In the event you’re happening vacation to Turkey then you definitely can’t miss the chance to go to a conventional Turkish tub. Most resorts will provide this expertise and there are sometimes hammam spas inside your resort complicated.
In the event you’ve acquired a spare afternoon when you’re on vacation, belief me after I say you can’t miss the Turkish baths!
Holidays to Turkey are getting an increasing number of common for us Brits. The truth is, I’m going for the second time on the finish of February and I can’t wait! My first journey was to Phokaia Seaside Resort and it was dreamy! It’s such a wonderful nation, the climate is ideal, the seashores are gorgeous and it’s a really reasonably priced vacation spot. Turkish Airline reserving is nice and also you get way more to your cash at a Turkish resort in comparison with Spain or Greece. So when you’re on the fence about reserving a vacation to Turkey, simply go for it! And be sure to go to a hammam when you’re there!
What’s a Turkish Tub?
Hammam spas and Turkish baths are conventional bathing experiences which have been an integral a part of Turkish and Center Japanese cultures for hundreds of years. Right here’s every part you need to find out about them:
Historical past of Turkish baths
Turkish baths have a protracted historical past relationship again to historic occasions, influenced by Roman bathing traditions and later advanced below Ottoman rule. Hammams particularly seek advice from the Turkish variant of the general public bathhouses.
Conventional Turkish bathhouses are architecturally gorgeous with domed ceilings, marble partitions, and complex tilework. Critically, they put our public swimming swimming pools to disgrace and are nothing like the general public swimming baths within the UK! They sometimes include a number of chambers together with a sizzling room (caldarium), a heat room (tepidarium), and a cool room (frigidarium).
Traditionally, Turkish baths weren’t solely locations for private hygiene but in addition served as social hubs the place individuals gathered to calm down, socialise, and conduct enterprise.
What occurs in a Turkish tub?
Visiting a hammam or Turkish tub includes a cleaning ritual that features steaming, scrubbing, and therapeutic massage. The method normally begins with leisure within the heat room to permit the physique to acclimate to the warmth.
You’ll normally be carrying swimwear and also you’ll lie down and calm down on this beautiful heat room. Once you’re heat, relaxed (and sometimes a bit sleepy!) the expertise will start.
You’ll then be proven right into a steam room which is way hotter, humid and steamy. This helps to open up the pores, cleanse the pores and skin, and promote leisure. You’ll sit or lie within the steam room for a couple of minutes earlier than we get to the nice half…
After your enjoyable steam, you’ll be handled to a vigorous exfoliating scrub utilizing a tough mitt or glove known as a “kese” to take away lifeless pores and skin cells and impurities. This half is sort of embarrassing as a result of the quantity of lifeless pores and skin that comes off is unbelievable. The primary time I had this I’m stunned I had any pores and skin left! Don’t fear, it doesn’t harm or something however you can be stunned by the quantity of lifeless pores and skin you’ve acquired caught to you.
After you’ve been exfoliated, you’ll typically have a beautiful therapeutic massage with conventional olive oil cleaning soap to additional cleanse and moisturise the pores and skin. This therapeutic massage is often carried out on a heated marble slab often called a “gobek tasi.” That is so beautiful and I imagine extra of us ought to have heated marble slabs in our houses!! (Jokes, however probably not!)
What are the well being advantages of Turkish baths?
Except for private hygiene, hammams and Turkish baths have so many well being advantages, together with improved circulation, cleansing, stress reduction, and reduction from muscle pressure and joint ache.
Not solely have they got bodily advantages however the psychological advantages from the relieved stress and social interplay are simply as necessary.
Turkish baths within the twenty first century
Whereas conventional hammams nonetheless exist, many have been up to date and provide fashionable choices too. These could embody steam rooms, sizzling tubs, and therapeutic massage remedies impressed by conventional practices.
What do you put on in a Turkish hammam?
In the event you aren’t certain what to put on in a Turkish hammam, it’s best simply to ask.
Whereas strolling round you’re anticipated to be lined with a towel or dressing robe which they’ll offer you once you enter.
Most guests put on swimwear. It’s swim shorts or trunks for women and men, I’d suggest carrying a bikini as a result of they’ll typically take away your prime for the therapeutic massage and scrub. In the event you’re carrying a swimsuit they may ask you to roll it right down to your waist, which is okay however it’s simpler to simply take away a bikini prime.
In the event you’ve acquired lengthy hair then I’d suggest tying it up or it is going to get in the way in which, in addition to getting oily throughout your therapeutic massage.
Total, visiting a hammam or Turkish tub affords not solely an opulent spa expertise but in addition a glimpse into the wealthy cultural heritage of the area.
