Inside Peninsula Hot Springs’ new luxury eco lodges
Peninsula Hot Springs on the Mornington Peninsula has 70 geothermal options and now has three luxury lodges with their own private baths. We tested them out.
I have whiled away many an hour at Peninsula Hot Springs since it opened in 2005. Soaking in its shallow pools, of which there are now 70 diverse options, days slip into night. Soft points of golden light gradually transform this landscaped site’s water, stone and lush regenerated bushland as the odd frog’s call multiplies into a joyful chorus.
That’s long been my signal to reluctantly return to the realities of Melbourne, 90 minutes’ drive away, even after glamping tents joined the Mornington Peninsula wellness destination’s ever-expanding offerings in 2020. So now, finally arriving with an overnight bag, I feel a tingle of anticipation. Not just at the prospect of soaking in mineral-rich geothermal water well into the night and again from dawn, but because I’m staying at the property’s new Eco Lodges.
There are three timber-clad lodges. Each is named for a native bee and comprises a few rooms and a suite, which can be booked individually or together for exclusive group accommodation. With my regular companion engaged in leisurely hot-pool hopping and conversation, I enter the Masked Bee lodge’s suite and quickly realise we have a dilemma: bathe to the max, or linger in this serene space.
From the bedroom’s generously proportioned daybed in subdued terracotta to the lounge area’s plush, patchwork-design rug, textiles are as soft in hue as they are in texture. Wood abounds, often lightly stained to enhance the character of its grain. Among the custom-made furniture is a substantial dining table sliced from a broad trunk, its naturally curvy edges so smooth they demand to be caressed. Among the soothing artworks by Mornington Peninsula creatives is ceramicist Manuela Ferstl’s sculptural vase, which exudes a Zen-like calm. With artificial flora now almost ubiquitous in hospitality spaces, I’m delighted to find that plants nestled in two window-side nooks are the real deal.
With a kitchenette featuring a commercial bar-style fridge beside that eight-seater table, the roomy open-plan living area has potential for socialising with friends or family from the lodge’s smaller adjoining rooms. The suite is also designed for a good night’s sleep, including block-out blinds and lighting that automatically adjusts according to circadian rhythms, from white in the morning through to warm at night.
The bedroom and bathroom arrangement is somewhat open-plan, so my friend and I must co-ordinate for privacy, but we love the spacious walk-in shower with glazed teal tiles and brushed gold fixtures. While lodge rooms have a freestanding indoor bath that can be filled with geothermal water at leisure, a private hot-spring pool awaits just beyond each suite’s floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. This doesn’t make our dilemma any easier. Nevertheless, during 22 hours in residence we somehow balance enjoyment of the suite and Peninsula Hot Springs’ more public pleasures. Most involve water pumped from 637m below ground, warm and abundant with healthful minerals including boron, magnesium and potassium.
The Eco Lodge package includes a 45-minute group wellness experience, such as yoga or a hot-and-cold therapy workshop from sauna to ice cave, or, our choice, the body clay ritual. Our genial guide makes standing outside in our togs with a bunch of strangers, smearing or even painting ourselves with four different coloured clays, seem like perfectly normal fun. From a pinky clay that apparently has antibacterial properties, to a grey that exfoliates with activated charcoal, we are transformed into smiling mud people. Eventually all but the smiles are washed away by outdoor geothermal showers, leaving us feeling supremely smooth and clean.
Eco Lodge guests also have access to the secluded, adults-only Spa Dreaming Centre. It features a restaurant that’s a step up from the general bathing area’s cafes; even so, dining fresh from the pools in white robes with messy hair and no make-up is de rigueur. The menu includes fish of the day – tonight it’s a plump portion of crispy-skinned barramundi – and deliciously wholesome dishes drawn from the Food Bowl, a 1.2ha terraced kitchen garden established in 2022 where bathers can roam. Golden late-afternoon light glides through the restaurant’s slatted roof and slender trees outside the wraparound windows.
It has a brighter quality next morning, when we graze on a buffet breakfast that’s all the more satisfying for leaning healthy. It includes chilled, pastel-pretty juices and smoothies, sauteed mushrooms of outstanding variety, and fruit bread that, unusually, catches my eye. Toasted, buttered and slathered with sticky goodness from a frame of honeycomb, it tastes even better than it looks.
The Spa Dreaming Centre’s bathing options include a hot-spring pool with a row of smooth river-rock taps, which unleash torrents from above; my shoulders and neck are pleasantly pummelled, as if by a tireless Thai masseuse. Beyond the centre are a further 50 aquatic offerings, including a steamy room inspired by Turkish hammams, where I drench myself with dish after dish of cool, refreshing water. Most options are pools where we loll about like contented mermaids, only moving to try one with a different feature, temperature (ranging from 34C to 42C) or view of this leafy, undulating haven, including the hilltop pool’s 360-degree panorama.
Eventually our comfortable suite beckons, with its private pool overlooking a wetland of tall green reeds. It comes alive with the sound of myriad frogs when darkness creeps in, from the Common Easterns’ earnest chirping to the Eastern Banjos’ “pobblebonk” call. As I soak under a field of stars, dry off and snuggle into bed, these unseen creatures’ long song fills the night. This time the realities of Melbourne can wait.
In the know
Peninsula Hot Springs is at 140 Springs Lane, Fingal, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Eco Lodge rooms are available from $930 and suites from $1350 a night, twin-share. Includes buffet breakfast, a wellness activity and unlimited geothermal bathing with robes, towels and lockers until 12pm on day of departure. Bathing only from $55 adult, $45 concession, $40 child.
Patricia Maunder was a guest of Peninsula Hot Springs.
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