‘Get undressed, or get out’: Here, it’s normal to get naked with colleagues

Forget all that nonsense about the Scandinavians and the Germans and their propensity for getting their kit off in public; it’s the Austrians who have taken the art of nudity to a whole new level.

I became convinced of this when two members of our travel group were turfed out of a five-star Austrian hotel spa for the sin of … wearing clothing. And we’re talking swimsuits here, not a three-piece suit and a trilby. The women were agog, and not a little indignant, at being told to get undressed or get out.

Putting aside the question of the identity of the nude dobber, I put on my investigative reporter hat and headed to the scene of the “crime”.

Personally, I have nothing against getting my kit off with a bunch of strangers – one of my early travel stories was about a fascinating and somewhat startling weekend spent in a nudist camp on the NSW coast – so off I popped, discarding clothing as I went, reporter hat included.

The WaldSpa in the Naturhotel Forsthofgut in Leogang, just south of Salzburg, is small but perfectly formed, with family-friendly “textile” and adults-only “textile-free” (textilfrei in the local lingo) areas where you can work up a sweat or swim while admiring the grandeur of the surrounding mountains.

It was empty when I got there, so I stripped down and sat on one of the wooden benches. It was a little disconcerting at first if I’m honest – what if I’d misread the signs (schoolboy German will only get you so far) and I was hanging out (as it were) in the wrong section? I wasn’t, as proved by the man and woman who came in shortly afterwards, as naked as the day they were born. Phew, I was in the right place and could relax.

That night at dinner in a traditional Hutessen restaurant (where you DIY-cook strips of meat by throwing them against what is essentially an upright brazier) a young Austrian public relations woman explained that she happily went to spas/saunas with colleagues (male and female) after a day at the office or at a conference.

It was just a way of life, a social ritual about as controversial as going for a cheeky beer after work. Which is when it hit me; I have nothing against getting my clothes off with a bunch of strangers – after all, I’m never going to see them again – but I wondered if, when it came to friends and colleagues, would I feel different? Not so this young Austrian woman, who looked at me like I was a crazy old stick-in-the-mud. What, your work colleagues haven’t seen you naked?

Which is why I found myself a few days later in an amphitheatre-like textilfrei sauna of the Alpin Resort Sacher wellness hotel, listening to a Saunameister – yes, it’s a thing – explain the various spa rituals such as using aromatherapy infusions on the coals, and how to twirl towels to circulate hot air and increase heat.