Turkish Bath — Hammam in Fethiye

The hammam in Fethiye is the first thing to visit at this resort. After all, you came here not only to rest but to come home with an even, handsome, lasting tan. For that the skin has to be properly prepared and cleansed — otherwise the bronze shade washes off soon after you get home.

A Turkish bath is something special. It charms you at once. You will have a fine time, shed your stress, allow yourself to rest and unwind, and enjoy the rituals with which the beauties of the East pampered themselves in the deep past.

The price of the trip to this house of pleasure includes:

• insurance;
• transfer from the hotel and back by comfortable coach;
• use of the changing room and a locker;
• the sauna;
• the scrub;
• the foam massage.

Other spa massages, face masks, food, tea and other drinks are not included.

Olive soap is used for the foam massage. If it irritates your skin and you are used to another soap, bring your own.

Strict Eastern etiquette forbids entering the hammam undressed. Do not forget a towel, a swimsuit and flip-flops.

A Turkish bath is good for you

The air in a hammam is heated to 45-55°C at 100 per cent humidity. This makes for gentler, more comfortable conditions and does not dry the skin out. Such a climate helps with rheumatism and respiratory complaints. Hot air widens the blood vessels, improves circulation and speeds up the body’s metabolism.

The treatments relieve muscle tension, moisturise the skin and leave it soft and smooth as silk.

What the Fethiye hammam has in store

You can join the hammam trip at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. or 6 p.m. Choose when you book, so that the transfer can collect everyone from their hotels at the right time.

The Turkish bath ritual begins with warming up. Enter the sauna, spread your towel on the bench, lie down and relax. There is no time limit, but after about 15 minutes the pores open and the body is covered in beads of sweat. Rinse it off with water from the bowl and you are ready for what comes next.

Move through to the marble hall. While you lie on the warm stone — the göbek taşı — you are scrubbed with a kese, a mitt of natural fibre. Dead, hardened cells come away and the skin begins to breathe. Now for the next stage, the most pleasant of all.

The foam massage

This treatment feels extraordinary and looks striking from the side. The attendant covers you with a cap of soap foam and then massages your joints and muscles. After the brisk rub with the kese, the body responds gratefully to the gentle touch of human hands and soap bubbles.

It is far better than mud therapy. Every cell will feel a bliss beyond words, from the crown of your head to the tips of all twenty toes and fingers.

Afterwards you can have a 30-minute moisturising massage with scented oil. That is not part of the treatments already paid for and is charged separately.

At the end you are offered a rest and a glass of tea, and then driven back to your hotel.

A Turkish bath in Fethiye is a real celebration for body and soul. Once you have been, you will want to treat yourself regularly — and your body will thank you for it.