Resort La Ginabelle

The Resort La Ginabelle is at Vispastrasse 52, in Zermatt, in Valais, and the Booking page counts two hundred metres on foot from the valley station of the Sunnegga funicular. Zermatt is closed to traffic. The house presents itself as a resort with the GinaSPA and states that its pools are heated with geothermal energy, with no carbon dioxide emissions.

Children are allowed, and the GinaSPA is designed precisely for coexistence: the wellness page writes it in one line, "Separater Adults-only-Bereich für Erholung ohne Kinder", that is, a separate reserved area beside the parts open to families.

The sauna world is divided in two by swimwear, and the house explains it itself: "Durch die Zweiteilung der Saunawelt in einen textilfreien und Textil-Bereich erfüllen wir die Bedürfnisse aller unserer Gäste". On the ground floor of the GinaSPA there is the Dress-on-Family-SPA, where you enter only in swimwear, with the infrared sauna, the steam bath and the quiet area with loungers. On the basement floor there is the Vital-SPA, which the house describes like this: "Im Untergeschoss des GinaSPA befindet sich der Vital-SPA der Saunawelt, ein klassischer Saunabereich für Gäste ab 18 Jahre", with the Finnish sauna up to ninety degrees, the salt steam bath, the bio sauna between forty-five and sixty degrees with about fifty per cent humidity, the quiet room with water beds, the experience showers and the vitamin bar with mineral water, juices and dried fruit. On the level of the Infinitypool and the Arvenpool there is then the Organic-SPA, also "Zugang ab 18 Jahren", with a second Finnish sauna between eighty and one hundred degrees, a second salt steam bath between forty and forty-six degrees with one hundred per cent humidity and a second bio sauna between sixty and sixty-five. All three areas are open from 15.30 to 20.

The count of the cabins, in the house's FAQ, is this: two Finnish saunas, two bio saunas, two salt steam baths and two infrared cabins, plus the quiet rooms.

The water world is shared out too, and the page states it: "Unsere Wasserwelt ist in Familien- und Adults-Only-Bereiche aufgeteilt, damit sich alle ausreichend erholen können". The water surface is more than one hundred and sixty square metres, of which one hundred and twenty outdoors, with sixty-two linear metres of installations, bubble loungers, massage jets, bubbles from the bottom and the waterfall for the neck. The Infinitypool at thirty-four degrees, the largest, stays open to everyone, and the FAQ confirm it: "Dürfen Kinder in den Pool? Ja. Der Infinitypool und die Wasserwelt stehen allen Gästen offen, von gross bis klein. Wer die Ruhe sucht, findet sie im separaten Adults-only-Bereich". The Arvenpool at thirty-six degrees, with water scented with Swiss stone pine and the Matterhorn in front of it, is Adults-only from 16; the outdoor Vitalpool at thirty-four degrees is Adults-only with no time limit; the indoor Vitalpool, at the same temperature and connected by swimming to the outdoor one, is Adults-only from 16.

Outside the wellness area the house has its beauty and vitality world, with massages and treatments, among them the hot stone massage and the Zermatt hay bath, and the GinaSPA is open to outside guests as a day spa as well, with priority for hotel guests and without booking.

Booking, used here as the fallback source and read twice with and without a child in the search and with real dates, confirms the address Vispastrasse 52 in 3920 Zermatt, rates the house four stars, counts four pools, two restaurants, the gym, the bar and room service, and states that children of all ages are welcome. Pets, it writes, are not allowed. In neither reading does the wording "Adults only" appear. Booking publishes no age for the spa: all the thresholds come from the website.

A note for anyone looking for the website: the domain is la.ginabelle.ch, with the dot, and not ginabelle.ch.