The sip-and-stroll parade starts well before breakfast in the centre of Karlovy Vary, the Czech Republic’s famed spa town.
Since Celts discovered soaking in the hot pools and eddies of Tepla River eased their aching bodies more than 2,000 years ago, people have luxuriated in the mineral-rich water from underground springs more than a mile below the earth.
Today, Karlovy Vary is on the UNESCO list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe. Unlike most mineral springs resorts where guests stick to soaking, Karlovy Vary, previously called Carlsbad, has the bonus of the “drinking cure.” Sipping from the hot springs is said to ease issues from digestive issues to depression.
The first thing most Karlovy Vary visitors do is buy adult version of a sippy cup. They’re used at mineral water fountains and spouts located in five elegant colonnades around town. The porcelain cup handles are hollow, with curved drinking spouts. They double as souvenirs and are on sale everywhere for about $11 USD, with designs that range from fanciful to garishly iridescent.
Each morning, visitors and locals sip hot mineral water from Karlovy Vary’s underground springs as they stroll. At top, in 2021, Karlovy Vary became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name “Great Spa Towns of Europe” because of its spas and architecture from the 18th through 20th centuries. (Linda Barnard photo for VacayNetwork.com; top photo courtesy of Saunia Thermal Resort)
Karlovy Vary’s spa doctors recommend drinking the water before meals and going from coolest fountain to hottest (the temperatures are marked), walking 10 steps in between each sip. The goal is to drink a liter a day.
My room at the Astoria Hotel & Medical Spa overlooked the largest covered walk, the 19th-century Romanesque Mill Colonnade. I opened the curtains on my first morning to see the wandering sippers in the elegant colonnade and was inspired to give it a try. The 147 Fahrenheit degree (64 Celsius) water tasted slightly salty and a bit metallic. I’d rather have a hot coffee to start my day.
Even if the idea of healing waters strikes you as hogwash, the ancient ritual of water cures has never gone out of fashion in this photogenic small town about 60 miles from Prague.
You don’t need to be spa savvy to enjoy a couple of days here. Karlovy Vary’s atmosphere feels like a trip back to 19th-century central Europe, with a car-free center and graceful, pastel-colored art nouveau buildings lining both sides of the narrow Tepla River. Cross from side to side on one of the short bridges, which double as great photo spots.
The narrow Tepla River separates Karlovy Vary, which has beautiful, historic buildings on both sides of it. (Linda Barnard photo for VacayNetwork.com)
Of course, you can soak. Most of the hotels have spas, pools, and saunas. Some have mineral water pumped directly from the springs for treatments.
My favorite place to soak was the largest, the 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) mineral water outdoor pool at the modernist Hotel Thermal. The hillside pool deck has views across the old town. There’s an outdoor swimming pool with regular municipal water and the Thermal Saunia, a wet and dry sauna circuit.
Some visitors come to Karlovy Vary for weeks-long annual medical spa hotel stays supervised by doctors. Thanks to the current passion for all things wellness, others are out to relax for a weekend with a few pamper sessions, some good food and steins of excellent Czech beer.
A hearty meal of garlicky grilled sausages, potato salad, and outstanding Czech pilsner is a mainstay of dining in Karlovy Vary. (Linda Barnard photo for VacayNetwork.com)
From the 18th to early 20th centuries, the town was the “it” place for nobility, politicians, composers, and artists, including Casanova, Napoleon, Freud, and the Russian Imperial family. They came to see and be seen while enjoying the good life in the pursuit of health.
Guide Jitka Hradílková, who took me on an extensive Karlovy Vary historic walking tour, said the daily fashion show was the Czech version of Britain’s Royal Ascot races.
With the star power at the annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, there are plenty of modern rich and famous visitors today, too.
Scenes for the James Bond film “Casino Royale” were shot at the Grandhotel Pupp, the graceful white confection said to be the visual inspiration for filmmaker Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel”. It seems like every restaurant in town has a photo of action star Jackie Chan in the window, mugging with the owner.
Karlovy Vary is small, with a population under 50,000. I was there just before the May 1 start of spa season, a good time to go for better hotel rates and fewer weekend crowds.
High-roller Russians used to make up the bulk of medical spa tourists. Displays of gems, furs and fashions in boutiques and luxury shop windows shows that money has been spent here, but it has dropped off since the Czech government banned Russian visitors two years ago with the escalation of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Now more Czechs are visiting their country’s famous spa town.
Take a taxi, a guided tour or follow winding streets on foot for less than a mile from the center to explore the lavish Westend residential neighborhood. It was established in the wooded hills above the town in the 19th century to house rich spa-goers who built opulent mansions and villas for their lengthy stays. They also needed a place to worship. The Byzantine Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Peter and Paul, opened in 1898, can be visited most days. With pale blue roofs and six golden domed cupolas, it’s a local landmark. So is the multi-building Savoy Westend Luxury Spa Resort & Medical Centre next door.
For the best views over the town, Westend and the surrounding landscape, take the funicular to the hilltop Diana Tower, built in 1914. There’s also a hiking trail up.
The former Imperial Baths are also worth a look. Hour-long tours cost about $8 USD. The building was designed to mimic the grandeur of an opera house by celebrated Viennese theater architects Fellner and Helmer in the late 19th century. There was some theater to the spa experience, too, with elegant, paneled waiting rooms and 100 private baths inside where patrons soaked in tubs of heated peat. The filled tubs were delivered and removed by an elevator, truly cutting edge for the time.
Drop in at the 1970s-era Hot Spring Colonnade to inhale the steam from the showy namesake spring. It pushes 2,000 liters (528 gallons) of mineral water per minute 39 feet (12 meters) into the air and is probably the biggest tourist attraction in the town center.
Medical tourism is a big thing here. Karlovy Vary’s facilities are reputed to treat a variety of health issues, including gastrointestinal diseases, weight loss, and joint painm including arthritis. People can have the mineral water in a variety of treatments at dozens of medical spa hotels. There are more than 100 spa hotel staff doctors working in the town, prescribing treatments. They instruct patients when to soak and how much to drink from which colonnade fountain. If water isn’t their thing, they can have a mineral “gas bath” encased in a plastic body wrap — their head free from the carbon dioxide.
Karlovy Vary is named after Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Bohemia, who founded the city in the 14th century. The site of numerous hot springs, Karlovy Vary is the most visited spa town in the Czech Republic. (Photo courtesy of Zdeněk Matyáš via Karlovy Vary Tourism)
Dr. Milada Sárová is the staff physician at the Prezident, a luxury spa and hotel she founded. She says the early morning sip and stroll is the best way to get the water to do its work. Sárová, who trained as a medical doctor, rattled off a list of 70 minerals in the spa water from calcium to zinc. She also drinks from the springs, stopping on her way to work. She even washes her face at one of them.
“I never take tablets. I am 74 years old,” she says proudly.
Just down from the springs there’s a kiosk in the shape of a giant, green Becherovka liqueur bottle. The tipple, invented in Karlovy Vary and still made there, contains 35 herbs and the local spring water.
Sárová recommends a small glass to all her patients for their health. And a glass of wine, too.
“It’s sunshine in a bottle, very healthy. A lot of minerals,” she adds.
Now that’s my idea of a drinking cure.
MORE ABOUT KARLOVY VARY
Getting there: Travel from Prague to Karlovy Vary by train, bus, or rental car. Trains run regularly from the German cities of Nuremberg or Munich.
Where to stay: Astoria Hotel & Medical Spa is in the heart of the historic town, across from the springs in the Mill Colonnade. Five interconnected buildings make up the hotel, which also has a spa, buffet dining room and tea room. It offers medical spa, health, rehabilitation, and relaxation treatments. Room Rates: Depending on your time of stay, room nights can start at less than $100 USD. Packages are also available.
Don’t miss: It’s not all art nouveau and neo-Baroque in Karlovy Vary. Modern architecture fans will love the Hotel Thermal. This 1970’s Brutalist gem, which is a spa hotel and convention center, is the headquarters of the annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Saunia Thermal Resort restaurant is behind the hotel on a hill, accessible by a 45-degree elevator.
More Trip Planning Ideas: Visit the Karlovy Vary Tourism website.
Note: VacayNetwork.com Writer Linda Barnard was a guest of Karlovy Vary Tourism, which did not review this article.
