Asia Hotel & Spa Leoben

The Asia Hotel & Spa Leoben is at In der Au 1/3, in the Au area north of the centre of Leoben, the main town of Upper Styria stretched along the bend of the Mur at about five hundred and forty metres above sea level, with the woods of the Massenberg rising straight behind the building. It is a four star property of a hundred and three rooms run by GMF, connected by an underground passage to the Asia Spa, one of the largest public baths in Austria: guests get there in a bathrobe and use the wellness area at no supplement.

Families come in, under sixteens do not enter the Saunawelt

This is not a hotel that bars children, far from it. The website has a page devoted to the family holiday and presents the Wasserwelt as an area for sport and for families: the smallest ones have a warm, shallow baby pool, the bigger ones the slide tower, the current channel, the climbing wall, the turbo slide and Xusu's bamboo bath. Anyone who wants to swim has the sports pool, anyone who wants to stop still has the bubble loungers and the whirlpool.

The separation concerns the saunas alone, and the property declares it in the most explicit way possible: in the website menu the entry is called Saunawelt 16+, and the page for the department repeats Zugang ab 16 Jahren, entry from sixteen years, in order to keep a quiet atmosphere.

Without a swimsuit, with a mixed area

This is the point worth knowing before setting off. The house writes that the Saunawelt is a textilfrei area, that is without swimsuits, and publishes the rules entry by entry: in the sauna cabins and in the marked areas you go without a swimsuit, with the sole exception of sauna kilts and towels; in the relaxation rooms you may be with or without a swimsuit or in a bathrobe; in the pools the swimsuit is optional; at the Saunabar a bathrobe is asked for. The front part, with the lotus flower pool and the salt pool, is declared a mixed area.

What there is in the reserved area

The department brings together several cabins and steam baths, among them the aroma steam bath and the tea house sauna, as well as the two pools already mentioned. The programme of water pourings is led by attendants and runs to as many as sixteen rounds a day; the department has received the SaunaPremium seal of the German Sauna-Bund. For resting there are the gallery of silence, the fireplace room and the roof terrace. Massages and beauty treatments are booked separately, including from the online shop, and in the house there is the Asia Fitness.

The hours are generous: Saunawelt and Wasserwelt open every day from 9.00 to 21.00, with the sauna until 23.00 on Fridays in winter. In summer the Aubad, the outdoor part, is added, from 9.00 to 19.00.

Rooms, table and dogs

The Comfort rooms of twenty-four square metres are described by the house as modern design of four star category, with a balcony and a view of the town or of the greenery. Meals are at the restaurant Styrasia, which crosses Styrian and Asian cooking and is the home of half board, while the Feinschliff is the à la carte gourmet restaurant. Dogs are welcome.

It suits anyone who wants a real sauna area, large and adult, without giving up bringing the children on holiday, because here the two worlds are in buildings that are connected but distinct. It suits less anyone looking for the quiet of a small mountain hotel: the Asia Spa is a public baths used also by people who are not staying at the hotel, and at weekends you notice it.