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lounge bar serves cocktails and finger food, while breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served at the resort restaurant. Just next-door to the park, a boutique hotel, with a separate entrance and personalized welcome service, offers 26 pampering suites, including a duplex wing that houses twin suites with Jacuzzis and hot tubs, suites with private pools and giant hot tubs, and huge suites that have a living room, garden, Jacuzzi The Hamat Gader Spa Village Hotel Therapeutic and restorative Hamat Gader’s thermomineral waters lie in the heart of the Yarmouk valley, in the southern Golan Heights. The Yarmouk valley is home to five natural springs from which water is pumped from a depth of 2km below ground. Four of them have mineral-rich waters, while the fifth is a freshwater spring, but only one provides Hamat Gader with the therapeutic, thermomineral waters that do wonders for the body and soul, even though they produce a very distinctive smell of sulfur that may require some getting used to. and beautiful views. dream-island.co.il

Hamat Gader waters are believed to possess many health benefits, and visitors bathe in them year-round. But when it’s cold outside, a dip in the warm thermal waters (which are at a constant temperature of 42°C), is particularly pleasurable. The Spa Village hotel complex is set apart from the open-air hot springs. Surrounded by tropical plants, it is a little haven of peace and quiet, with meandering little brooks and waterfalls that flow into the warm pools. There are cozy lounge chairs to relax in, and soft lighting that adds to the calm and tranquility. Classified as a boutique hotel, the Spa Village Hotel has 31 suites, (some have recently been entirely refurbished), a thermomineral pool with hydrotherapy jets, a gym, a sauna, and a spa. Aside from the usual spa treatments, there also are watsu therapy treatments. (Entrance to the Spa Village complex is from age 16 and above) hamat-gader.com/en/spa-eng/ The Ein Gedi Hotel Synergy Spa The wondrous Dead Sea waters The health benefits of the Dead Sea’s salt-rich waters are too many

to count. They draw visitors from every country in the world, eager to heal from all sorts of ailments, ranging from skin problems to muscle pain. Most Dead Sea aficionados come in the wintertime when the cold renders the warmth of its waters even more pleasurable. All of the hotels on the coastline have spas, but the Ein Gedi Hotel has one of the best. The Synergy Spa opened four years ago. Its indoor pool contains Dead Sea water, and it boasts a hammam, saunas, a lobby with relaxing couches and seating areas, and 14 treatment rooms. Treatments include deep tissue massages, hot stone massages, salt scrub massages, and mineral mud baths. In the garden outside, there are sunbathing lounge chairs aside a freshwater pool that faces the Dead Sea, the desert cliffs, and a beautiful nature reserve. The hotel, surrounded by a botanical garden with rare baobab trees, vast lawns, huge expanses of land upon which ibexes roam free, offers bed & breakfast accommodation as well as duplex suites. The hotel cafeteria offers many great food options, coffee, sandwiches, and terrific cakes and desserts. spaplus.co.il/en/synergy_spa

Hamat Gader I Photo: Ofir Abe

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ATMOSPHERE JANUARY 2023