For me, the next best thing a hotel can have after a pool or jacuzzi is a sauna. Much like anything else, all saunas are not created equally. Often times, within city hotels they’re tucked away in some windowless section of the building adjacent to the gym leveraged only by one random old guy. (We know the glamping joints are little cabins and barrels out in the wilderness.)
But, not at 25hours Zürich Langstrasse within Zürich’s city center.
Despite being astoundingly similar in website, logo and hotel design, 25Hours properties do not share ownership with TheStandard (as far as my research found), yet it’s kind of giving TheOtherSideOfThePondStandard.
With two locations in Zürich, the 25Hours Langstrasse location is situated in the once-red light district of the city close to the biggest train station.
Unlike those dungeon-y (derogatory) saunas, 25Hours Lanstrasse’s is located on the top floor of the seven-story hotel, and it was hotter than your average. I had to remove my jewelry and I don’t typically need to. The spacious stadium seating sauna is the centerpiece of an aesthetic-over-function gym. The room faces a glass wall overlooking the train that cuts through the city beyond a small terrace and unobstructed city views. Just outside of the sauna full length lounge chairs look out to the same view. And, of course, behind the sauna are two (very) open air showers.
The Swiss are serious about their saunas, and honestly, Americans could afford to take notes. (Although, I’d want to note that it is co-ed and the co-eds participated in the sauna in varying degrees of nudity — bikini to butt ass.) There are plenty of conflicting reports to the health benefits of saunas. I find that simply sweating it all out (literally and figuratively), does a lot for me. My skin always feels better, I think I look better, I sleep better, and most importantly, it relaxes my mind and body.
I didn’t opt to shower at the sauna because the rooms’ showers were very, very sexy. Similar to the sauna upstairs, the shower in my room was large, floor-to-ceiling enclosed glass (reader, there wasn’t any sort of draft and it didn’t steam up my entire room). With both a rain shower head and a handheld, you can go full everything shower or just wash the bod and preserve your hair. (See a video of the room and shower in the below IG post.)
For those that may not like the idea of being fully exposed, a curtain separates the raised “bedroom” portion of the hotel room and shields your shower time from the window’s view.
While the bed was firm as hell (a little too hard for my liking), the spacious room also had both a huge full length, floor to ceiling mirror and well-lit vanity mirror at the sink.
So, what did we learn here? We should always be on the look out for floor-to-ceiling glass (mirrors, showers, windows, VIEWS), and perhaps, a baseline shower and sauna doesn’t cut it when there are very sexy (and functional) ones out there to make for a better time spent at a hotel.
I used the sauna so much during my stay, it made me want to prioritize having easier access to one at home at some point in my life. In the meantime, I’ll continue to make it through winter with a lot of time spent in my HigherDOSE sauna blanket.