Therme Singapore: We visited Bucharest to see what the future S$1b wellness attraction could be like
Wellness operator Therme Group is opening its first attraction in Asia in 2030. CNA Lifestyle’s Joyee Koo visited Therme Bucharest in Romania to see how the wellness concept works in practice.
Therme Bucharest’s main pool is housed beneath a glass dome and surrounded by lush tropical greenery. (Photo: CNA/Joyee Koo)
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It’s not a spa, and not quite a water park either.
Within an hour of arriving at Therme Bucharest in Romania, I had floated beneath palm trees, raced down waterslides and watched a documentary in a sauna room. This clearly wasn’t going to be a typical day at a wellness spot.
But it did give me a glimpse of what we might expect when Singapore gets its own version in 2030.
Last year, global wellness operator Therme Group had announced its plans to build a S$1 billion wellness destination at Marina South Coastal, next to Marina Barrage and Gardens by the Bay. The official groundbreaking was held on Friday (Jun 19).
On paper, it’s unlike anything Singapore has had: Therme Singapore will span more than 720,000 sq ft, which is equivalent to approximately nine football fields.
The seven-storey main building will house 20 indoor and outdoor water bodies, more than 200,000 plants, 18 waterslides, over 70 treatment, sauna and wellness rooms, multiple F&B offerings and social spaces. Outside, a coastal park spanning approximately 4ha will connect Marina Barrage to the development.
It’s definitely not Sembawang Hot Spring Park. But wellness places that have evolved beyond traditional spas have already been popping up in recent years. Some now offer enough activities for visitors to spend an entire day there.
So aside from being really huge, how different can it be?
To find out, I headed to Romania upon the invitation of Therme Group to check out their flagship facility up close.
ARRIVING AT THERME BUCHAREST
The moment you enter The Palm, the first zone guests encounter after leaving the changing rooms, towering palm trees and lush greenery create the feeling of stepping into an urban oasis.
The adults-only zone is home to the main pool beneath a giant glass dome that floods the space with natural light. There was a tropical resort feel to it, and the combination of towering trees and the dome briefly reminded me of Gardens by the Bay.
The greenery is one of the facility’s defining features, and something Therme Singapore is expected to adopt as well. The indoor temperature is maintained at 29°C to 30°C year-round and as someone coming from Singapore, I initially wished they would turn it down a notch. But I quickly understood why after my first dip. The pools are also heated and maintained between 33°C and 36°C using natural geothermal water. I could only imagine how magical it would feel to soak in them during winter – but I wonder how this will feel like in hot Singapore.
Here, guests can lounge on sunbeds, unwind on hydromassage and infrared beds, visit steam rooms, and soak in mineral pools and jacuzzi nooks. Or enjoy a relaxed aqua aerobics class in the pool amid the ambient sounds around them.
For me, what made the experience even more relaxing was enjoying a gin and tonic at the swim-up bar. While alcohol might seem out of place in a wellness attraction, the swim-up bars have become popular spots for friends and colleagues to gather after a sauna session.
By night, the space takes on a different personality. Purple and blue lighting washes over the dome, the soundtrack shifts towards lounge and tropical techno, and the swim-up bars become livelier.
WELLNESS BUT MAKE IT FUN
Food probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a spa, but dining was clearly part of the experience here. There are multiple restaurants, cafes and bars spread across the different zones, offering everything from casual poolside bites to more refined dishes.
I was particularly impressed by the hydration stations, which offered everything from fresh juices and smoothies to coffee and tea. It’s easy to see how guests lose track of time here, with some staying from opening to closing.
In contrast to the tropical oasis of The Palm is the water theme park at Galaxy, the only area where kids aged 3 to 14 are allowed. There are more than 15 rides and I was surprised to be greeted by a maze of brightly coloured waterslides.
Waterslides in a wellness attraction? The answer was soon apparent as I spotted families, friends and couples racing down the slides. And for parents who wanted something more relaxing, it was easy to keep an eye on their kids from afar while drifting in the wave pool – where I also found myself lingering after trying a couple of slides.
It wasn’t something I’d expect to find at a wellness destination, but it was easy to see how it made the idea of wellness accessible to all ages.
For those looking for quieter spaces, there’s the Salt Library, which is exactly as it sounds: a room surrounded by walls of Himalayan salt, which are believed to help purify the air and support respiratory health. The zone also extends outdoors into a large park with themed gardens and walking paths, offering spaces for meditation in nature. These options provide spots to take a break from the livelier areas.
INSIDE THERME’S SAUNA CULTURE
While Therme Group is new to Asia, the group has been operating wellness destinations in Europe for more than 20 years – and their concept draws inspiration from different communal bathing traditions, including Romanian thermae, Turkish hammams and Japanese onsen.
Which means they take saunas very seriously here.
In Singapore, saunas are often small rooms tucked away in hotels, spas and condominiums. Therme Bucharest has several rooms and they’re all different. One doubles as a cinema where guests can watch documentaries, another draws inspiration from Granada’s Alhambra, while a third overlooks The Palm’s lush area.
Plus, they’ve even got sauna ceremonies led by sauna masters, or Aufguss masters, a profession I didn’t know existed.
I went for four sessions, each one led by a different sauna master who had their own rituals and choreography.
The first began with a mint-infused ice ball placed on the hot stones, releasing a satisfying sizzle before the sauna master spun a towel in wide arcs to direct fragrant waves of steam around the room. Accompanied by music, the performance felt almost like a dance. Between rounds, she flicked cool scented water onto us using birch whisks, offering brief relief from the heat.
During another session, the sauna master tapped icy water over us, prompting a few of us to giggle at the shock. It was a small moment, but one that drew smiles from everyone in the room.
“You’re going to laugh with people. You’re going to sit with other people that you never knew before. You’re going to sweat together. And this one is a very important pillar of wellness, because you cannot have wellness alone, just in isolation,” Therme Bucharest’s wellness director Cosmin Ciric told us later.
BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL SPA MENU
Aside from the saunas, there are several treatment rooms with offerings that go beyond what you might expect from a traditional spa menu.
Some treatments incorporate local medicinal plants and bee venom, paired with percussion devices designed to aid muscle recovery. Others combine marine minerals, Shungite and magnesium oil with modern wellness techniques.
Naturally, I decided to try one of the more adventurous options: the Siberian Cold Massage.
The treatment uses Japanese peppermint oil, healing Scandinavian herbs and cryo-cream. The combination of mint and cryo-cream creates a potent cooling sensation. While the first 15 minutes weren’t too bad, I was shivering by the time the treatment reached my neck.
The moment it ended, I headed straight for the nearest sauna and sat there for a good 15 minutes trying to warm up.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN SINGAPORE
Which now leads us to the big question – will Therme Singapore be exactly the same as Therme Bucharest?
While the exact details are likely still being ironed out (it is still four years away, after all), Therme Group CEO Robert Hanea and Therme Group Asia chairman Mah Bow Tan told CNA Lifestyle in Singapore ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony that some aspects of the experience will be tailored to local audiences.
“We will have localised treatments, traditional treatments, TCM treatments from around the region, which obviously is not available in Bucharest,” shared Mah.
“The F&B will also have to be localised. And of course, the design is very much a Singapore-market motif, with views to the sea but also views to Marina Bay Sands.”
What could very well be similar is how inclusive the whole experience is going to be.
“We are catering for heartlanders, seniors, all the way to Gen Z, millennials working in downtown. It is accessible. We are right at the heart of the city. We are huge. We can accommodate many people,” said Mah.
Beyond its scale, they also reckoned the concept can fill another gap in Singapore: communal wellness.
“If you agree that this generation… what are the things that matter the most? I think everyone’s first answers will be top three: health, connection to other people, and to be together with people that are pretty much not like you. Human biology is always the greatest unifier.” said Hanea.
As I spent my final moments at Therme Bucharest, watching guests unwind in the outdoor pool with drinks in hand, I reflected on how the experience managed to strike a balance between solitude and social connection.
There were moments when I could quietly lie on an infrared bed, gazing up at the palm trees above me, and enjoy the space on my own. But there were also moments spent laughing with strangers during sauna ceremonies and chatting with the people I had travelled with between activities. My body and mind felt far more relaxed than when I had started the day, and somewhere along the way, I’d completely stopped checking the time.
By the end of the day, I found myself mentally making a list of friends back home who would enjoy different parts of the experience. Some would spend hours at the swim-up bar, others would head straight for the waterslides, while a few would probably never leave the sauna zone.
So what exactly is the Therme experience? Not quite a spa, not quite a water park, and far more social and communal than I expected. I guess we’ll have to wait until it opens in Singapore in 2030 to find out.
Source: CNA/jk
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