Best in Travel is here! Visitors to Germany have long admired its historic architecture, world-class museums, and excellent beer gardens. Often housed within beautiful buildings from the art nouveau era or earlier, these public facilities are the perfect place to relax au naturel while sharing a healthy tradition with the locals.
This open-minded attitude to the naked body started in the 19th century, when Scandinavian-style steam baths became popular; then, in the late 20th century nudity became widely accepted on beaches, in city parks and on walking trails.
Recent years have seen a decline of nakedness in such outdoor settings, but the unadorned body is still the standard at bathhouses.
Each bathhouse, generally containing the German word bad bath in its name, will have a clothed area centred on a swimming pool, much like any municipal fitness centre.
In a separate area, accessible for an additional fee, will be a spa facility of saunas and heated pools. The Bavarian capital Munich is the epicentre of the German nonchalance toward nudity, its Englischer Garten being famous for clothes-free sunbathing in the warmer months. The old-school style continues in the spa zone, where you disrobe inside attractive cabins with timber panels and glass panes. Then, you shuffle at a measured pace between various rooms, which include a sauna, cold and tepid pools, and a room with stone benches and a jet of steam shooting dramatically through its centre.
