Why a hot tub matters more here than you would think

The Jura is a walking region. You spend the day on a trail above a lake, or on the path along the Hérisson waterfalls, or swimming in water that is colder than it looks. By six in the evening your legs know about it.

Having the spa at the house, rather than booking a session somewhere, changes how the evening goes. No drive, no timetable, no other guests. It also changes the shoulder seasons completely: in October, when the forests turn and the mornings are sharp, sitting outside in hot water is arguably better than in August.

All three of the properties below have their wellness area reserved exclusively for the people staying in the house. Nothing is shared.

1. Gite Région des Lacs, Orgelet — hot tub and sauna, sleeps 6

A fully renovated town house in the middle of Orgelet, a few minutes from Lake Vouglans. Two bedrooms: a main bedroom with a 160 cm double bed, and a family room with a 140 cm double and two 90 cm singles. Six people, comfortably.

The private wellness area has a hot tub for up to four and a sauna for two or three, reached from the terrace. There is also a table football, a dartboard and a reading corner, which matters more than it sounds on a wet afternoon. The house is air conditioned.

Dogs are welcome for a supplement. This is the one to pick if you want the spa and the sauna, and you want to be able to walk to a bakery.

2. The cabin at Sarrogna — hot tub for six, and no Wi-Fi at all

A renovated 75 m² cabin at around 625 metres, in a quiet hamlet, standing in six thousand square metres of meadow. It sleeps five to seven: two bedrooms, three 90 cm bunks, and a sofa bed in the conservatory.

The hot tub seats six and is yours alone. There is a 70 m² terrace with a barbecue, and deliberately no Wi-Fi — the owners decided that a place like this works better without it. Come prepared, download what you need, and treat it as part of the offer rather than an oversight.

This is the one for people who want the view and the silence, and who do not mind driving five minutes for bread.

3. The group gite at Orgelet — sauna, jacuzzi, and room for sixteen

Six bedrooms, up to sixteen people, a few minutes from the lake. A private sauna and jacuzzi, a games room with table football, a very large living room and a kitchen sized for cooking for a crowd. The sitting room is air conditioned and there is a terrace.

Family reunions, milestone birthdays, a group of friends who have been threatening to do this for years. If you are more than sixteen, ask — there are other houses close by.

Practical notes before you book

These three are the most requested properties we have, particularly for weekends and during French school holidays. Several weeks of notice is realistic, and more than that for the group house in summer or at Christmas.

Check the sleeping arrangements against your group rather than the headline number: a house that sleeps seven on paper may do it with bunks and a sofa bed, which suits children better than four adults.

And if you are building a whole stay around the idea, we have written a separate piece on walking in the Jura and a first-timer's guide to the region, both of which pair well with an evening in hot water.

The three properties

• Gite Région des Lacs — hot tub and sauna, six people, in Orgelet.
• The cabin at Sarrogna — hot tub for six, open meadow, no Wi-Fi.
• The group gite — sauna and jacuzzi, up to sixteen.

All of them are on the page listing our gites.

Questions before booking? The easiest way to reach us is by email: write to us in English and we will reply in English.

Question fréquentes Jura gites with a hot tub: your questions