Silent Spa — Attraction in Laa an der Thaya

What a great place. We stayed 2 nights and 3 days in the spa hotel. Hotel is spacious, clean and pleasant. Breakfast is excellent, large buffet with everything you can imagine, cereals, fruit a large selection of homemade yogurts and non dairy yogurt type foods. Selection of milk, full fat, skimmed, non dairy, soy, rice, almond, lactose free. A healthy doctor diet corner for those really counting their intake. A children's section The usual egg, scrambled, boiled and then custom order freshly made as you wait omelettes, over easy and what ever you want. Waffles and crepes. Smoked salmon, various cold meats, crispy bacon and ham. Juices, lively fresh orange and grapefruit and a host of bottled fruit juices with still, mild and fizzy water. Make your own latte, cappuccino at 2 different machines or get a pot of coffee at your table. Lots of teas to choose from. Really the only downside to breakfast is it closes at 9.30. It should stay open till 14.00. Who wants to get up for breakfast so early when on holiday? I dont.

Never had lunch.

Evening meal is disappointing. Had 2 nights with again a reasonable buffet, good salad selection including the usual green stuff but also various, beetroot, coleslaw, carrot & raisin, radish, beans, green, white and a huge broad bean. Great selection of bread, freshly made. Usually 2 soups, creamy and clear consume.

You chose 1 main which I found disappointed me. Was better last year!

You pay €5.20 for a bottle of water which o think is a bit greedy. No issue charging for alcohol but water guys is a bit steep.

Silent Spa, excellent. €50 each but worth it. Blissfully quiet as the name suggests. No children under 16 allowed.

4 petals layout with each "petal" being a different wing with different facilities. If you stay in the hotel you walk within the buildings to the silent spa area.

You are provided with an electronic RF Id "watch" which is logged to your name and works as a charge card account. So you walk around in your swimming togs and bath robe (supplied), fluffy and good quality. Anything extra you want is charged to your wrist tag. Latte delivered to your pre booked 4 poster lounger is €4.50. Not bad.

They serve breakfast and lunch included in entry but you can buy lots if extras, cocktails served in fancy plastic glasses in the pool. I'd recommend that! Great G&T. Massages, had 1 hour body, excellent and a reflexology which was ok but I've had better. Staff are friendly and pleasant which makes up for anything lacking. Restaurant inside is small but good.

Salt water pool outside is kept at 36 degrees C. Lovely. Saunas, steam rooms, chill room and pre arranged exercise classes etc or do what I did, ate too much at breakfast, lay out in the 4 poster and did absolutely nothing snoozed!

They also supply you with an iPad and wifi to watch films, in English or German , music and of course order food and drinks.

There is an island with water and tea to make yourself. Fresh fruit to choose from.

Highly recommend it.

The rest of the spa is HUGE. child friendly so noisy but great fun for all ages. Toddler pool with waterproof diapers supplied.

They have a special crane to lift people out of wheelchairs into the pools.

Wonderful place with loads more I havnt written about.

Try it, you wont be...

Full disclosure: my wife and I were lucky enough to win gift vouchers for a day's entry to the silent spa. The review therefore is for the silent spa only and not the hotel or the regular spa area. Although you can access the regular spa area, we did not so I can't comment on it.

So, the silent spa. You need to be at least 16 to enter and it has its own parking and entrance areas. You receive a bag with two regular towels for drying and one large one for your reserved lounger. In addition they give you a bathrobe and a set of flip flops. Great start.

The silent spa is divided into four areas with room in each one for - my estimate - around 35 people. In that area you have a very comfortable lounger with curtains for some privacy from those right next to you. In the centre of the room they offer tea, drinks, fruit and some snacks like nuts.

It was nice and very relaxing in this room, you often forget that there are so many people there (as long as they keep to the rules). Unfortunately the door mechanism to enter the bathing area should be changed/reworked, as many people were unable to close it without making a loud noise. While not a big issue, this did interrupt my nap at times.

Included in the price is breakfast in the morning (from 09:00 to 11:30) and cake in the afternoon (from 14:30 to 16:30). The restaurant is operational throughout in case you fancy additional drinks and food. We had to wait a bit until a table was free for breakfast so we used it for our first round in the pool. The food overall was lovely and while the selection was not huge when compared to a regular hotel buffet breakfast that most will be used to, the quality throughout was great. Definitely try the cake in the afternoon, there were 7 or 8 different ones on offer and of the ones I tried all were good.

Now to the water. It is a bit cooler than most spas, I feel. The temperature, if I'm not mistaken, was 34.5 degrees Celcius, which to my wife and me was quite noticeable. Usually I feel the heat after 15-20 minutes aas it affects my body but here that was not the case, so you can stay in the water a bit longer than usual (obviously pay attention to recommendations and notices!). They do have one pool with over 36 degrees Celcius though, if you like it hotter.

The design of the bathing area is wonderful and, to me, had an oriental touch to it. The main pool also leads outside to a small exterior pool.

In general the pools seem smaller compared to most spas I've been to, but as I've mentioned there is also access to the main spa and the pools there, which I expect will be larger. So while the silent spa on its own may be too small for some, I'm sure the main spa will make up for that if you really prefer the larger pools.

We did not use the other facilities, but I want to name them for the sake of good order. There is a sauna, a steam area (not sure about the details there) and a room where salt is added to the air which supposedly also has beneficial qualities.

The staff was very friendly and helpful and all sanitary facilities were completely clean.

We felt very welcome and relaxed there, I highly recommend...

The hotel is nice and spotlessly clean, the rooms are very quiet with beautiful views, massive baths and powerful showers, luxurious toiletries, towels and bathrobes, comfortable beds with high quality mattresses and bedding. |The reception staff is friendly, helpful and professional, fluent in many languages.|The breakfast is exceptional.|The formal restaurant is not really worth your time and money in our opinion, running a restaurant and hospitality business ourselves, my husband being a chef, as the food here is trying to mimic high end cuisine, trying to be ’posh’, but really badly. The atmosphere here is very formal, cold, uncomfortable and unfriendly. The waiting staff we have experienced were ignorant and bordering on arrogant. No one is smiling or chats with you, it feels like they can’t wait for you to get out, doing the absolute minimum. They forbid you to wear slippers here and have a phone with you, which would be absolutely acceptable if it’s fantastic restaurant with great service and high quality food, which unfortunately it is far from. |Better option, especially if you have children or teenagers, would be the more relaxed part of the restaurant at the back, with a buffet choices and self service. The selection of locally sourced cheeses is incredible. The cheeses are so good!|Also there is a self service canteen inside the spa area, which is very convenient, great value fast ready cooked traditional food with lots of options to choose from.|The spa is out of this world, with hot salty water outdoor pool, inside pools floating into each other, with slide and fun activities for the children and teens. There is plenty of loungers and sun beds around the area, but the water world can get incredibly busy as it’s open to general public. We loved it here the most at the least busy calm periods that we could experience as being the hotel guests.|The sauna world is absolutely outstanding, with many different temperatures and styles saunas, with cold and warm outdoor pools. They provide a great, once in a lifetime fan ceremony inside the sauna, where a lady waves a large orange fan and pours water onto the hot rocks, making the air and temperature inside the sauna even hotter. It’s amazing. Even our eye balls were sweating :). Then you jump inside the cold pool outside. Such sensational invigorating experience for your body and mind!|We really liked the massage and treatments available at the spa. The staff here is very professional, discreet and accommodating.|Dear Therme Laa, Thank you very much for having us again, we can’t wait...