Thermae Eleven

Our exfoliation scrub has developed a bit of a following.

We make it in-house with finely milled salts, sea salts, nourishing oils and essential aromas. You’re given some at check-in to enjoy during your social or private circuit, but our suggestion? Save it for the final stretch, when you’ve had your fill of heat, cool water and fresh air, and take your time working it gently over your skin.

The result has prompted a rather flattering question from more than a few guests: Are you going to sell this?

One guest put it particularly well: “Oh, it’s incredible. The best way to end the experience — my skin was so so soft, you’d sell buckets!”

Buckets. Noted.

For now, you’ll find it waiting for you as part of your 105 minutes beneath the open sky.

What are you doing at 2:15 on a Tuesday?

There’s an underrated luxury in being free while much of the city is decidedly not.

If your schedule runs outside the traditional Monday-to-Friday arrangement, there is something deeply satisfying about slipping into an outdoor thermal circuit while the rest of the city is answering emails. You get 105 minutes beneath the open sky, moving between warm and cool water, sauna heat and stillness, entirely at your own pace.

Your Tuesday afternoon may be someone else’s Saturday morning. We think you should treat it accordingly.

Consider this a very good case of goosebumps.

Those tiny bumps have a proper name: piloerection. When your body senses cold, the sympathetic nervous system signals microscopic muscles at the base of your hair follicles to contract, pulling the hairs upright and creating the familiar texture across your skin.

For our considerably hairier ancestors, this helped trap a layer of insulating air close to the body. For modern humans, the insulation benefit is pretty minimal. The goosebumps, however, remain.

And at thermae eleven, they tend to make several appearances.

You might notice them stepping from sauna heat into cool Calgary air, lowering yourself into the cool well, or simply sitting outside long enough for your skin to register the temperature while the rest of you is still holding onto warmth.

Then comes the other rather satisfying part: watching them disappear again as you move back toward heat.

Warm → Cool → Goosebumps. Repeat as desired.

Turns out, heat is quite social.

the finnish sauna in our social circuit was made for löyly*, but also for the conversations that tend to happen somewhere around it. Come with friends, come with one, or come on your own and enjoy the easy company of others moving through the circuit alongside you.

Add water to the stones, let steam rise, stay awhile, then head back outside when the cool well starts calling.

*Historically derived from a Finno-Ugric root meaning "soul" or "spirit," löyly (pronounced "LOW-lu" in Finnish) represents the living, breathing essence of the sauna experience.

September has a way of changing more than the weather.

As summer lingers and routines return, our latest thermae edit looks at the science and beauty of transition, including what happens in the body as we move between heat, cold and everything in between.

September Has Entered the Chat: On Transitions, Thermal and Otherwise Calgary is changing seasons. Explore the science of thermal transitions and why hydrotherapy makes a fitting ritual for the return to fall routines.

Same warm well—different every hour.

One of the pleasures of building a hydrotherapy spa fully outside is that we don’t get complete control over the lighting department.

The sun does.

It moves across the water, throws shapes against the walls, disappears behind a cloud and returns somewhere else entirely. Meanwhile, you’re soaking in warm water with nowhere urgent to be.

We designed our thermal circuits. Calgary handles some of the finishing touches.

Travel light. Very light.

Bathing suit, robe, and sandals. That’s about all you need.

Your phone? It gets its own 105-minute retreat in your locker.

thermae eleven is a phone-free spa, which means once you step into the thermal circuits, there’s nothing to photograph, post, check, answer or scroll. Just warm and cool water, heat, fresh air and whoever you came with—or the rather excellent company of yourself.

And if you travel so light that your bathing suit gets left at home, we’ve got you. Swimwear from OAS Company is available for purchase in-spa. One less reason to turn the car around.