An experience you’ll never forget… (Picture: Banya The Bath House)
In a new series So,Is It Worth It? our travel experts put products and experiences to the test to see if they’re really worth your money. This week,we’re braving a trip to a traditional Eastern European bathhouse.
It’s so hot,I can feel my eyelids sweating.
Then again,there’s also a real chance I could be crying.
‘You can do this,’ I tell myself. ‘They won’t actually let you boil alive.’
The dial on the wooden walls of this panic attack simulator,also known as a sauna,is showing 80°C.
As I try to regulate my breathing,the door swings open,and a man walks in holding a fan. I naively assume the enthusiastic wafting will cool the place down — I couldn’t have been more wrong.
You can have treatments in a private sauna (Picture: Banya Bath House)
Waves of hot air hit my face,and I make for the exit so quickly,the fetching sauna hat I’m wearing almost flies off my head.
It’s then that I’m confronted with none other than Romeo Beckham,half-naked,tapping away on his phone.
What on Earth is going on?
I had volunteered to spend my morning at Banya The Bath House,in London’s Belgravia,before really thinking it through. I’ve never lasted more than a few seconds in a sauna,nor have I ever been inclined to throw myself into the sea in order to feel ‘invigorated’.
The plunge pool isn’t for the faint-hearted (Picture: Banya The Bath House)
Banya,the brainchild of Ukrainian-born Alexander Lazarev,and co-founder Robert Procopé,describes itself as ‘the Russian cousin of the Finnish sauna and Turkish hammam.’ They already have similar branches in Hoxton and Chiswick.
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Kristina Beanland was a guest of Banya The Bath House,but don’t expect us to sugarcoat anything – our reviews are 100% independent.
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