Piešťany Spa

Piešťany sits on the Váh river in western Slovakia, and beneath it hot sulphurous water rises at around seventy degrees, carrying with it a thick grey mud that has been used for centuries to treat rheumatic and joint conditions. The treatment quarter occupies an island in the river, reached by a covered colonnade bridge whose entrance carries the town's famous emblem, a bather snapping a crutch in half, and the island holds grand nineteenth-century bath houses, hotels and gardens laid out when this was one of the fashionable spas of the Habsburg empire. It remains a working medical spa rather than a leisure resort, with doctors, prescriptions and courses of treatment, though day visitors can book mud wraps, thermal pools and massages. The parkland, the river and the colonnade make it a pleasant place to walk even without taking the waters.

What you actually see

• The colonnade bridge - the covered bridge to the spa island with its crutch-breaking emblem.
• The mud baths - the hot sulphurous mud that made the town's reputation.
• The spa island - the nineteenth-century bath houses, hotels and gardens.
• The riverside parks - walking and cycling along the Váh.

When to go

Year-round, as the treatment is indoors and the springs do not vary; summer is pleasantest for the gardens and the river, while winter has its own appeal in the steam. Treatment courses run to a medical schedule, but day packages can usually be booked at shorter notice.

Honest expectations

This is a medical spa with a largely older clientele on prescribed courses, not a boutique wellness resort, and the atmosphere is clinical in places; visitors expecting a design hotel spa may be disappointed. The sulphur smells strongly and the mud is exactly as unglamorous as it sounds. Some facilities are dated. The town outside the island is unremarkable.

Nearby

Trenčín's castle is up the valley; Bratislava is ninety minutes south by train.