Radium Hot Springs Thermal Baths: British Columbia, Canada
I love hot springs and I’ve been to a lot of them – some of which are commercialized and resemble a swimming pool with lifeguards and changing rooms, while others that more resemble that of soaking in an irrigation ditch. Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia, Canada is the former.
Radium Hot Springs is the name of the town and it’s also the name of these hot springs pools, so for the purpose of this blog post review, I’ll be referring to the actual hot springs pool.
Radium Hot Springs – Location and Details
Location:
5420 BC-93
Radium Hot Springs, BC
V0A 1M0, Canada
Radium Hot Springs is right along the highway when you’re driving through Kootenay National Park – you can’t miss it! If you’re coming from Banff, it’s about an hour and a half drive.
Hours: 11am – 8pm
Cost: About $8 USD. Includes locker usage. Towels are not included
Visiting Radium Hot Springs
We visited in January in the afternoon and had plenty of spots for parking – it wasn’t busy at all.
Before you go into the locker rooms, you need to take off your shoes. There’s just a few benches lined up outside the changing rooms, with shoes and boots strewn everywhere, which was chaotic and kind of messy. One would think they’d have a better, more organized system for this.
Once in the changing rooms however, I thought they looked pretty clean to me, though the floors were all wet. When you pay your admission, you’ll get a token for the locker. This is single-use so you better make sure you don’t need anything out of it while you’re soaking! Towels are available for rent or for purchase — we thought ahead and brought towels from our hotel.
Before you go into the pool, there’s a rack for your towel in a little vestibule area. There are no racks to store your towel outside by the pools, which is kind of inconvenient. You can bring them out there, but they may get wet.
In the winter, the pool decks are roped off because they are slippery, so there’s just one way into the pool and one way out. It wasn’t too busy when we were there, but we definitely weren’t alone. Most people were using the “hot” pool, but the cool pool was open, as was the hot tubs. The lap pool, with the diving board and slide, was closed.
The scenery with the canyon in the back is fabulous, especially with the snow! The pool, on the other hand, is just ok. I didn’t think it was very hot, compared to other hot springs I’ve been to. I ended up spending most of my time soaking in the hot tub, though the jets were very weak.
There is no sulfur smell, and honestly, I kind of found that disappointing. I know most people wouldn’t agree with me but without the smell (and the heat), this just felt like any ol’ swimming pool. It didn’t feel special, and I didn’t feel all that relaxed and rejuvenated after I was done.
Would I go back? Maybe, if I found myself in the area again. Where this gets its high marks is with its setting – set in Sinclair Canyon, with a frozen waterfall and snow-covered rocks as the backdrop while you soak is amazing — but other than that, it just felt like your average community outdoor pool.
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