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How to Have a Perfect Weekend Away in Hepburn Springs
Written by Paul Chai
This historic spa town offers a getaway packed with indulgence as guests float in thermal pools, visit the onsite spa and retreat to a stay every bit as relaxing as the mineral springs themselves.
Despite all its mod cons, there is something about the Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa that makes you think you could see a mustachioed fellow in a striped, neck-to-knee bathing suit wander out of its hallowed entrance.
People have been bathing in the mineral-rich waters around these parts since the late 1800s and, while the Bathhouse has been modernised several times since then, you can feel the history in its walls and in the lush gardens that surround it. We spend a couple of days washing away the stress of city life.
Bathe the day away
Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa is the OG, the spiritual home of mineral bathing in Victoria. In the main bathing area, you have two pools encased in floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the lush greenery and the small stream that meanders past the baths. But for a more exclusive bathing experience, make sure to book The Sanctuary. Reserved for bathers 16 years and older and featuring a different array of pools, Sanctuary Bathing also has an outdoor section where you bathe in steaming pools on a wooden deck overlooking the forest and creek and then, if you are brave enough, take a plunge in the cold pool to really wake yourself up.
Sanctuary also has spa couches that are submerged in the health-giving waters, a circular salt therapy pool that is often so quiet you have it to yourself and the mineral hamman where you can lather yourself in peppermint body scrub and wash it off in the mosaic-tiled heated room.
Lunch in the historic café
Head out into the gardens, take your water bottle with you and you can drink directly from the mineral springs via the various public taps. They are all labelled and vary in degrees of minerality from the refreshing to the downright funky. In the centre of the grounds is the Pavilion Café, a heritage-listed Edwardian building with stained-glass windows and beautiful natural light where you can have your lunch from their wellness menu or spoil yourself with a cheeky cake. After lunch, take a stroll across the Hepburn Mineral Springs Bridge, a suspension bridge linking the Bathhouse to the town; today it is a steel marvel but bathers of yore used to traipse across a wooden bridge to plunge into the springs.
Have a relaxing massage
Next door, the Hepburn Bathhouse spa offers wellbeing detoxes, magnesium rituals and comfort wraps, as well as traditional massages. Guests walk from the newer springs building to the older building that was constructed in 1895. With all the renovation the traditional facade has been kept and spa guests enter the reception area and take tea in the sunken, wooden waiting area that was once where bathers waited for their turn in the springs. Try a traditional couples’ massage in one of the therapy rooms before plunging back into the warm waters.
Stay at the onsite penthouse
The Hepburn Spa Retreat has Wellness Villas on the resort grounds that allow you to live the spa life with an in-room spa, an array of bath scrubs, yoga mats and blocks and even a wellness concierge.
But if you want to really push the wellness boat out, stay at the Mineral Springs Penthouse, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite with fully equipped chef’s kitchen – and its very own private steam room. In the second bedroom, fire up the steam room set into bedroom wall and give yourself a salt scrub. The main bedroom has a huge in-room spa at one end and a glass fireplace at the other. The fireplace is two-sided and also warms the large living space that spills out onto a massive balcony that looks over the Bathhouse and beyond; here you can even fire up the barbecue or lounge around in ridiculous luxury.
Dine out in Hepburn Springs
In its heyday, there would be ballroom dances and lavish parties held in town; wellness with a side order of revelry. Nowadays, the pretty town is home to plenty of great restaurants and pubs. A neighbourhood joint specialising in French bistro classics, Bistro Terroir sees chef/owner Matthew Carnell using his culinary skills learned at Michelin-starred restaurants in France. It is a dark-and-brooding space with a sudden burst of colour from a mural of rooster in le tricolore; the red, white and blue of the French national flag. Try the white anchovy on brioche or a cured trout on a blini; main could be Macedon duck breast with a confit duck leg, beetroot and fennel or poisson du jour with prawn, tarragon and pastis beurre blanc.
Explore Daylesford & the Macedon Ranges
