It’s hard not to enjoy visiting a destination like Soak Bathhouse, a sophisticated new level of bathhouse on Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast, when every corner you turn is good for your health. It may feel like you’ve travelled to an island holiday but considering that’s been off the cards for a while, Soak Bathhouse was the best thing to happen in 2020, writes Cameron Pine.
Soak Bathhouse offers clients a welcome escape from the daily grind and promotes a holistic approach to wellness in body, mind and spirit. Their rejuvenation experience supports the four pillars of wellness – recovery, nutrition, movement and connection. No matter what package or experience you go for, you are guaranteed to leave this beachside strip feeling completely rejuvenated.
“We have been blown away by the positive feedback since opening, and visitation numbers have far exceeded our initial expectations. People are crying out for experiences that make them feel good and improve their health and wellbeing, and Soak Bathhouse is meeting that demand. We literally have people every day say to us ‘thank you so much for opening, we needed this,’” said co-founder Alexis Dyson.
Feeling more like a glamorous answer to Palm Springs than a dark and steamy bathhouse, it’s the inside out feel that mimics the true Mermaid Beach lifestyle that really sets it apart, where Alexis and fellow co-founder Niki Dean say placement of the areas was key to the flow of the experience.
With the mission to make wellness accessible and help people realise that it is possible to make people feel great every day, Alexis first spent years in the fitness industry with a highly successful gym franchise but soon began to see that people needed a more holistic approach to wellness.
“Many are juggling the pressures of work and family and trying to stay fit, and the bodies are the first to suffer without proper rest and recovery,” Alexis said. “We loved health and wellness retreats, but couldn’t afford the time or money to use them regularly. We were seeking a new kind of wellness experience.”
The destination includes a bathhouse with indoor and outdoor Himalayan salt and magnesium pools for complete recovery, a cold plunge pool, sauna, steam and an infra-red sauna for those serious wellness warriors.
“Soak Bathhouse is a new concept and hasn’t been done before to this scale in an urban location. Creating a high quality experience with the pools was a challenge, as we wanted the best commercial grade pools and filtration systems to ensure the water quality and experience was exceptional. Rather than using ‘off the shelf’ or home-use spas and pools, as many businesses do, we custom built our pools on site and went for high grade monitoring and filtration systems so that we could be confident in the quality of our water and experience every day,” Alexis said.
There’s also a self-guided yoga studio, digital yoga, a pilates and meditation studio, a co-working space and private treatment rooms for massage and skin treatments.
Blending an industrial feel, with a delicate freshness with natural stone and limestone and flashes of green and pink – the palette and atmosphere is very on-trend without feeling too fancy that you can’t relax and really enjoy what the venue has to offer. It’s luxury but with a barefoot bent. Drift between open-air hot spas, communal mineral baths, cold plunge, steam rooms and saunas for a 90-minute micro dose of wellness.
“The magnesium pools and hot and cold contrast therapy are my favourite features. Bathing in magnesium is so good for your health, and then moving between spas, hot saunas or steam, and into a cold plunge takes the health benefits to the next level. Guests talk most about how different they feel after they have been at Soak Bathhouse. After 90 minutes they walk out like they are floating on a cloud and are always saying that they feel so relaxed. Many will also let us know that they had the best, deep sleep that night, which is a flow on effect of the magnesium and relaxation,” Alexis said.
There are single visit rates and packages for those who really want to take it all in, memberships and gift cards. More than just a place to soak, it’s the wellness pillars that help the Soak Bathhouse experience to stand apart.
Built on pillars of recovery, nutrition, movement and connection, Soak Bathhouse is all about the power of creating a better daily ritual.
For more information visit www.soakbathhouse.com.au
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