13 October 2018

Scenic soaks: Top 5 wild hot springs

Sit back, relax and enjoy the mountain views. Warm up this winter in these steamy hot springs in wild and stunning places around the world…

3 mins

1: Deception Island, Antarctic

Hot volcanic springs produce clouds of steam on Deception Island, Antarctic (Dreamstime)

Hot volcanic springs produce clouds of steam on Deception Island, Antarctic (Dreamstime)

A popular stop on Antarctic cruises, the island’s black shores have geothermal qualities. Digging into the sand releases boiling water; mix this with the freezing sea water and you have an instant volcanic steam bath.

2: Uunartoq Island, Greenland

Icebergs floating in the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland (Dreamstime)

Icebergs floating in the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland (Dreamstime)

On Uunartoq, reached by boat from Nanortalik or Qaqortoq, you can lie back in a natural hot spring and watch icebergs float by offshore.

3: Khir Ganga, Himachal Pradesh, India

Thermal bath at Khir Ganga, India (Dreamstime)

Thermal bath at Khir Ganga, India (Dreamstime)

From the Parvati Valley, it takes around four hours to hike to Khir Ganga, a sacred meadow where the Hindu god Shiva was said to have meditated. Here, hot springs come with fine views of the snow-topped Himalayas.

4: Maguse Onsen, Nagano, Japan

Snow monkeys in the onsen hotsprings of Nagano, Japan (Dreamstime)

Snow monkeys in the onsen hotsprings of Nagano, Japan (Dreamstime)

Set in the Japanese Alps, the natural waters of this onsen (hot spring) are best enjoyed in winter, when the views of the surrounding mountains are truly epic

5: Huanglong National Park, Sichuan, China

Huanglong National Park, China (Shutterstock)

Huanglong National Park, China (Shutterstock)

The steamy and luminous-looking limestone terraced pools of Huanglong cascade nearly 4km through a landscape of snowy peaks and forests, home to golden snub-nosed monkeys and giant pandas. You can’t enter the water, but you can admire the pools from a boardwalk.

Related Articles