What Norway’s naked mega-spa is like to visit: a prudish Brit strips off for a ‘hugely liberating’ experience
- The Well, a luxury 104-room hotel in Norway, has Scandinavia’s largest spa and also the only one where nudity is de rigueur in the saunas and steam rooms
- While the space is enormous, the areas feel intimate and safe, with mood lighting and corridors, dividing walls and smaller rooms, so you never feel vulnerable
It feels rather odd to be packing a suitcase for a weekend spa break – and deliberately leaving out a swimsuit.
At least, for some it is strange. For European spa-goers hailing from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, as well as Swedes, Finns, Japanese and Turks, going completely naked in a public spa is entirely acceptable. In many bathhouses, it is mandatory.
Traditionally, hygiene is given as the main reason: if you are alternating between sweating in saunas and dipping into pools over the course of several hours, it is considered more hygienic to sit naked on a towel than in a dripping-wet swimsuit – which then traps sweat, and introduces bacteria into the pool during the next dip.
This is the explanation André Julseth is giving me. He’s general manager of The Well, a luxury 104-room hotel located in the forests of Sofiemyr, outside Oslo, Norway.
It has the largest spa in Scandinavia and also the only one in Norway where nudity is de rigueur in the saunas and steam rooms.
There are exceptions. You can buy and wear the hotel’s branded anti-wicking swimwear in the pools, though you must remove it for the saunas and steam rooms.
You can choose to cover yourself with a small piece of cotton called a peshtemal.
Need a ‘nakation’? Why clothing-optional holidays are trending
And on Tuesdays, swimwear in all the spa areas is optional, to allow shyer spa-goers a chance to visit.
“It’s a very new concept to Norway, so often the first time people come they are sceptical of being naked in front of strangers,” says Julseth, over Zoom, ahead of our trip to The Well. “But then they realise no one actually cares, and it all seems very natural.”
Sceptical is one way of putting it; trepidatious is another, I think, as I take the lift down to the vast spa on The Well’s lower three floors, a wellness space stretching out over 10,700 square metres (115,000 square feet).
Wearing nothing but the hotel’s signature fluffy robe, a pair of pool sliders and my room key on an electronic wristband, I step out into the main pool area where a scene unfolds which – at least, to a prudish Brit – seems almost Bacchanalian.
The central pool is filled with naked people, mainly couples giggling, piggybacking and kissing, while on the poolside loungers couples cuddle and whisper with glasses of champagne and cocktails.
There are also large groups of single-sex friends, both men and women. Everyone appears relaxed and happy.
I take a deep breath, hang up my robe and slippers and step out in my birthday suit.
No one looks at me. No one cares about the bodily imperfections I fret about day to day. And it’s hugely liberating.
While the space is enormous, the areas feel intimate and safe, with dark mood lighting and plenty of corridors, dividing walls and smaller rooms, so even while naked you never feel vulnerable.
After a dip I make my way to explore the dozens of different pools, steam rooms, showers and saunas which range in temperature from a comfortable 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) to an eye-watering 90-plus degrees (over 194 degrees Fahrenheit).
She sprays us enthusiastically with the whisk dipped in ice, then crams handfuls of ice onto our bare bodies and finally empties the freezing water onto our heads
There is the hot, dry Finnish sauna at 90 degrees Celsius, a traditional Russian bathhouse known as a banja, a Japanese sauna and onsen, and a tropical sauna. There is a large area dedicated to the Turkish hammam and even a steam room that emulates the Northern Lights.
There is also an extensive area for massage, wraps and hair treatments. Later, I enjoyed one of the best sports massages I’ve ever had.
For those who can cope with the cold, encircling the hotel is a long winding path through the snowy forest, dotted with 40 sculptures by blue-chip artists such as Antony Gormley and Enzo Plazzotta, ending with an outdoor sauna and icy pool kept at 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit).
I opt for the 90-degree Celsius Banja sauna where a traditional Aufguss is about to start, a 15-minute wellness and entertainment ritual.
As I take my seat on my towel on the lowest bench, surrounded by 30 other naked strangers, a (clothed) Aufgussmeister walks into the room with a stereo blasting jaunty folk songs.
She gets us all clapping and brings out a couple of buckets of ice and a sauna “whisk” of birch branches whose leaves contain antioxidants such as vitamins A and C.
She sprays us enthusiastically with the whisk dipped in ice, then crams handfuls of ice onto our bare bodies and finally empties the freezing water onto our heads.
It’s a loud, hilarious and exhilarating experience, and one of the dozen Aufguss rituals offered complimentary on a daily basis.
Afterwards, it’s perfectly acceptable to go for lunch or dinner in your bathrobe to the third-floor brasserie, and most guests do.
The menu is varied and delicious but not overly health-conscious, with pizzas, burgers and popular desserts such as baked Alaska and crème brûlée on offer.
There are also healthy options, such as the tricolour quinoa salad and a delicious ceviche marinated in lime, mango and chilli.
After dinner, I venture outside where the spa continues, to sit in the balmy 38-degree Celsius (100-degree Fahrenheit) outdoor pool and watch the snowflakes fall over the dark forests below.
Take ice baths to have better sex, an expert says – yes, really
The idea for The Well came from the hotel’s owner, Norwegian billionaire entrepreneur Stein Erik Hagen, the country’s second wealthiest man.
A long-time spa-lover who travelled the world and found the continental practice of nude spa-going much to his liking, Hagen first opened a spa hotel around 15 years ago called Farris Bad in the coastal town of Larvik. It was Norway’s biggest spa at the time.
There, he experimented with “naked Tuesdays”. The concept proved so popular that after selling Farris Bad, in 2015 he set up The Well, which instituted “clothed Tuesdays”.
He wants to live to 110: founder of The Ranch wellness spa on its regimen
“I have visited many spas during my travels around the world and have seen and experienced the benefits it gives people who frequent such establishments – physically, mentally and socially,” he says.
My brief stint ended all too soon. I left feeling refreshed, invigorated and liberated – and definitely feeling I wanted more.
The writer was a guest of The Well.
Bed & breakfast at The Well, which includes a day spa pass, starts from around 1,990 Norwegian kroner (US$190).
