Thermal baths in Greece

At many licensed hydrotherapy centers, yes: before your first bath the unit's doctor gives a short free check and you get a hydrotherapy card or pass. Loutraki Thermal Spa, Loutra Kaiafa, the Edipsos Springs hydrotherapy center, Thermal Spa Agia Paraskevi on Kassandra and the municipal baths on Samothraki all say so; at Loutraki pool or tub time is limited to 20 minutes a day, and on Samothraki each bath is timed at up to 20 minutes. At Krinides Mud Baths the center's doctor examines you and gives written permission before any mud or water bath, and each session lasts 20 minutes.

Most pools are between about 31 and 38 °C. Loutraki Thermal Spa keeps its indoor pools at 31.5 and 34 °C, the water at Loutra Kaiafa is 31 to 34 °C, at Thermal Spa Agia Paraskevi on Kassandra 34.5 to 36 °C, and at Loutra Pozar a constant 37 °C. The springs themselves can be far hotter: the Artemis spring at Loutra Edipsou rises at 79 °C.

Yes. Thermal spring water at 37 °C year-round runs down the gorge, forming waterfalls and river pools, and feeds the large outdoor pool beside them. The caves in the gorge are closed to visitors.

By car: the baths are 13 km from Aridaia, at the foot of Mount Voras.

Yes at most of them, though some hotel spas set a minimum age. The operator of Loutra Pozar calls its large pool suitable for all ages, and Loutra Kaiafa and the Edipsos Springs center sell reduced tickets for children. Loutraki Thermal Spa is for over-15s and Galini Spa in Kamena Vourla for over-16s, while Myrthia Thermal Spa at Miraggio lets 12 to 16-year-olds into the pools only for limited hours, with an adult family member and a signed consent form. On Samothraki under-18s need a parent or guardian, and at Krinides minors go into the mud and water pools only with an escort.

Several are in Fthiotida, around Lamia. The Thermopylae hot springs fill natural troughs inside the archaeological site at the entrance to the ancient pass, at up to 42 °C, and Psoroneria, a few kilometers west near Koutseki, has an outdoor pool and changing rooms. Loutra Ypatis, 18 km west of Lamia at the foot of Mount Oiti, has an outdoor thermal pool, and at Kamena Vourla built pools sit at the old Koniavitis mill while Galini Spa on the seafront sells sessions in the town's thermal water.

Yes, at the free springs and some open-air pools. The springs on the Methana peninsula are free, and Pausanias Bath there is open all year, as are the pools at Psoroneria and at the Koniavitis springs; outside Ioannina, the Aar Hotel & Spa opens its indoor pool to non-guests from October. Several hydrotherapy centers close for the winter: Krinides Mud Baths, Loutra Kaiafa, Loutra Kavasilon and Myrthia Thermal Spa at Miraggio, and the Edipsos Springs center from November.

Yes. At Agkistro in Serres, near the Bulgarian border, every pool is private: you take the old Byzantine bath or one of seven newer pools alone, with your family or with your own group, for 30 or 60 minutes. Loutra Pozar has private indoor pools booked by the half hour, and on Lesvos Therma Spa rents private tub rooms for two or four people. Individual tubs are filled at many hydrotherapy centers, among them Loutra Ypatis, Loutra Kaiafa, Thermal Spa Agia Paraskevi on Kassandra, the Apollon baths on Ikaria and Thermae Agiasmaton on Chios.

Yes, on Evia and Ikaria and on Lesvos, Chios and Samothraki in the north-east Aegean. At Loutra Edipsou on Evia four springs fill the outdoor pool of the hydrotherapy center, and on Ikaria the municipal Apollon baths at Therma, east of Agios Kirykos, take a saline spring measured at 45.4 °C. Outside Mytilene on Lesvos, Therma Spa runs a spring at 39.3 °C into domed stone pools on the Gulf of Gera, near Polichnitos springs rise at 67 to 92 °C, and Thermae Agiasmaton on Chios draws on a spring at 61.7 °C. On Samothraki the municipal baths at Therma pump water from a 46 °C borehole, and the open-air Podoloutra basin lies up the road.

Yes, on Kassandra. Thermal Spa Agia Paraskevi at Loutra has indoor and outdoor pools of sulfurous sodium chloride water on a cliff above the sea, and near Paliouri, Myrthia Thermal Spa at the Miraggio resort fills pools from the Kanistro spring at 32 °C and sells non-guests a circuit ticket. Myrthia runs only from late April to mid October.

At the Athens hammams they do: Al Hammam in Plaka and Hammam Baths in Thissio are mixed, and bathers wear a swimsuit or the disposable underwear provided. On Samothraki the municipal baths have one pool for men and one for women, and the tubs are split the same way. The traditional bath at Therma Spa on Lesvos has two stone pools, one for men and one for women, with a mixed outdoor pool beside them, and the hydrotherapy hall at Loutra Kavasilon has separate men's and women's rooms.