The Best Budget Spa Holidays In Eastern Europe

From the Czech Republic to the Ukraine, quality (and unusual) health treatments can be found at a fraction of western Europe prices

For 800 years the waters around Cieplice have treated the cream of central European society as well as US ambassador (later president) John Quincy Adams. Such folk demanded frescoed dining salons, broad parks and splendid swimming pools, all of which remain. Cieplice has low-mineralized, fluoride-silicon thermal springs (up to 90C). Among the 70 treatments, the focus is on rheumatology, urology and dry-eye syndrome (common in our screen-led world), and each therapy is a no-nonsense bargain. A 15-minute paraffin session is £3.50 and eye rinsing with thermal aerosols £3; but a peat enema is an eye-watering £12. Recover at the Ceiplice Aquapark (£7), with outdoor jacuzzis, lazy rapids and waterslide.
From £266pp for a week in a double room including three treatments a day, full-board (visit here royal spa columbia)

Karlova Studánka, Czech Republic

The Hapsburgs filled this Alpine valley with hunting lodges, log cabins and saunas. The spa resort at Karlova Studánka, near the Polish border, occupies the entire village. Treatments include peat wraps (£11) and magnet therapy (£10), designed to boost blood circulation, plus additive and pearl baths, whirlpool hydromassage and reflexology. The surrounding Hrubý Jeseník mountains are a sylvan wilderness. Two cycle routes (ebikes available) and a long-distance hiking trail run to the Bílá Opava waterfalls.
£125pp including private spa, sparkling wines, massage treatments and two nights’ half-board accommodation with three -course dinner

Sanitorium Ozerny, Belarus

Some Belarussian sanatoriums feel like they’re back in the USSR, but Ozerny, on the shores of Lake Beloe near the Lithuanian border, isn’t like that: it even has an indoor aquapark and a summer pedalo fleet. Treatments use ozokeritotherapy (intense heat wraps) and soothing organic mud, and extend to the endearingly titled “magnetic stimulation of pelvic organs” and “life without gout”. Visa-free travel makes it easy for EU spa tourists to visit this spot 20 miles from handsome Grodno city, and couple of hours on the train from Białystok in Poland.
From around £50 a day for the basic programme, extra massage £7; honey or cranberry wrap around £15