Thalasso Lepa Vida

Thalasso Spa Lepa Vida is an open-air thalassotherapy centre in the northern part of the Sečovlje Salina Landscape Park, on the Slovenian coast south of Portorož. It is run by the salt company SOLINE Pridelava soli, which still works the Sečovlje salt pans, and its treatments use the products of those pans: salt-pan mud, brine and sea salt. The spa stands among the salt fields and cannot be reached on foot or by bicycle; visitors leave their cars at the park entrance and are carried the rest of the way by electric vehicle. Admission is limited to adults and to children over the age of 12.

Bathing is in brine, the concentrated mother water left in the evaporation basins after the sea salt has been harvested by hand. Brine baths are taken in groups in a small and a large pool under the supervision of a balneotherapist; a bath lasts twenty minutes and the brine is heated to 36–38 °C, its density making the body float. Separate from the brine pools there is a seawater pool for swimming and relaxation, supervised by a pool attendant, together with Kneipp walking pools. Salt-pan mud, an Istrian clay matured in the salt ponds and recognised by the Slovenian Ministry of Health as a natural healing substance, is applied in thick heated layers, dried by the sun and rinsed off with a seawater shower.

The remaining treatments are sea-salt scrubs, classic and anti-cellulite massages, lymphatic drainage, reflexology and facial massage. A small bar on site serves juices, other drinks and snacks. Some treatments require a prior medical examination, and guests who are pregnant or have cardiovascular or other serious conditions are asked to consult the spa's doctor beforehand.

The spa is strongly seasonal and shut for more than half the year. It is closed from October to April; it opens from May to August between 10:00 and 20:00 and in September between 10:00 and 18:00. Because the whole centre is outdoors its operation depends on the weather, and the reception may cancel bookings or close the spa when conditions are poor. Individual services should be reserved several days ahead by telephone or e-mail.