Caldes de Montbui, Spain


Caldes de Montbui    Hours: Reservation Only

Cost: $48/person for 2 hour session (as of 8/24)

 In August 2024, we took a bus from Barcelona to the sweet, sleepy town of Caldes de Montbui to visit a hot springs. These thermal baths have been used as a resort/spa since Roman times, and are the oldest Roman baths on the Iberian peninsula.

The bus took about an hour, and cost less than 10 euros. It was an easy walk through town, and we saw a gorgeous cathedral, a gulley full of community garden plots, and lots of evidence of the long history of the hot springs in this town. We encountered a large, public open covered pool of hot water with a lot of informational plaques we unfortunately couldn't quite read because they were in Catalan. We also saw the "lion fountain" which was historically used by the townspeople for collecting hot water, as well as some extremely ancient Roman bath ruins.

Our 2-hour reservation at the Espai CEL hot springs spa (located underneath the Hotel Victoria) included lockers, bathrobes, and bathroom/ showers. It cost just under 50 euros per person, and gave us access to a variety of different pools of different temperatures and types, a steam room, mist shower, and cold plunge. There were ice water and ice tea stations, and meditative music playing in the background, and an employee walked around the pools ringing a small gong on the hour, so you would know when your time was up.

The pools are a beautiful combination of ancient stonework retrofitted with hyper-modern design. They are all underground, and they built the pools to fit the existing historical architecture, so some of them are really odd shapes. A few pools are still, one has a slatted floor so that the jets bubble up all around you. One pool is half open to the outside (but down deep in the ground), so you could look up at the sky (or be rained on, as we were for a few glorious minutes!). Other pools have chaise-shaped soaking areas or buttons you can push to start a flow of waterfall or spouts to massage your neck. 

This hot springs feels modern and luxurious, and while exploring it, we also discovered a quaint and enchanting town that I would love to spend more time in. It was truly a dream!



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