Milan Spa: QC Termemilano and De Montel

Milan has two proper urban thermal spas, and they are nothing like each other. QC Termemilano — signed QC Spa Milano since the group’s rebrand — occupies the old tram depot against the Spanish walls at Porta Romana, ten minutes from the Duomo by metro. De Montel – Terme Milano opened in 2025 inside the restored De Montel stables at San Siro and is the largest urban thermal park in Italy. A spa in Milan therefore means choosing between theatre and scale. Official entry starts at €48 for a late evening at QC and €59 for a morning at De Montel; the partner vouchers below sit between €45 and €79.

What a day pass actually includes

At QC Spa Milano the admission fee covers the entire wellness path, a bathrobe, a towel, a pair of slippers and Aperiterme, the evening aperitivo, according to the official site. Nothing else is bundled: massages, treatments and lunch are priced separately.

At De Montel every entry comes with the Terme De Montel spa kit — bathrobe and towel to hand back at the exit, slippers, and a branded tote bag you keep. Lunch is €39 on top; a 25-minute massage is €70 and a 50-minute one €130 (official price list).

Both spas require a swimsuit in every area, indoor and outdoor. Neither is a nude-sauna operation, which surprises German and Nordic visitors.

Inside QC Termemilano: pools, saunas and a tram

The layout is a loop rather than a single hall, and the set pieces are worth naming so you can find them:

• The Historical Thousand Blue Bubbles Pools — an outdoor whirlpool with glass walls that show the ancient Spanish walls through the water.
• Cinema Pool — an indoor pool with projections running across the ceiling.
• The Porta Romana Tram — a bio-sauna built inside a historic Ventotto tram carriage. This is the one people come for.
• Le Stube — a pinewood cabin sauna modelled on Valtellina farmhouses.
• The Hay District Biosauna — a gentler, herb-scented sauna.
• Strolling Through the City — a barefoot outdoor path over changing surfaces.
• Forest of Wonder — the main relaxation room.

The official site counts 30 wellness practices in total, plus the garden along the walls. Allow four hours to do the loop once without hurrying; five if you want to lie down properly afterwards.

De Montel – Terme Milano: the big one

De Montel spans 16,000 m² indoors and out, with ten thermal pools, fifteen massage cabins, nine relaxation areas, four saunas, a Turkish bath and a large hammam. The water is certified thermal water and treatments follow the Terme di Saturnia method. The setting is the Art Nouveau De Montel stables — built for racehorses, derelict for decades, reopened as a spa — directly across the road from the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, so it pairs neatly with a San Siro stadium tour earlier in the day.

Official hours are Monday to Thursday 09:30–23:00, Friday and Saturday 08:30–24:00 and Sunday 08:30–22:00, with the indoor areas closing half an hour before the building does.

Prices: official site vs Tiqets vs GetYourGuide

Official prices are “from” prices at both spas: they rise on Fridays, weekends and holidays and with demand for the date. Partner vouchers are flat, which is the whole point of them — you pay one price whatever the day.

Prices checked September 2026. The QC voucher is a dated-entry product: you book the day, and it is not refundable once bought, so treat it as a fixed plan. The De Montel Tiqets ticket cancels free up to 48 hours before. If you plan to go more than once, De Montel’s own Wellness Pass 5 is €356 for five five-hour entries (€445 undiscounted) — cheaper per visit than any single ticket.

Read our profiles of Tiqets and GetYourGuide if you want to know how each handles vouchers and refunds before you commit.

Evening or daytime?

Daytime is quieter and lighter. Both spas open before 09:00 at weekends, and the first two hours after opening are the emptiest of the whole day — at QC you can have the Cinema Pool almost to yourself at 08:30 on a Saturday.

Evening is the atmospheric choice and the cheaper one. QC’s Aperiterme buffet runs in the evening and is included in every pass, which is why the €58 evening entry is better value than it looks: you are buying dinner as well. De Montel’s Aperitivo alle Terme (€79) runs from 18:00 to closing on the same logic. The trade-off is crowds — Friday and Saturday evenings are the busiest slots at both.

If you only want the aperitivo and none of the water, our aperitivo and nightlife guide is a better use of €20.

Adding a massage — and whether it is worth it

Both spas sell entry-plus-treatment bundles that cost less than buying the two separately, and both fill their treatment slots days ahead of their entry slots. Book the massage when you book the entry or you will not get one.

QC’s official bundles start at €122 for a day pass with a 25-minute massage, €166 with 50 minutes and €216 with 75 minutes; the couples’ package with a shared massage is €244 for two people. A standalone 25-minute facial at QC is €54.

De Montel prices its treatments separately at €70 for 25 minutes, €130 for 50 and €190 for 80, with the Saturnia Deep Massage at €150 for 50 minutes. Its packages bundle food in: Wellness & Lunch Break is €109 for five hours plus lunch, and De Montel Full Experience is €229 for unlimited hours, lunch and a 50-minute massage.

The honest verdict: a 25-minute massage in a busy urban spa is a queue with a rub at the end. If you want treatment quality, book 50 minutes or skip it and spend the money on the open-ended pass instead.

What to bring

• A swimsuit. Compulsory everywhere at both spas.
• A hair tie. QC’s regulation requires hair tied up in the pools, saunas and steam baths.
• Nothing else, really. Robe, towel and slippers are issued at both. Leave yours at the hotel.
• No food. QC bans outside food and drink in every area, including the garden.
• A padlock is unnecessary — lockers lock themselves, and QC lockers also have an in-locker safe box for valuables where fitted.

Two rules catch people out at QC: entry is single-use, so stepping out for a cigarette run means you do not get back in, and you must be out of the pools and treatments 30 minutes before closing. De Montel applies the same half-hour rule to its indoor areas.

Age limits

This is the section to read before booking a family trip. QC Spa Milano does not admit anyone under 14 years old, and pregnant women are not permitted either — both stated in the official access regulation. De Montel admits guests from 16 up, and says dedicated Kids Days will be organised, with dates announced on its own channels.

So neither spa works as a family afternoon. If you are travelling with children, the heated indoor pools and slides at Acquaworld are the realistic substitute — see our water parks near Milan page — or plan around our Milan with kids itinerary instead.

How to get there

QC Termemilano — Piazzale Medaglie d’Oro 2, on the corner of Viale Filippetti. Metro M3 (yellow) to Porta Romana, then about eight minutes on foot along the walls; or tram 9 to Porta Romana, which stops closer. From Piazza del Duomo it is two stops on M3 and roughly 15 minutes door to door. From Milano Centrale, M3 direct, about 20 minutes.

De Montel — Via Achille 6, on the far side of the stadium. Metro M5 (lilac) to San Siro Stadio, then cross the forecourt to the opposite side of the ground: Via Achille is the parallel street. Trams 16 and 24 stop at Via Novara/Stadio, five minutes’ walk away; bus 49 runs there from Piazza Duomo. Reckon 30 minutes from the Duomo. On match days at San Siro the area is closed off and slow — check the fixture list before you book.

Combine it with

QC sits on the edge of Porta Romana, walking distance from Fondazione Prada and the Navigli — a spa morning and a canal-side evening make a coherent day. De Montel pairs with San Siro and, if you are heading out of town, with the outlets on the western ring road. Either one is the right call on a wet or bitterly cold day, when the Duomo terraces are a poor bet and everything else in Milan is indoors and busy.

Book the earliest slot you can stand for the quiet, or the 20:30 entry for the price. For a first spa visit in Milan, QC Termemilano is the more memorable of the two — the tram sauna and the glass-walled pool against the Spanish walls are things you will not see anywhere else — and the Tiqets voucher removes the weekend surcharge from the official price.