Pearl Escapes
Laconium (or Laconicum)
Okay this is one of those confusing ones, because I've been to different spas where the Laconiums were completely different (a bit like my hammam experiences).
The first Laconium I experienced was in Spa London where it was the hottest of the three Turkish Baths. These are all dry heat rooms, unlike a sauna, and the Laconium was truly scorching (especially if you are sitting on a stone shelf in a bikini... a towel is highly recommended!)
The order of the heat rooms at Spa London is as follows:
Tepidarium - the coolest or tepid room (actually I would say quite a bit warmer than tepid), Caldarium which is a lot hotter (my favourite) and then on to the Laconium or hottest room.
But when visiting Senspa in Brockenhurst, the Laconium was one of the two upstairs heat rooms (the other being the Tepidarium) where the heat was gentle enough that they advised you could stay in for as long as you wanted. I have to say for me this room was probably my favourite of the heat rooms. It had a small room with a bench where you could sit or lie, and then the other side of the heat source was a little chamber with wooden head rests so you could lie directly on the floor (and look up at the twinkling lights in the mellow cappuccino ceiling - which kind of inspired the borders of this page!) Another reason I found it so wonderful was that everyone else seemed more interested in the more elegant Tepidarium or the hotter sauna downstairs so I generally got it all to myself, so I could lie back in blissful silence and reminisce about lying on the floor of the Palais Rhoul in Marrakech... mmmm....
In the end, when you’re actually there, the names are unimportant, just relax and move between the rooms to find the heat that’s right for you (or in my case whichever is the quietest or where there’s room to stretch out!) But do be wary that as you move from spa to spa the advice for the same room may be different because they are actually quite different in practice.
As at November 2012
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