Spas in Central Asia

Bukhara is the place for a historic hammam. Bozori Kord is the best known: a cluster of domed rooms of increasing heat, where an attendant gives a scrub, a vigorous massage and a dousing. It has traditionally served men, and women usually go to the Kunjak hammam near the Kalon minaret, which has women-only sessions. The Sarrafon hammam, by the Toki Sarrafon trading dome, is another working bath. Expect to pay the equivalent of roughly $20 to $50 for a full session, and book through your guesthouse a day ahead for a set time.

In Khiva, the walled Itchan Kala preserves the bathhouse of Anusha Khan from the 17th century, which you can visit as a monument; for a working scrub most visitors use a hotel hammam. Samarkand and Tashkent have plenty of modern hammams and saunas in hotels.

For a few days of mountain air, Tashkent families head to Lake Charvak and Chimgan, about 80 km from the capital, where resort hotels have pools, saunas and massage, and the lake is warm enough to swim in July and August. See our Uzbekistan historic sites guide for Bukhara and Khiva beyond the baths.

Issyk-Kul, a slightly salty lake at about 1,600 m that never freezes, is the country’s summer resort. The north shore around Cholpon-Ata and Bosteri is lined with Soviet sanatoriums and newer spa hotels offering mineral baths, mud treatments and massage, with sandy beaches in front. July and August are busy and lively; June and September are quieter and cheaper.

The hot springs are better on the south and east sides. Altyn-Arashan, a valley above Karakol at about 2,600 m, has simple wooden bathhouses over the springs, reached by a rough 4x4 track or a half-day walk, and it is the usual last night of the Ala-Kul trek. Each guesthouse runs its own pool, and a soak costs a few hundred som (a few dollars). Closer to town, Ak-Suu (Teploklyuchenka) has a sanatorium and public hot pools. West along the shore, the old Jeti-Oguz sanatorium uses radon springs below the red sandstone cliffs known as the Seven Bulls.

For a retreat with no spa at all, the walnut forests and lake of Sary-Chelek in the south are as restful as Kyrgyzstan gets.

In Almaty, the Arasan baths, opened in 1982 in a domed modernist building in the city centre, are a local institution. Separate sections cover a Russian banya with birch-twig beatings, a Finnish sauna and a Turkish hammam with cold plunge pools; men and women bathe in separate halls. Entry is a few thousand tenge (around $6 to $10), with scrubs and massages extra.

Lake Alakol, in the far east near the Chinese border, is a salt lake whose mineral water and black mud draw Kazakh families in July and August to resort villages on its shore; facilities are basic but cheap. Saryagash, near Shymkent in the south, is a sanatorium town built on mineral springs, and in the north the pine forests and lakes of Burabay have spa resorts popular with visitors from Astana.

In Tajikistan, the Khoja Obi Garm sanatorium north of Dushanbe is a Soviet radon spa in the mountains. In the Pamirs, Garm Chashma near Ishkoshim has hot, mineral-crusted pools, and Bibi Fatima, above the Wakhan valley village of Yamchun, is a spring in a rock cave with separate times for men and women. Both are classic stops on the Pamir Highway and need the GBAO permit.

Turkmenistan built Avaza, a strip of large hotels on the Caspian Sea near Turkmenbashi, as its seaside resort. Visiting means a guided tour with a letter of invitation, so most travellers see it as part of a longer itinerary.

• Men and women use separate rooms or separate days. Ask in advance, especially in Bukhara.
• What to bring: flip-flops and a swimsuit or towel to wrap; most hammams give you a cloth, slippers and tea.
• The scrub is firm and the massage can include stretching and joint-cracking. Tell the attendant if you want it gentler.
• Sanatoriums often expect a medical consultation on arrival and sell stays in packages of several nights, with treatments and meals.
• Health: radon baths and very hot springs are not advised in pregnancy or with heart conditions; keep soaks short at altitude.

Hammams and city banyas open all year, and winter is the best time for them. Issyk-Kul, Charvak and Alakol are summer destinations, busiest from July to August, while mountain hot springs such as Altyn-Arashan are reached most easily from June to September. Bukhara and Khiva are hot in summer, so spring and autumn suit sightseeing between baths.