The Coolest Spa in Sweden

Let’s design a city. We will put it on the waterfront with accessibility to Europe’s capitals in a northern location fueled by summer breezes from the Baltic Sea. We won’t do any crime or poverty. Good health care and free education including college will be accessible to all. We will call this city Stockholm and we will people it with a fish eating, Spa going, health conscious, exercising, cycling, and hiking population of wunderkinds.

To be the Spa of note in this kind of setting takes some doing. That is why I was so anxious to visit the Sturebadet Spa, a legendary full treatment community health club Spa that has served residents of Stockholm since 1885.

The Spa is currently located near Kungsgatan gardens, Sturegallerian in an upscale indoor galleria. Inside the galleria you will find a collection of fine clothing and sport related items. Therer upper level houses the food court, our equivalent of fast foods. Here you won’t find any foods that have been fried, super sized, or sauce laden. In fact there food is beautifully displayed, made to order. On the main level is the grand Sturebadet Spa. A doctor and his friend Carl Curman had a vision regarding health and lifestyle. Mr. Curman wanted to give the people of Stockholm access to facilities for swimming, exercising, and better overall health. He specialized in Balneology, the study of medicinal bathing and massage treatments to improve circulation, detoxify the body and use as anti-stress treatments.

Bathing rituals are popular here. Among its many services are the Herbal bath, aromatherapy bath, spirulina algae bath which helps to detoxify the body and nourish the skin giving it a glowing shine. One of their unique rituals is the Turkish bath. (I thought I was in Stockholm, Sweden)! With this treatment you have your own private quarter with a cold plunge pool and sauna. The sensation of the cold plunge pool and the very warm sauna revitalizes your senses and increases your circulation.

What was totally absent from this experience was phony indigenous hype. I was pleased to discover that the Spa does not offer herring based facials.