Bathing in living water
The natural bathing lake — in the hotel context often a constructed swimming pond — is a bathing water that manages without chemical disinfection: instead of chlorine, plants, microorganisms and a deliberately designed regeneration zone clean the water biologically. What you feel is a soft, living water without the chlorine smell of the indoor pool — bathing as it should feel outdoors.
How the natural cleaning works
The principle divides the water into two zones: the swimming area and a planted regeneration zone through which the water circulates. Water plants and microorganisms remove nutrients from it, so that algae find no food, and filter it biologically — a closed circuit that keeps the water clear. Some hotel installations additionally feed their pond from mountain spring water, which benefits temperature and clarity.
Temperature and season
Natural bathing lakes are summer pleasures — their temperature follows nature, which makes the bathing refreshing, glorious in high summer and brave in the shoulder seasons. Some houses therefore combine the pond with an event sauna on the shore, so that the cool natural water becomes the cold stimulus of the sauna round. The Mooshof in Bodenmais, for instance, runs a 958 m² natural bathing lake fed with mountain spring water complete with an event sauna; the Hubertus in the Allgäu integrates a natural bathing lake into its Mountain Spring Spa.
Why it suits a spa hotel
The natural bathing lake is the antithesis to the infinity pool: not staging but nature — soft water, a reed edge, the view into the forest instead of into the horizon. For guests who equate wellness with closeness to nature it is the heart of the outdoor area. And it closes a circle: after the sauna into the cool, living water, then onto the sunbathing lawn — the most original alternating bath a spa can offer.
