Hi everyone,
Last week, we spent the weekend at the beautiful A-ROSA wellness & spa resort in Travemünde, Northern Germany - not too far from the Danish border.
We drove from Copenhagen early thursday morning and had the entire weekend ahead of us. 😍
A-ROSA is essentially a small chain of hotels/resorts with hotels in four different locations spread across Germany and Austria.
It was our first stay at one of the A-ROSA hotels, and we mainly picked this location (Travemünde) due to its (relative) proximity to where we live in Copenhagen, but also because it was close to the sea. 😊
If you're traveling from Copenhagen, the easiest option would be to go by car, however, if you don't have a car - like us - there are alternative, and also convenient ways of getting there as well.
From Copenhagen to Travemünde, you can either drive all the way across Fyn and down to Germany via Jylland, or alternatively, you can drive across Sjælland to the ferry in Rødby, which takes you all the way to Germany (Puttgarden), from where there's about an hour's drive to Travemünde and the A-ROSA hotel.
We took public transportation, including the ferry, to Germany and rented a car in Lübeck (the stop closest to the hotel on the route). Because the distances in Germany are quite a bit larger than in Denmark, I can definitely recommend you rent a car - especially if you also want to explore the area a bit. Also, it's super easy and cheap to rent a car in Germany.
The A-ROSA hotel itself is quite spacious with around 200 rooms, which is quite an amount, if you ask me.
We normally prefer staying at smaller and more intimate hotels, preferably boutique hotels - or go for the Airbnb option, when we want a very local experience - but despite its big size, we didn't have the feeling of being crammed together with hundreds of other guests. 🙏
Our room was also spacious, nicely decorated and had a lovely bathroom - very important feature when it comes to hotel rooms, if you ask me, haha. 😉 It basically had everything you need from a hotel room plus a beautiful balcony offering an amazing view of the hotel outdoor pool (which is heated during winter season 🙏) as well as of the ocean.
// Sea view is always a favorite. 🙏
And now to one of the things we loove when traveling; breakfast. 😍 Normally, neither of us have breakfast, as we both do intermittent fasting (which I can definitely recommend you guys try! - if you haven't heard of it before, I've written about it HERE).
Either way, finding a good breakfast at the bigger hotels is not always easy, probably due to the large number of guests these hotels have to cook for. Buuut, breakfast at A-ROSA was very different, if you ask me; although it's a large buffet style breakfast, the foods are super tasty, extremely well-assorted and always clean, especially when considering the amount of guests they cook for.
// Soo ready for this breakfast. 😍
I loved the variety of fruits and veggies (and nuts and seeds of course haha 😍) they had at A-ROSA, making it easy to get your daily greens - or at leats parts of it. 😊
// Yummy. 😍
The Germans might not have invented the the sauna tradition, but they have very much embraced it. In fact, Germany has one of the largest spa cultures in all of Europe (with more than a 1000 spas registered across the country 😉), so if you're looking for good spa hotels and resorts, I can definitely recommend you check out Germany next time you're looking for a nice, relaxing weekend getaway.
Also, besides spas being an amazing invention, there's another reason why Germans take their spa culture pretty seriously (which other countries, like Denmark, could definitely learn AND benefit from). Spas have long been recognized for their healing properties and benefits to both mental and physical health, so much that the German healthcare system in fact subsidises such treatments as a way of preventing illnesses, especially when it comes to anxiety, stress, depressions and the like. 🙏
Ok, that was a side-note, I know 😉, but nevertheless an absolutely AMAZING thing, if you ask me. In Germany, doctors in fact work closely with - and use - alternative and complementary treatments like herbal medicines and other natural therapies like sauna and spa treatments. We could learn sooo much from that, and I mean, who wouldn't like spas and saunas to be part of their treatment if it ever came to that? 😊
Like I mentioned, the Germans have a long-standing sauna and spa culture. What I didn't mention, however, is the fact, that they love to do it 'textil-frei', meaning with no clothes on, i.e. naked. 😂
Nudity is basically the norm in the German sauna, and in most spas and saunas, swimsuits are strictly verboten (except for the pool area, which I find quite nice. 😊) Most foreigners, ourselves included (at least the first time), seem weirded out by this, but for the Germans, going nude to the spa and sauna is perfectly normal, and that's also the case when going with friends, co-workers or even mother/father-in-laws. Now, that might be a little too interesting for your liking you might think, but rest assured; there ARE areas in the spa, where you a fully allowed to wear swimsuits, including the big pool, outdoor pool, salt water bath and a few saunas too. 😊
Not sure I'd be up for the latter part either really 😂, but nonetheless we both skipped our swimwear and went all au-naturel. And it wasn't too bad after all, since 1) you keep your towel on as you walk between the different saunas and baths and 2) you most likely don't know anyone besides each other. 😃
Either way, I would definitely do it again - I love the German saunas and spas too much to let that stand in the way, haha. 😃
The spa area of A-ROSA is beautifully decorated and immediately enables you to relax as soon as you walk in. That might also have to do with the fact that your voice should be lowered when talking as you walk around in there, which I actually like. 😊
// Colorful interior of the spa.
I looove saunas and spa not only because they're enjoyable, but, like I mentioned, it is suuuch a good thing to do for your body, and mind not to forget; it naturally enables you relax due to the higher temperatures, but it also makes you sweat - and sweating is way healthies for your body than you might think.
In my latest post on DETOXING THE BODY, I actually included saunas as one of my ten best detox advice.
At A-ROSA, you'll find multiple different saunas and baths. This was the Finnish sauna, where you can also join the Aufguss (i.e. sauna therapy), which includes pouring a mix of water and essential oils on the hot stones of the sauna stove, which then vaporizes and spreads throughtout the air.
During these sessions, the saunas get really hot, so quick dips in cold water are generally recommend and encouraged in between.
We did that out here. And yes, it was iiiice cold - but very refreshing indeed. ⛄
// The biggest of the indoor pools at A-ROSA, where you are allowed to wear your swimsuit. 😉
What is quite amazing here is the fact that a pipeline continually supplies both this pool and three others as well as the seven thalasso baths with fresh seawater.
// A nap in these hot mosaic stone beds is also recommended.
// Artistic lamps in the hotel hallway.
... and someone is ready for dinner and cannot really be bothered with all the artistic stuff, haha 😍
At A-ROSA, you'll find several dinner options. There are four different restaurants, but only three of them were open, when we visited . That was totally fine with us, since more options often only tend to make decisions harder. 😃
If you're up for a gourmet experience, I can recommend you try the Buddenbrooks Restaurant, which mixes the French kitchen with Asian and oriental elements. I really like the fact that all ingredients are grown locally and purchased as they come into season. We even noticed that at the small local greengrocer - that was kinda cool for a relatively small place like Travemünde.
If you're not into the whole gourmet and fine dining, you can try the Wintergartenrestaurant, which serves an AMAZING buffet - the best I've tried so far actually. I'm not normally a buffet-kind-of-person (ok, only when it comes to delicious well-assorted breakfasts haha 😃), but this one was really quite exceptional. I especially liked the concept of having cooks prepare individual hot servings as the major part of the buffet, which of course was supplemented with extra vegetables, salads, differents types of meat and other toppings. I can definitely recommend you try this when visiting A-ROSA.
// Ready for dinner.
... and a mandatory gin tonic(s) here after. 😉
// Bedtime, after a loong, exhausting day in the spa. 😉
// Funny hotel decoration on the way to our room.
We definitely have to come back here again, but next time I think we'll visit the A-ROSA hotel in Kitzbühl.
Which of A-ROSA's hotels would you like to try first - or go back to? 😍 I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice.
Safe travels, guys.