Spa Towns Overview

On this page you will find all the key information on spa towns. More specifically, these are towns that were founded to help improve health conditions and well-being using local natural resources and healing therapies.

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Key Components of Spa Towns

There are many different types of spa towns and in every country of the world there are  very specific rules that determine when exactly a place is a spa town. To put it in a nutshell, a spa town usually exists where the following 4 points come together: 

1. Presence of a natural resource that can be used for healing (e.g. mineral water springs, mineral mud)
2. A particularly healthy local climate (e.g. clean air, warm weather)
3. Local spa hotels with therapies for improving health conditions
4. A particularly relaxing environment (e.g. spa parks, architecture, nature or traffic-calmed city centres)

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Key Komponents for Spa Towns

Different Types of Spa Towns

   Healing Climates

   Mineral Water Springs

   Air Spa Towns

   Seaside Spas and Thalassotherapy Centres

   Mud Baths and Thermal Mud (Fango)

   Kneipp Therapy

The Most Beautiful Spa Towns in Europe

Find and Book Your Perfect Spa Town

 

In a climatic spa town, everything revolves around the local bioclimate. This has a special therapeutic effect and can help promote good health, usually thanks to a high air quality. There are two main types of climatic spa towns – those with stimulating climates and those with mild climates.

Strongly stimulating climate regions are usually seaside resorts such as the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic coast, but also inland regions such as the Dead Sea. In addition to the coast, a stimulating climate can also be found in high mountain ranges - often over 1500 metres.

Between the coast and the mountains, often between 300 – 1000m above sea-level, we find mild climates. While the stimulating climate type serves to fuel metabolism and the body’s vitality, the mild climate, with its balanced temperatures and consistent humidity, are effective for relaxation.

Treatment programmes in climatic spa towns will centre around the natural benefits of the climate but also include treatents that make use of natural resources, such as seawater, mineral mud and locally growing herbs.

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In spa towns with thermal baths and mineral springs, as you might imagine, everything revolves around the town’s mineral water spring, which is either a hot spring (thermal) or a cold spring, and used for therapeutic purposes. The mineral water is usually used externally, for example in baths or steam rooms. When used in thermal baths, therapists can sometimes choose between hundreds of different mineral springs in the town, which all have different effects on the health. If they use a hot spring, the water is naturally warm of course and doesn't need extra heating. Thermal baths are also made using cold spring water or normal water, which is then heated above the average swimming pool temperature to 36°C+. Depending on the mineral water, it can also be drank and is often prescribed in specific amounts within a mineral water drinking therapy programme. How exactly the mineral water is used depends on the respective composition of the water. Based on this, you can decide which spa town will be best for which type of healing therapy:

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What makes mud baths and fango spas so special is the use of natural mud or peat from local moors and natural spring locations. Peat, a type of mud that has been produced after millenia of composting, is freshly dug and often used as a remedy in the form of warm baths (approx. 39°C) - you will probably have seen pictures of this before. On the other hand, the thermal mud “Fango”, fermented mud with local thermal spring water, is mostly used locally as a mud mask treatment and on certain areas of the body, such as the back or the joints. With fango, both the temperature, mineral composition and active ingredients of the healing mud have a beneficial effect. Fango does not necessarily have to be applied warm and is applied as a cold mask in some cases. In addition to the mineral mud found in Italy and Hungary, there is also very popular healing mud at the Dead Sea.

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Kneipp baths and Kneipp resort towns usually come under the category of normal baths. Kneipp therapy focuses on treatments using water within hydrotherapy health programmes. Part of this are the alternating baths with hot and cold water. In addition to water therapy, the modern Kneipp teachings also revolve around exercise and nutrition. A central factor is the strengthening of the immune system. Since the founder of this therapy, Sebastian Kneipp, was German, most Kneipp spas are located in Germany. Due to the internationally known Kneipp bath salts, more and more tourists come to the Kneipp spas to get to experience this therapy with the guidance of experts.

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