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Wellness & Spa
Thermal springs, spas and recovery after the round.
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Wellness & Spa
Thermal spas and golf: Saturnia, Abano, Salsomaggiore
At Saturnia the greenkeepers spray spring water at 37.5 degrees on the turf every week, because the sulphur keeps fungus at bay; at Galzignano there are fumaroles among the fairways. In Italy golf and thermal spas share more than one address: seven courses, with what you need to know before booking.
7 min read
Wellness & SpaA detox week with golf: what the word really means and where to do it
“The whole idea of detox is nonsense,” says the British Dietetic Association; yet in Franciacorta a relais offers programmes of three to seven days with more than thirty professionals, and a few kilometres away there is a 27-hole course. What these stays really are, and how they pair with golf.
5 min read
Wellness & SpaCryotherapy: what it is for
A chamber at minus 85 degrees inside an Alpine spa, a couples' session included in a Tuscan golf package: cryotherapy has reached golfers' hotels, but research has yet to show that it does what it promises.
4 min read
Wellness & SpaThe finest hotel pools for golfers
A pool that floats on a lake, one carved out of granite rocks, an artificial lake 105 metres across: in golf hotels, water has become architecture. Here are the pools with a story to tell, and when you can use them.
6 min read
Wellness & SpaMuscle recovery after golf: what the research says and what hotels offer
Golfers who play without warming up are 3.2 times more likely to report an injury, according to the researchers behind a 2022 Dutch study protocol. The evidence on recovery after the round is subtler, and worth knowing before you place your trust in the spa.
4 min read
Wellness & SpaMassage for golfers: what the studies say and where to book one in a hotel
Eleven randomised clinical trials and 504 participants: those are the numbers behind a 2017 review of massage after intense exertion, with clearer results at 48 and 72 hours. The limits of the studies, however, are stated by the authors themselves, and they apply to golfers too.
4 min read
Wellness & SpaSpas for couples: eleven hotels where one plays and the other unwinds (or both do)
For two, in a suite of more than 36 square metres with a private steam bath and tub: at the Almar spa on the Jesolo seafront, the “Private Spa” is designed for couples, and it is not the only golf hotel with spaces or hours set aside for those travelling as a pair.
7 min read
Wellness & SpaWinter wellness: the mountain spas
In 2025-26 the Hotel Castel in Tirolo stayed closed from 8 November to 15 April: in the mountains, a spa in winter is not as much of a given as it sounds. Among South Tyrol's golf hotels, here are the ones with heated pools all year round, saunas and even an indoor course for the cold months.
6 min read
Wellness & SpaSpa hotels for golfers: a guide to choosing
A cryogenic chamber at −85 °C, a six-storey sauna tower, six pools of seawater, a spring at 37.5 degrees: at hotels for golfers the spa can be a very different thing from one place to the next, and it pays to choose before booking.
10 min read
Wellness & SpaSpas for families
At six you may enter the Quellenhof's Family Spa, at sixteen its rooftop spa, and at Almar in Jesolo the spa is closed to anyone under sixteen. With children, the minimum age matters more than the square metres: here is where a golf hotel's spa truly welcomes the whole family.
6 min read
Wellness & SpaWorking out on holiday: the gyms of golf hotels
At eight in the morning, before the round, some guests take a free yoga class on a jetty on Lake Garda, while others run on a treadmill looking out over the Adriatic. These are the golf hotels where the gym is genuinely part of the stay.
7 min read
Wellness & SpaYoga and stretching for golfers: what the studies say and where to do it on holiday
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 am, free yoga and Pilates classes are held on the historic jetty of the Grand Hotel Fasano on Lake Garda: a golf-course habit that studies on stretching suggest approaching with caution.
4 min read
Wellness & SpaSaunas and Aufguss in South Tyrol: where to go after golf
Up to six times a day, beneath the five-metre ceiling of the DOME sauna at the Andreus in the Passiria Valley, a master swings a towel over glowing stones: this is the Aufguss, and in South Tyrol it is almost a show.
5 min read
Wellness & SpaThalassotherapy: what it is and where to try it, hotels for golfers
The Treccani dictionary defines it in a handful of words, “a climatic and balneotherapy cure carried out in a marine setting”, but in Italian hotels with golf it can mean six seawater pools, a brackish pool among the rocks or a programme run by a medical director.
4 min read
Wellness & SpaSleep and performance on the course
Across 35,140 nights recorded with wearable devices, 389 professional golfers slept 7.2 hours on average, and those who slept longer and at more regular times finished their rounds with better scores. It is an association, not proof, but it shows where to look before a golf holiday.
4 min read