Boiling Bones

  Watershed Spa, Minneapolis, MN         Hours: 9:00am-11:00pm daily Cost: $63/person for a 2.5 hour session (as of 12/2025) Watershed Spa is located in NE Minneapolis, and the "bath house experience" includes an amazing steam room, large cedar sauna, and hot pool combination. It also has a cold plunge and showers, really nice bathrooms, and a large back room with quiet space, loungers, and hot tea. Though you will share the space with other people, they maintain a meditative space, with panoramic projections, soft music, and a no-talking/no-touching rule. The entry area features items for sale and a quiet, reflective environment.  I have been to Watershed multiple times, but still haven't tried any of their add-on spa options like massage, salt scrub, acupuncture, cupping, or energy work. You can spend as much money here as you like! But the bath house stands alone as a wonderfully restorative experience, and 2.5 hours is the perfect amount of ti...

 Drip Nordic Sauna, Asheville, NC           Hours: 9am-7pm  Cost: $30/person for community sessions (as of 12/25) Drip Nordic Sauna is a large circle of barrel saunas, cold plunges, and other structures set on a hillside overlooking the French Broad River on the outskirts of Asheville, NC. We had a lovely evening session there, with multiple wood-burning saunas and cold showers/baths to choose from. This place has a super friendly, hippie vibe, with music playing, a central fire burning, and lots of places to gather and rest.  You can rent out a private sauna for your group, or rent the entire complex for a large group, but we just did the community session, so we were hanging out with a handful of strangers. I enjoyed the large tent lounge area, as well as sitting and looking at the stars while I cooled down between sauna sessions. There is also a changing area and portable toilets behind the hippie bus. Very beautiful surroundings...

 Hot Springs, NC                 Hours: 3pm-8:30pm (longer on weekends)    Cost: $50-$120 per hour for 2 people ($10 extra per person per hour) (as of 12/25) Hot Springs Resort and Spa has been around since the 18th century in different forms, but was most recently damaged by flooding after Hurricane Helene. It has since been reopened with some new and some old structures, including individual open-air cabin style soaking rooms of different sizes and a historical hotel. We didn't stay in the hotel, so I can't speak to that, but our group of 3 rented one of the smaller cabins for a 2-hour soak. Our cabin overlooked the river, and being there in November, the fresh air was absolutely perfect for taking the water. The tub is emptied, cleaned, then refilled for each group. It felt like it was maybe 101 or 102 degrees, very nice for a 2-hour winter soak! The staff was really friendly and the space felt private even thought it was op...