Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Spain..Four Cities, Four Hammams. One Girl's Opinion

From my first hammam I was hooked. So, instead of souvenirs, I opted for hammams (or traditional Turkish baths) as my treat. I still have two more cities to visit. I may or may not visit more hammams. First off, a few similar traits with the three different companies. ALL the websites were hard to navigate. No matter what language you spoke. Come on....with all the money coming into to those places you'd think they could afford a good webmaster. Also, the massages were nothing to write home about. Thirty minutes of relaxation, but no real work on muscles. I figured that if these masseuses were schooled at massage, they wouldn't necessarily be working in a virtual steam bath all day. They all served a sweet peppermint tea, which was delicious. And, they all offered one discount or another. I wished any of them would have offered a centrifuge to wring out wet bathing suits.

Hammam number one was Rituels d'Oriente de Barcelona. What set it apart from the rest was it was smaller, and served a nice treat, like baklava at the end. It was a great experience with nice baths, a good body scrub and the best massage out of the four. Because of my problem with their website, a very sweet gal by the name of Perla helped me figure out my reservation over the phone. A nice experience.

Hammam number two was Aire de Seville, in Seville. It was by far my worst experience. It was chaos in there on a midweek afternoon. Way too many people and way too loud. What were they thinking? The massage situation was a jaw dropping row of tables...no privacy at all. I read on anther travel website a review that said this place was an, "Oasis of calm..." Umm...not that day. Oh well...it wasn't going to the dentist or anything, so I just floated into my own little world there. I didn't get a scrub. It wasn't offered as an option to me when I called.

Hammam number three was the Al Andalus in Cordoba. It was really nice. It's a chain of sorts. Nice pools...steam room was a little too cool for me. Had a great body scrub and the typical massage. They gave me a little parting gift, which I appreciated. We met a couple gals who had been to the one in Granada and said the Granada one was way nicer. I couldn't wait....

Hammam number four was the Al Andalus in Granada. Those gals were right! We received a 20% discount when we showed our receipt from their Cordoba location. It was very well organized. Easy to get around. Three pools with different temperatures. Nice hot steam room. We were too late to include the body scrub, but had the usual, 'relaxing' massage. The interior was AMAZING. Set to look like the Nasrid Palace at the Alhambra. It was hands down the best.

I plan to try an Al Andalus in either Malaga, Madrid, or both. If I do, I'll get back to this thread with a review. To close I encourage you to try a Hammam. It's a wonderful way to spent 1-2 hours. Especially after a long day on your feet site seeing and shopping.