Travel to Poland’s Best Spas, Health Resort and Wellness Centers
Report by Brad Balfour
Though not usually the focus for wellness, spas and healthy living, Poland is like many of the other countries in the region; it offers cleaner air, beautiful expanses of countryside fairly close to its big cities, and charming pubs and restraints with fresh food straight off the local farms. Unlike here in the USA the food is not super pasteurized and ultra processed. So on top of that, Poland has its share of escapes into Polish health resorts.
These spots are not only beautifully located spa centers with treatments and promenades for social gatherings but are also historical locations loaded with mementos of past visiting royalty, politicians, writers and artists. The Polish king, Jan III Sobieski, drank the mineral waters at Horyniec, while opera singer Ada Sari had treatment on her throat in Szczawnica. The author Stefan Zeromski wrote his book the “Actions of Sin” in Naleczow. A sojourn to a spa for health reasons or “taking the waters” as it was known, at the mineral springs, was an essential experience in Polish society’s annual calendar. It was both a social event and a time of reunion.
Today, the elderly and kids aren’t the only visitors to health resorts. The young and healthy people are also looking for a certain solace away from urban turmoil. A stay in a spa or a biological regeneration center includes pearl baths, mud baths, wraps, Scottish showers and walks. All can had in peaceful green surroundings that have become very fashionable. These resorts can also be less expensive for British, French, Italian, German or Scandinavian visitors than those in their own countries.
Duszniki, Polanica, Krynica, Augustow and Sopot are all locations where the healing power of a spa resort can be found. In nearly every corner of Poland there are places for both tourists and local to visit. Most of them specialize in alleviating specific illnesses.
For example, Naleczow is dedicated to those suffering from heart ailments, Konstancin soothes the nerves, Ladek and Polczyn facilitate the treatment of female problems and Rabka focuses on treating children’s ailments. There are also resorts like sunny Busko and Kolobrzeg, whose healing powers are directly linked to their location on the Baltic coast, where the fresh sea breezes act as a giant, natural inhaler.
Climatotherapy (change of climate), balneotherapy (bathing), thalassotherapy (sea water) a re only asmall sample of the range of treatments available in these resorts. Patients can stroll along the flowered walkways in Ciechocinek to inhale the salty air that is produced in Europe or they may prefer to take a pearl bath in the marvelous interior of the historic spa in Ladek or maybe even be talked into sipping the fiery geothermal waters at Iwonicz or enjoy the mud wraps in Goldap.
