13 of the best bathhouses in Sydney to unwind at

By Lara Picone
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Ready, set, and rejuvenate at these beautiful bathhouses in Sydney.

Whether you’re deeply invested in the health benefits of contrast therapy or simply love to submit to dedicated chill time in a steam room, you’ll find a Sydney bathhouse that fits your wellness style. From traditional hammams to fitness-focused health spaces, leisurely lounging and beauty-based freshen-ups, these are the top places to unwind both body and mind.

1. Capybara Bathing

friends enjoying a relaxing dip at Capybara Bathing

Chill out at Capybara for some quality bath time. (Image: Declan Blackall)

Wellness can be found anywhere, even in the heaving and hip topography of Surry Hills. Come along to sweat it out and chill out with a 90-minute session at Capybara, which includes access to a magnesium thermal bath, hot stone sauna, cold plunge and hammam. Prices vary between peak and off-peak periods, so if you can come before 5pm on a weekday you’ll save yourself $5.

Cost: From $65 for 90 minutes.
Address: Groundfloor 235-239 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills

2. Nature’s Energy

the spa room at Glebe bathhouse and spa, Nature's Energy

Get pampered for hours at Glebe bathhouse and spa. (Image: Supplied)

Restore balance at one of the three Nature’s Energy bathhouses located in Glebe, Balmain and Newtown. You can pair your bathing session with a spa treatment, tarot reading or crystal healing session to really locate your inner peace. Each of the outposts has a slightly different offering but you’ll find ice baths, spas and steam rooms at all. A 90-minute session is $60, but on weekdays you can get 90 minutes for the price of 60.

Cost: From $60 for 1 hour
Address: Check website for various locations

3. Nimbus Co

LED therapy lounge at Nimbus Co

The non-invasive LED therapy helps with anti-aging. (Image: Maxwell Finch)

It’s all about opposing temperatures at Nimbus, where their carefully designed therapeutic spaces enhance wellness through extremes. Their community-minded spaces now include studios in Bondi, Manly, and Neutral Bay (not to mention Byron Bay and two Melbourne outposts). Oscillate between hot and cold in the sauna, ice baths and LED lounge.

Cost: Prices vary depending on add-ons, but start at $27 for a 20-minute ice bath session
Address: Check website for various locations

4. Soak Bathhouse

the magnesium pool at Soak Bathhouse, Sydney

Plunge into the magnesium-rich pool at Soak Bathhouse. (Image: Supplied)

Hugely popular north of the border, the beloved Queensland Soak Bathhouse is coming to Sydney with two locations set to open in Bondi and Alexandria. Bringing that Gold Coast resort energy to Sydney with bright, light-filled spaces that encourage a community ambience, Soak really feels like a micro getaway. Come day or night to enjoy magnesium pools, infrared saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges and cedarwood saunas.

Cost: From $35 for 1 hour
Address: 88 Ebley Street, Bondi Junction

5. Gillian Adams

the aquamedic pool at Gillian Adams

Rehydrate your body with a relaxing dip at the aquamedic pool. (Image: Gillian Adams)

This lower north shore pamper house caters to the real housewives of Turramurra and everyone else who needs a little lavish TLC. There’s a salon menu and spa packages, but we’ve included Gillian Adams in our bathhouse list for the aquamedic pool and steam package, where you can unfurl bodily stress with oxygenated water and reflexology jets that soothe muscles.

Cost: $90 for 1 hour or $80 when paired with another treatment
Address: 1356 Pacific Highway, Turramurra

6. The Skin and Bath House

a Swedish sauna at The Skin and Bath House, Sydney

Sweat out toxins in a Swedish sauna. (Image: Supplied)

Melt into yourself with a session at this Rozelle bathhouse where you can sweat happily in a Swedish sauna and soak in an ice bath for a bit of weekly contrast therapy. It’s all in aid of lowering stress, enhancing immune function and improving circulation, among many other purported benefits.

Cost: $40 for 30 minutes
Address: 634 Darling Street, Rozelle

7. Ottoman Turkish Bath and Day Spa

the Ottoman Turkish Bath and Day Spa, Sydney

This day spa offers a luxe escape from the city’s hustle and bustle. (Image: CTRL Media)

This tranquil sanctuary is a hidden Ottoman jewel in Sydney’s west. For those who’ve enjoyed the delights of a hammam in Istanbul, you’ll know what to expect. Everyone else will be gob-smacked by the beautifully soothing setting, where tactile stone, marble basins and gently trickling water transport you to far-flung places. Ease yourself onto the hot marble slab, then enjoy the hot tub and sauna facilities. There are plenty of packages to choose from, including the Cleopatra, which includes a full-body massage and a honey and milk treatment.

Cost: From $110 per person
Address: Level 2, 46 Wellington Road, South Granville

8. The Bathhouse

the hydrotherapy spa at The Bathhouse

Book an hour-long soak session at The Bathhouse. (Image: Supplied)

Palm Springs-inspired The Bathhouse is all set for your girl gang to settle in and soak. That’s not to say men and solo soakers aren’t equally welcome to work on their wellness, but this place is certainly ready for hens parties and those all-important girls’ days out. Flit between sauna, steam room, hydrotherapy spas and magnesium plunge pool and lounge about on a day bed with cocktail just to keep the balance. Add a facial treatment or massage to really lean in.

Cost: $90 for 2 hours or all-day (6 hours) for $160
Address: 139 Camden Road, Douglas Park

9. Arisoo Korean Bathhouse and Spa

Gravitate to K-beauty at this traditional-style, women-only Korean bathhouse where guests bathe naked (although this isn’t compulsory) in a calming 39-degree herbal bath and banish tension in the steam room and dry barrel sauna. As with Korean tradition, your experience will begin with a cleansing shower before you enter the bathhouse or treatment room. Relish a scrub, massage or facial and enjoy a two-hour stay at the bathhouse.

Cost: Enjoy an Arisoo Silky Scrub for $119, which includes 2 hours in the bathhouse
Address: 495A Oxford Street, Paddington; 2/7 Help Street, Chatswood

10.  XtraClubs

people relaxing at Xtra Clubs, Sydney bathhouse

XtraClubs is perfect for those in need of some R&R. (Image: Supplied)

Inviting everyone to relish the hot and the cold from their large, Finnish-style communal sauna, ice baths, steam room and infrared sauna, XtraClubs are determined to make bathhousing accessible with their deliberately competitive pricing. Offering memberships, they’re hoping guests will use their club as they would a gym. Bondi is the first to open, but ambitious plans are already underway for more venues across Sydney, including Cronulla, Green Square, Liverpool, Manly, Marrickville and more.

Cost: $39 for 90 minutes
Address: 434 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction

11.  Slow House

Slow House bathhouse

Slow House has become a go-to for Bondi locals.

Take a deep breath and slow it right down at this sleek Bondi basement bathhouse that’s part of the suburb’s exclusive wellness centre, Beachouse. Be sure to wear your most stylish swimming costume as you dip into the magnesium pool, chill in the cold plunge and sweat it out in the sauna and steam room. There’s also a tempting menu of full-body treatments, massages and facials.

Cost: $55 for 90 minutes
Address: 151 Curlewis Street, Bondi

12.  Moroccan Hammam

Exclusively for women, this beautiful hammam is said to be the first of its kind in Australia and will have you feeling like a pampered Arabian princess. Richly decorated in Moroccan style and offering an array of indulgent packages to leave you aglow, you’ll enjoy steam and hot water bathing alongside tea and sweets. Choose a treatment that may include a scrub, body mask, hair wash or coffee foot scrub. Heavenly!

Cost: Prices start with the ‘deluxe hammam’ at $160 for 45 minutes, which includes a body mask, clay mask and hair wash.
Address: 31 Grose Street, Parramatta

13. Sense of Self

sense of self sydney bathhouse

Dive into Sense Of Self when it opens in Sydney.

Another new one to get spa lovers excited in the second half of 2025, is the opening of Sense Of Self in Sydney, after the success of its popular Melbourne location. Dubbing itself ‘Australia’s first modern bathhouse’, expect multiple large mineral pools, spacious saunas, a Hammam steam room and Cold Plunge pools. As well as dedicated treatment rooms and plenty of relaxation space

Cost: If Melbourne is an indication, prices start at a reasonable $65 for two hours in the baths, while massages are upwards of $160.
Address: Exact address TBC, but it will be on the border of Surry Hills and Paddington

For more pampering experiences, check out the indulgent spas in Sydney.

Working for many of Australia’s top publications, Lara Picone has had the distinct pleasure of writing, editing and curating content about the finer things in life for more than 15 years. Graduating from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, her editorial foundation began at Qantas: The Australian Way magazine, before moving on to learn the fast-paced ropes of a weekly magazine at Sunday Magazine and picking up the art of brand curation at donna hay magazine. Pivoting a near-problematic travel lust into a career move by combining it with storytelling and a curious appetite, her next role was as Deputy Editor of SBS Feast magazine and later Online Editor of SBS Food online. She then stepped into her dream job as Editor of Australian Traveller before becoming Online Editor for both International Traveller and Australian Traveller. Now as a freelancer, Lara always has her passport at-the-ready to take flight on assignment for the Australian Traveller team, as well as for publications such as Qantas Magazine, Escape and The Weekend Australian. As ever, her appetite is the first thing she packs.
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I’ve stayed in 21 hotels in Sydney and this is my favourite

    By Rachael Thompson
    Continue
    Welcome to the first instalment of Hotel Addict, a monthly column where I check into Australia’s best hotels, exploring not just the rooms, but the stories, service and settings that make each stay unforgettable and worth adding to your wishlist.

    Hotel stays have quietly become my thing. Long before I became a travel journalist, I was booking staycations just for a change of scenery. Some had charm, some had character, some had neither. Once, I even stayed in a hotel directly opposite my own apartment – partly for the novelty, partly because I wanted to see my life from a different angle.

    For me, hotels represent a kind of mystery – I find myself wanting to know what these buildings contain. Many of them are designed with intention: lighting, materials, scent and sounds that often reflect the city they sit in. Time seems to gently pause in these spaces, which have increasingly become the destination itself for modern travellers.

    It only felt fitting for the first hotel in this series to be in my home city and at the hotel that’s been at the top of my list: Capella Sydney. 

    A sandstone heritage building and palm trees

    Capella sits within an Edwardian Baroque‑style sandstone building.

    An email with a hotel program from the “Culturist Team” lets me know this will be a luxurious stay. There’s a guided walk around the Botanic Gardens, a weaving workshop and a Sydney contemporary art tour – the kind of addition that signals a hotel that’s tuned into the finer details, and one that’s not surprising given that Capella’s ethos centres on delivering personalised, immersive experiences. 

    Capella opened in 2023 within a transformed Edwardian Baroque‑style sandstone building in Sydney’s CBD that was originally designed by renowned Scottish-Australian architect George McRae. I often walk past this building and once attended an event inside – I distinctly remember being surprised by how beautiful it was. Bar Studio, Make Architects, and stylist Simone Haag were engaged to sensitively adapt the building for contemporary luxury while honouring its past, in collaboration with Heritage NSW and the City of Sydney.

    When I arrive, I’m greeted by three different staff members along the way to reception. There’s a lovely subtle scent, which I later learn combines notes of bergamot, green tea leaves, peony, freesia, vetiver and cedarwood. This hotel strikes such a beautiful balance between grandness and intimacy, with large floral bouquets, contemporary artworks, impressively high ceilings that give it an international feel and quieter nooks to unwind in. Each space is unique, but they’re all unified by a warm, textural and layered design.

    Sydney has been deserving of a hotel of this calibre for quite some time, with many of the accommodations in the city looking and feeling dated.

    A modern hotel reception with high ceilings

    The design strikes the perfect balance between grandness and intimacy.

    I have a treatment booked at the hotel’s Auriga Spa prior to check-in. The space is ultra-luxe, moodily lit and intimate, featuring timber joinery, green walls and a sleek design that’s so perfect it almost transports me to Japan. I opt for the Replenish Beauty and LED Facial – a strategic choice with a TV segment on the horizon, and a hopeful bid to look extra fresh for the camera.

    The treatment begins with me sitting in the softest robe of my life, wearing slippers and sipping chamomile tea. I’m then whisked away to my private treatment room, which has its own bathroom, a large skylight and a small Japanese-style garden. The treatment is extremely relaxing and moves through cleansing, exfoliating, massaging (arm, head, neck and face) and LED Light Therapy. There’s so much attention to detail – even at the end, the facialist puts my slippers back on me, while I’m still lying down.

    Spa treatment room with a massage bed, featuring timber walls and a serene Japanese-style garden visible through a window.

    A treatment at Auriga Spa might be the best way I’ve ever started a hotel stay. (Image: Rachael Thompson)

    While this treatment certainly hasn’t had a Benjamin Button effect, my sister seems to think I’m glowing, so I walk away happy, or at the very least, zen.

    Auriga Spa has a sauna, steam room, ice fountain and a beautiful indoor heated swimming pool. There’s also “experiential showers” – new to me, but essentially it combines water flowing from different places, changing temperatures, mood lighting, gentle sounds, and a subtle lemongrass scent.

    You could easily spend the better part of a day at the spa and pool, even if you’re not a guest.

    The indoor heated swimming pool with glass ceiling at Capella Sydney.

    Guests outside the hotel can use the spa and swimming pool. (Image: Rachael Thompson)

    I’m escorted to my room, drunk on relaxation, but I make sure to take note of how noisy the hallways are – answer: dead quiet. My room is 50 square metres, which is huge by hotel standards, but particularly for one in the CBD. It feels like a high-end apartment with floorboards, a freestanding bath and a seating/dining area. My eyes are immediately drawn to the line-up of macarons waiting for me on the dining table. 

    I’m thrilled to see the mini bar armoire includes a small wine fridge stocked with Minuty Prestige Côtes de Provence, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Handpicked Wines Pinot Noir, and Moët Grand Vintage. Not that I plan on using it (I simply could not justify the prices) – but it’s a nice extra that makes the room feel that much more luxurious. The drinks lineup reads like a who’s-who of local favourites – Young Henrys, Maybe Sammy cocktails, Four Pillars gin and Archie Rose gin. Snacks include Tyrell’s chips, Pringles, Natural Confectionery lollies, and a Carman’s oat bar. 

    Some small touches I appreciate that some hotels don’t offer: the option to choose your housekeeping time, an iron that actually works well, a Bluetooth speaker, the beloved wine fridge, aluminium water bottles and a bathroom without a glass door or screen that awkwardly exposes you. The one downside is that some of these rooms don’t offer much in the way of a view.

    A modern hotel room with a monochrome paletter.

    I stayed in a Premier Room which was elegant and relaxing. (Image: Rachael Thompson)

    4:30pm is Swill Hour – a daily tradition that nods to the historical “six o’clock swill” in Australia. This one-hour event takes place in the Living Room and invites guests to gather and enjoy each other’s company with a signature cocktail in hand. This afternoon’s tipple is a Eucalyptus Gimlet, a clever, herbaceous little cocktail, by the multi-award-winning Maybe Sammy Team, served on coasters depicting drawings of the historic building. The canapé of the day is a tomato and stracciatella tart. I noticed several staff members chatting with guests like old friends, asking how their adventures earlier in the day went – clearly remembering previous conversations from earlier visits. 

    Dinner is booked for 6:30pm in Aperture – arguably the most beautiful area of the accommodation. It’s decorated with Australian flora and features a kinetic sculpture hanging from the roof that opens like flowers, with softly changing lights. Tyler, who is serving us, clearly admires the Capella brand, speaking enthusiastically about the other international properties he’s been to and sharing how he sometimes brings his five-year-old daughter here to use the pool.

    Interior of Aperture at Capella Sydney, featuring lush greenery and a striking ceiling-mounted sculpture.

    The scale of Aperture gives it an international feel.

    I kick things off with a basil melon margarita – a winning recommendation – before tucking into the best prawn toast I’ve ever had. For mains it’s crispy Ōra King salmon and spaghetti with mud crab. 

    When I arrive back at my room, there’s a vegan leather journal on my bed with a note that says: “The ritual of journaling allows us to pause, reflect and focus.” This is part of the turndown service, and my slippers are neatly lined up next to my bed. Will I journal? No. Do I think it’s a nice touch? Yes.

    Brasserie 1930 at Capella Sydney, where Art Deco elegance meets contemporary Australian cuisine.

    Brasserie 1930 boasts Art Deco elegance.

    The next morning, I make the predictable choice of smashed avo for breakfast at the on-site restaurant, Brasserie 1930. There’s also a buffet brimming with all the usual suspects.

    Afterwards, I head to the pool to relax for a few hours before the 11am checkout. Despite my earlier resolve not to journal, I find myself reflecting nonetheless – an irony not lost on me – on my 21st hotel stay in Sydney. I write this with growing assurance that great hotels don’t just provide a place to stay; they create memorable moments, thanks in large part to fantastic staff. Kudos to the hiring manager.

    Next stop: The Tasman, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Hobart!