For our fall hiking holiday this year we went to the Dolomites in the South Tyrol of northern Italy. This area is a favorite not just for the great hiking, biking and food, but also for the wonderful Spa Resorts. A typical day at an Alpine Spa Resort includes hiking, stopping at a mountain hut for lunch along the way, two or three hours of relaxing sauna in the evening followed by wonderful meals with friends old and new.
One couple we know from Germany visit Adler every fall โ she goes on challenging hikes and climbs with her friends and he enjoys a wonderful day relaxing in the spa. And for those looking for greater challenges there are ample opportunities for both longer hikes and more technically challenging climbs. These are all-inclusive European style so you have an assigned table for dinner. This allows you to get to know your dinner neighbors and servers.
There is also wonderful hut to hut hiking in the Pyrenees and hundreds or thousands? Or for more hike than spa some options from Outsider and Crave The Planet.
This culture and language still predominates, including with sauna practices. Every sauna includes sand clocks and aromas for the water buckets and some people brought their own oils which resulted in some fun experimentation and voting on which everyone wanted to use.
Germans tend to prefer a slightly less intense steam that hangs around longer than the somewhat more intense steam that needs to be removed quickly in Finnish Saunas. I like both and with the variable mechanical downdraft ventilation in our home sauna we can do both but generally prefer the more intense Finnish steam.
