Three Nordic Hotels & Resorts Spas Take Gold at the World Spa Awards 2026

The twelfth edition of the World Spa Awards has named its winners, with three properties in the Nordic Hotels & Resorts portfolio among them. Norefjell Ski & Spa takes home Norway's Best Resort Spa for the ninth time, Yasuragi is named Sweden's Best Hotel Spa for the seventh, and Vestkantbadet at Sommerro wins Norway's Best Hotel Spa for the first time.

Now in its twelfth year, the World Spa Awards recognizes the spas, wellness retreats, brands and experiences that set the benchmark in a rapidly evolving sector. Winners are drawn from countries and territories worldwide, and decided by a combination of industry professionals and the traveling public.

Three of this year's winners come from the Nordic Hotels & Resorts portfolio: Norefjell Ski & Spa and Vestkantbadet at Sommerro in Norway, and Yasuragi in Sweden.

– On the surface, our three winners couldn’t be more different. Taken together, however, they show what makes the Nordic Hotels & Resorts portfolio so distinct. Each has built a following at home and abroad, all while staying true to their unique brands and heritage. This is what our approach to wellness is all about: unique, tailor-made experiences, says Fredrik Blomberg, Chief Operating Officer at Nordic Hotels & Resorts’ Resort Division.

Norefjell Ski & Spa

Norefjell, Norway

Nine-time winner Norefjell Ski & Spa has held the title of Norway's Best Resort Spa in every year but one since the category was created in 2017, which makes it one of the most consistently decorated properties in the awards' European roster.

The resort sits at roughly 800 meters, under two hours from central Oslo, with 405 rooms and apartments, ski-in/ski-out access in winter, and trailheads at the door the rest of the year. The spa is built to keep the landscape in view; full-height windows frames the ridgeline from the pools, while outdoor hot tubs put guests right in the Norwegian nature. The route from slope to sauna is short, and deliberately so.

The site carries its own history. Norefjell hosted the downhill and giant slalom events at the 1952 Winter Olympics. The red piste cut for those games, "OL-Løpan", still runs from the mid-station down through the spruce forest to the valley.

Yasuragi

Stockholm, Sweden

Twenty minutes east of central Stockholm, Yasuragi has won gold in the category Sweden's Best Hotel Spa in 2019, 2020 and every year since 2022. The consistency comes as no surprise to anyone who has experienced the resort's unwavering commitment to its Japanese philosophy. 

The building came first. Japanese architect Yoji Kasajima designed it in the early 1970s as a trade union school, following the terrain and working around the existing trees, in raw concrete and timber. It became a hotel in 1997, and the Japanese concept grew out of the architecture rather than being applied to it.

Today, Yasuragi still sits low among the pines on the edge of the Stockholm archipelago. At the center of the ryokan-inspired resort is a 1,200-square-meter bathhouse modeled on onsen practice: a washing ritual, then a circuit of hot and cold pools, salt steam, tiered outdoor baths, and much more. Guests wear the provided yukata throughout their entire hotel stay. Around the baths sit 191 rooms, five places to eat and drink, and a dojo running qigong, yoga and meditation through the day. 

Vestkantbadet at Sommerro

Oslo, Norway

The newest of the three wins—Norway's Best Hotel Spa—belongs to the oldest space. Vestkantbadet opened in 1932 as a neighborhood bathhouse, designed in Art Deco style by Andreas Bjerke and Georg Eliassen, and served Oslo's inhabitants for decades. A five-year restoration returned it in 2023 as part of Sommerro, the lavish hotel occupying the former headquarters of the city's electricity company, Oslo Lysverker.

The restoration held the line on detail. Original tiling, the changing cabins, and Per Krohg's monumental mosaic have all been kept in the protected Sommerro building. What has been added has been meticulously fitted to the original look and feel: cold plunge, infrared sauna, treatment rooms, a large gym, and a rooftop pool and sauna with the Oslofjord in view.

The category of Norway's Best Hotel Spa itself is only two years old, which makes Vestkantbadet its second winner and gives the bathhouse its first World Spa Award, less than three years after the opening of Sommerro.