A full-day pass to the pools at Homestead starts at $75. On a Monday it costs $35. At SOHO Saunas at Soldier Hollow, a two-hour session is $43, and it starts at $38 on a Wednesday. Two businesses built around Midway's warm water have set aside days of the week for people who live here, which gives the town's best-known winter asset a weekly schedule.
The timing matters. Homestead says the Crater will close for renovations in April and May 2027. Ice Castles, which skipped its Midway season in 2025–26, lists only New Hampshire and Montréal on its official season page. So between now and spring, Midway's winter centers on hot water, and the prices favor the valley.
The week, laid out
| Day | Where | What it costs | Fine print |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | The Pools at Homestead | $35 per person, free for ages 4 and under | Limited tickets, advance purchase required |
| Wednesday | SOHO Saunas, 2002 Soldier Hollow Lane | From $38 per person | 120-minute session, book online |
| Any day | SOHO Saunas private session | $199 for up to six guests | About $33 each with a full group of six |
| Any day | The Crater at Homestead | Booked through Homestead | Closed April and May 2027 |
| Any day | The Pools at Homestead, standard day pass | From $75 | Limited by hotel occupancy, sold online up to two weeks out |
Monday belongs to the valley at Homestead
Homestead calls its Monday program Local Swim Day and describes it as "reserved for our Valley neighbors every Monday." It runs all day. The resort's description includes floating under open sky, lunch from 1886 Grill, lawn games, and an outdoor projector movie at dusk when equipment and weather allow. The Pools stay open Sunday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The pools are the newer side of the Homestead property. The Park Record reported in May that the six redesigned outdoor pools are heated year-round. They include an adults-only lounge pool, a spa pool, and a family pool with a volleyball net, a waterfall and a basketball hoop. Those pools are one phase of what the same article described as a $120 million redevelopment that has been underway since new owners took over in 2019.
Monday tickets are limited and sold in advance, and the lawn games and movie depend on the weather. Book ahead and check the listing before a January Monday. On other days, the number of $75 passes for sale depends on how full the hotel is.
Wednesday moves the hot springs to Soldier Hollow
SOHO Saunas takes the water out of the resort setting. Owner Shane Inoue ran onsens in Japan before moving to Midway, according to the Park Record's April profile. His setup at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center has two Finnish barrel saunas on an outdoor deck, plus solo hot and cold plunges in barrels of mineral water pumped from Midway's hot springs. One sauna faces the Wasatch Range and the other faces the Heber Valley.
The house rules come from the onsen tradition. Everyone showers before a session, and each sauna is cleaned after every group. Inoue told the Park Record, "after everyone leaves, our goal is that the next guest feels like they were the first."
A shared visit is 120 minutes of sauna, cold plunge, mineral soak and time in the relaxation areas, at $43 per person or from $38 on Wednesdays. For a group, the $199 private session holds up to six guests. With a full group that comes to $33 each, less than the locals' Wednesday rate.
The SOHO you can book this winter is the first version. The Park Record described the barrel-sauna setup as a trial period, with a more traditional onsen planned after it. SOHO's own site still calls that bathhouse, ONZEN, "Phase 2" and refers to a future Soho Cafe. Both are plans, not places you can visit yet. The site also doesn't post regular winter hours. Bookings go through its online calendar.
The Crater's last full winter before renovation
The geothermal water that made Midway's name comes up inside the limestone dome on the Homestead grounds. The Park Record describes the Crater as 55 feet high and 400 feet wide, with geothermal water between 90 and 96 degrees. It's also the site of the only warm-water scuba certification in the United States. The resort itself started out as Schneitter's Hot Pot Resort, which Swiss immigrants Simon and Fanny Schneitter founded in the late 19th century.
Through the winter, the Crater is open for soaking and swimming from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekends. Diving runs from noon to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Then it closes for April and May 2027. The Crater page gives the closure dates without describing the work. Elsewhere on the property, the par-71 golf course is being redesigned, and a new clubhouse with an indoor golf simulator is slated to debut in 2027.
If you've been putting off a Crater soak or a dive course, the window runs from now until the end of March.
Fitting the rest of the season around the water
Midway's other winter dates fall on either side of the soaking days, and a few pair well with an evening in warm water:
- Saturday, Nov. 28, noon. Midway City is launching Christmas on the Square, a new holiday format that keeps the traditional tree lighting on Town Square and adds new activities. The city says the full schedule is coming soon.
- Dec. 18 through Mar. 13. Tubing at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center runs in two-hour sessions, depending on weather, and tickets are already on sale. Prices change by date and time. Since SOHO Saunas is at the same Nordic center, you can book a tubing session and a sauna session back to back.
- Thursday through Saturday evenings. Harvest Midway at 195 W. Main St. opened in 2026. It's open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Thursday through Saturday it serves dinner until 9 p.m. from a schnitzel-focused menu, as KUTV reported in September.
- Any dry afternoon. The Wasatch Trails Foundation finished a new half-mile walking loop around Midway Reservoir through aspen groves, TownLift reported in August. The trailhead is just south of the Top of WOW parking lot, on the east side of Pine Canyon Road, and a new picnic area sits nearby.
A winter of soaking and cold plunges is easier when your own place is ready for the season. At Parker Properties, our in-house maintenance team handles preventative maintenance for owners across Midway and the Heber Valley, so the work gets done before the snow piles up. Start Effortless Ownership. Schedule a Consultation.
