. Each region, with the soaks it does best.
Which kind of soak
How to take the waters.
Where the warm water comes from changes the whole day. Three ways to soak, depending on the time you have and how much you want to earn it.
Bali & the volcanoes
Bali soaks you in volcano water.
The whole island runs on heat from below. You climb Mount Batur in the dark for the sunrise, then drop into a natural spring fed by the same volcano to thaw out. There are lakeside pools up at Kintamani, a milky crater bath above Bandung on Java, and quiet jungle springs a short ride from Ubud. Warm, mineral-rich water with a smoking peak in the view, and a soak to pair with almost every climb.
See the best hot springs in Indonesia →Japan & the onsen ritual
In Japan, the soak is the point.
Bathing here is an art with rules: rinse first, leave the swimsuit behind, then sink into mineral water as hot as you can stand. Beppu pipes steam through whole streets and serves up its coloured hells, Gero runs riverside ryokan baths you can wander between in a yukata, and an easy day trip from Tokyo lands you in a mountain onsen by afternoon. Indoor, outdoor, often with snow on the rim, it is the warm heart of any Japanese trip.
See the best hot springs in Japan →The best part
That first second you sink in.
A good hot spring is never just the warmth. It is the long exhale as the water takes the weight off your legs, the steam curling up into cold mountain air, the mineral smell and the quiet that settles over everyone in the pool. You climbed, or flew, or drove a long way to get here, and for one unhurried hour there is nowhere else you need to be.
Browse every hot spring →New Zealand’s North Island
Where the ground itself is warm.
Rotorua sits on a thin crust of the earth: mud pots plop and burp, geysers go off on cue, and the whole town carries a faint tang of sulphur. Walk the silica terraces and the painted thermal lakes, then ease into a warm mineral pool with the steam drifting past. Out toward Taupo a hot river spills into a cold one so you can find your own perfect temperature, and from Tauranga the geothermal valleys are an easy day out.
- 1 Self-Guided Geothermal Tour in Orakei Korako
- 2 Rotorua Geothermal Living Maori Village Tour Whakarewarewa 6.5hours Tour
- 3 Rotorua Geothermal Wonderland Tour – Departs Tauranga
By how much you want to earn it
How long do you want to soak?
Some days you just want to slip into a warm lagoon for an hour. Some days you want to pair the springs with terraces and ruins. And some days you want the whole thing: a dawn volcano climb and a long thaw afterwards. Pick the day, we will point you at the pool.
An hour or two
Just slip into the warm water.A spa or lagoon stop: shoulder-deep in mineral water, steam rising off the surface, the cold air on your face and nowhere you need to be. Towel off and you are back in town by lunch.
Half a day
Terraces, ruins and a long soak.Pair the springs with what is around them: the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale, a Roman ruin or a tea-plantation crater, then an unhurried wade through the warm pools before the bus back.
A full day out
Climb the volcano, then sink in.The big day you plan a trip around: a pre-dawn hike up Mount Batur for the sunrise, then down to a natural hot spring to thaw out tired legs in warm volcanic water. Back by mid-afternoon, glowing.
The cotton castle
Pamukkale is a hillside of warm white pools.
For thousands of years calcium-rich spring water has poured down this slope in southwest Turkey, hardening into dazzling-white travertine terraces stacked with shin-deep, bath-warm pools. You walk them barefoot, then climb to the ruined Roman spa of Hierapolis and float over sunken marble columns in Cleopatra’s pool. Most travellers come on a day trip from Antalya or the coast, and nothing else looks remotely like it.
See all 1 Pamukkale soaks →By place
Pick a place and slip in.
Ubud for the volcano-sunrise springs. Tokyo for city onsen and mountain day trips. Rotorua for the bubbling geothermal fields. Reykjavik for the lava-field lagoons. Pamukkale for the white terraces. La Fortuna for hot rivers under the Arenal volcano.
By country
Every country worth a long soak.
From the volcano springs of Indonesia to the onsen towns of Japan, the geothermal fields of New Zealand to the lagoons of Iceland. Browse by the country whose warm water you want to be in.
Dawn climb to night soak
A perfect day around the water.
New to a spring region and want to build a whole day around it? Here is how it flows, from a dawn climb you earn to a last warm soak after dark.
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