REDUCE Hotel Vital

The REDUCE Hotel Vital is on the Kurplatz of Bad Tatzmannsdorf, the thermal quarter of the largest spa centre in Burgenland, on the eastern edge of the Graz basin and at 346 metres above sea level. It is a four star superior that sets no age limit on its own thermal world, and in this it differs from its sister house: the only restriction declared by the group concerns the thermal garden of the REDUCE Hotel Thermal, which is reserved for guests from 16 years upwards. Those staying at the Vital may use it, and reach it in a bathrobe through a covered passage, three minutes on foot. This is the division to keep in mind: the spa of the house welcomes everyone, the reserved part is next door.

The Vital's thermal world is called Reich der Sinne, the realm of the senses, and occupies two thousand square metres. It includes an indoor thermal pool, an outdoor thermal pool, hydromassage tubs and a wide lawn with loungers. The range of heat is unusually broad: Finnish sauna, sudatorium, herbal sauna, laconicum, tepidarium, frigidarium, bio sauna, steam bath and a log sauna looking out over the biotope. A detail not found everywhere is the sauna reserved for women, kept at 90 degrees with ten per cent humidity, conceived as a refuge in a protected atmosphere. The tepidarium is carved into the rock and is part of the five senses route that gives the area its name, with rooms dedicated to touch, sound, smell, taste and sight. There is also a low-temperature infrared cabin.

Counting the two houses, the wellness oasis reaches four thousand square metres reserved for hotel guests alone. The Thermal's thermal garden, the part for adults, has a sauna landscape of its own with tepidarium, sudatorium, laconium, herbal bio sauna, Finnish sauna, frigidarium and a sauna courtyard with a second cold water pool, as well as the little fountains that dispense the house's curative waters.

The opening times are convenient: the thermal part opens from Saturday to Thursday from 8.00 to 21.00 and on Friday stays open until 23.00, while the saunas run from 10.00 to 20.30.

The house does not publish the rule on costumes in the saunas. It is worth asking at reception on arrival, because in the German-speaking area the sauna without a costume is the norm and for anyone booking the difference matters.

Bad Tatzmannsdorf lives on curative waters and above all on its mud, and the hotel works a great deal on that front, with curative peat wraps and a health treatment section, as well as massages and beauty treatments. Dogs are welcome, but they do not enter the restaurant and the thermal areas.

It suits those looking for thermal waters and a genuinely complete range of saunas, and who appreciate being able to walk over in a bathrobe into an area without children when they feel like it. It suits less those who want a fully adults only house, or those who expect the reserved area to be the hotel's own spa rather than the one next door.