Alba Thermal Springs & Spa
This is undoubtedly Victoria’s most Instagrammable new two-in-one hot springs and spa, opening in Fingal – on the Mornington Peninsula – on the 15th. But there’ll be a “digital-detox requirement” that means it’s an entirely phone-free zone. Once you’ve moved into the reception area, there’ll be a cease and desist on any photography and phone use. What lies beyond? Striking concrete pillars and flooring, touches of timber panelling, and ceramic tiles throughout a beautifully minimalistic space. And scattered among 15 hectares of wilderness, you’ll find 31 different bathing pools (including geothermal pools, cold-plunge pools and herbal-infused “botanical pools”), as well as 22 elegant spa suites (with distinctive treatments you can book right now) and an all-day rooftop restaurant called Thyme by celebrity chef Karen Martini. Plus, there’s a roomy lounge on a mezzanine level overlooking the gardens.
Alba is opening on October 15.
Metung Hot Springs
One of the biggest and most ambitious projects in Victoria’s wellness scene – the $12 million Metung Hot Springs in the state’s east – is edging closer to completion. The 12-hectare site, on a hilltop escarpment with hundreds of metres of Gippsland Lakes frontage, is set to open on the 29th. There are 10 luxurious lagoon-side, safari-style tents – each with a king-size four-poster bed and private ensuite. They each contain private bathing barrels, meaning you’ll be able to soak in solitude around the clock. The original Metung Hot Springs closed in the early ’90s but its mammoth development is a joint project between East Gippsland tourism operators Rachel and Adrian Bromage, and the team behind the extraordinarily popular Peninsula Hot Springs in Fingal. There are also plans for a floating sauna on the lagoon.
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SIGN UPMetung Hot Springs is opening on October 29.
Aurora Spa & Bathhouse
The final piece of the puzzle at Sorrento’s completely reimagined Conti Hotel is Aurora, a sultry new spa and bathhouse slated to open at the end of the month. The 1000-square-metre relaxation destination is being spearheaded by the Aurora Spa Group, which until recently had a location in St Kilda, in Melbourne’s south-east. With room for only 60 people at any one time, expect four steamy, interconnecting hydrotherapy pools you can hop between, or you can block out the world around you while soaking in a magnesium float room. There’ll also be a seriously sizeable, timber-clad Nordic-inspired sauna and a “glacial mist room”; set at an alpine temperature, it’s a refined bathhouse version of the Finnish tradition of rolling in the snow after a sauna. Also find a store with a dedicated apothecary station for making DIY bath-salt blends.
Aurora is opening in late October.
Additional reporting by Emily Holgate and Tim McGlone.