The railway will stretch from the city’s CBD in the north to Hepburn, in the west to Portland and in the east to Gippsland and Mount Hotham, and will cover some of Victoria’s most scenic parts when completed in 2030.
Peninsula Hot Springs offers more than 70 bathing and wellness experiences inspired by different parts of the world. Photo: Peninsula Hot Springs
The section down to the Mornington Peninsula, a coastal enclave an hour and a half’s drive south of Melbourne, is already open to tourists.
That’s no coincidence: One of the stops here is Peninsula Hot Springs, a hot springs and day spa co-founded by Charles Davidson, who spearheads the entire route.
A visit to Peninsula Hot Springs allows you to reconnect with nature and with yourself. Photo: Peninsula Hot Springs
Davidson says that during a visit to Japanese hot springs in 1992, he became fascinated with the concept of communal bathing and how it brought people together.
“All I could think was, ‘Why not have this at home?'” he explains.
Then, through a conversation with a colleague in 1997, the Melbourne native discovered a hot spring close to his home. It took almost a decade for him to open his own facility in 2005.
Bathing may be an excuse to go there, but then you ask, “What else is there?” Charles Davidson, advocate of the Great Victorian Bathing Trail
Spread across 42 acres (17 hectares) of forest, Peninsula Hot Springs offers more than 70 globally inspired bathing and wellness experiences, from steam saunas to ice-cold water baths, allowing visitors to reconnect with nature and themselves.
The Great Victorian Basing Trail is an extension of that thinking, and Mr Davidson hopes more operators will get on board.
“It’s really a product about place; it’s a gift from place. In that sense, the more places you bring together, the more the story becomes clear,” he explains.
Aruba Thermal Springs & Spa is a tranquil, adults-only resort. Photo: Aruba Thermal Springs & Spa
Each stop acts as a lighthouse, Davidson said, guiding tourists as they travel the state: “Maybe the beach is an excuse to go, but then it’s, ‘What else is there?'”
“People tend to want to stay somewhere overnight and can’t stay in a warm pool all day, so they’ll go eat or go see something else.”
In the Mornington Peninsula’s case, ‘what else is there’ includes wineries complete with art installations and linked by scenic drives, celebrity chef-run restaurants in luxury hotels surrounded by nature, stunning scenery, hikes through eucalyptus-scented forests and sandy beaches.
You can also opt for bathing experiences both on and off the route.
Aruba Thermal Springs & Spa has 31 outdoor pools at different temperatures, each fed by mineral-rich geothermal water. Photo: Aruba Thermal Springs & SpaWhile Peninsula Hot Springs is large and family-friendly, where you can stay in Instagram-worthy yurts and soak under the stars or at sunrise, across the road is Aruba Thermal Springs & Spa, a tranquil, adults-only space that opened in late 2022.
Here, 31 outdoor pools at different temperatures, fed by mineral-rich geothermal water, flow into 37 acres of manicured gardens, and in the main building, spacious spa suites lead to private baths, where bespoke experiences await.
A 15-minute drive away is Aurora Spa & Bathhouse, a European-inspired wellness centre attached to the InterContinental Sorrento Mornington Peninsula hotel, also opening at the end of 2022. For founder Lyndal Mitchell, the regional focus on bathing is a natural progression for Australia’s wellness industry.
Aurora Spa & Bathhouse Australia is a European-style wellness centre. Photo: InterContinental Sorrento Mornington Peninsula
When he opened the first Aurora Spa in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 1997, it was one of the first day spas in Australia with 22 treatment rooms because “that’s what people knew and expected from a spa”.
Since then, immigration has made Melbourne a more diverse city, with many of the newcomers coming from countries with a tradition of bathing for health reasons.
“When we had the opportunity to build a purpose-built facility here, we felt the market was more advanced and wanted more,” Mitchell explains, which is why Aurora 2.0 only has eight treatment rooms.
Aurora Spa & Bathhouse features one of the largest saunas in the Southern Hemisphere. Photo: InterContinental Sorrento Mornington Peninsula
The remaining 1,000 square metres (10,800 square feet) of space is home to four magnesium-infused hydrotherapy pools, one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest saunas, a Himalayan salt chamber, a glacial ice chamber and spine-tingling experiential showers.
What about the Great Victorian Basing Trail?
“This is a fantastic opportunity for tourism,” Mitchell said. “Now we’ve created a swimming triangle, attracting new visitors and giving Victorians something on their doorstep.”
The author travelled as a guest of Visit Victoria and Tourism Australia.
