Bohemia’s spa town is health-driven and defiantly old-fashioned.
What is Karlovy Vary all about?
Karlovy Vary (formerly known as Carlsbad) in Czechia, has been a spa town for centuries. Huddled around a valley in the west Bohemian hills, Karlovy Vary has made its fortune and reputation from the series of thermal springs that follow the Teplá river. Usually when such springs are in abundance, it leads to big pools with people gleefully splashing around in them. But not here.
There’s a strong emphasis on the medical benefits of the spas – of drinking the mineral water three times a day; of a bewildering arrange of treatments that lean towards the digestive system rather than beauty and pampering. Traditionally, spa doctors would recommend staying for three weeks at a time, and while the modern world has largely put paid to that sort of dedication, the attitude remains one of taking things very seriously.
As such, the atmosphere is a deeply weird one – and totally alien to anyone tempted to think this is all quackery. But that, the sheer scale of the place (there are seemingly hundreds of spa hotels) and the uniform, pompous, end-of-19th-century architectural grandeur make it one of the most arrestingly interesting places in Europe.
A walk around Karlovy Vary’s highlights
The main area of interest lines up along the Teplá, where four ‘colonnades’ contain the town’s beloved hot springs. What’s surprising is how different they are. One is made of iron, another of very classically-assembled stone, another is dainty and wooden and the final one is a 1970s communist era piece of lumpenness. It may be the ugliest, but it has the regularly shooting geyser outside.
Towards the southern end of the promenade is the Karlovy Vary Museum, which covers the region’s history, from King Charles IV’s discovery of the springs while hunting deer onwards.
For all the focus on treatments that are good for your health, locals know that the best thing you can do for yourself is strap on your hiking boots and head out along the 200km of hillside paths surrounding the city. A popular route is the 1.5km uphill schlep from behind the Grandhotel Pupp to the Diana Lookout Tower. Plenty of other routes branch from this one.
Karlovy Vary’s top attraction
The Bohemian crystal glasses and vases produced by Moser – often colourful, often exquisitely engraved – are found on royal dining tables across the world. The Moser factory in Karlovy Vary’s suburbs is open to visitors on guided tours, and watching the expert glassblowers hand-make the glasses is utterly absorbing. The museum hosts some more elaborate works, and the shop hosts some hefty price tags.
Where to eat in Karlovy Vary
It may be a town obsessed with health, but traditional hearty dishes rule the tables here. The barrel-vaulted, subterranean Karel IV is a classic example, with big meaty dishes such as lamb knee with rosemary, stewed spinach and roasted Slavic potato gnocchi.
Offering something a little different is riverside Le Marche, which keeps to a minimalist, daily-changing menu, and works in Russian and Asian influences. That might mean blini to start, swordfish with wasabi-fied potato salad and seaweed to follow, plus cottage dumplong and pears with orange cream to finish.
Shopping in Karlovy Vary
The main riverside promenade is lined with shops, most of which are plumping firmly for cashed-up visitors. Diamonds, jewellery, watches and designer fashion are very much the order of the day around here.
If you can’t get out to the Moser glass factory, then the Moser Factory Shop in on the eastern bank, selling some of the most exquisitely gorgeous coloured glass pieces you’re ever likely to see.
Karlovy Vary accommodation recommendations
The Imperial sums up the Karlovy Vary experience best. Like a hilltop castle, it has a cavernous maze of treatment rooms in the basement level, alongside a sizeable but underplayed pool. There’s a deliberate timewarp factor to the rooms, with lots of deep reds and leaf patterns that evoke golden era grandeur rather than looking dated.
The Grandhotel Pupp is the longstanding glamourpuss – it doubled as the Splendide in Bond film Casino Royale. The spa area has been sensitively modernised, the on-site dining is good and there’s a choice between contemporary parkside rooms or 18th century stucco-fest riverside rooms.
The Humboldt Park is a good cheaper option – it’s in the main spa area, has a pool and two spa baths, plus sizable rooms and the usual bewildering raft of spa treatments.
More Czechia travel
Other Bohemia travel articles on Planet Whitley include:
- City guide to Cesky Krumlov.
- Is there a direct train from Prague to Cesky Krumlov?
- How to get from Linz to Cesky Krumlov.
- What to do in Kutná Hora after seeing the Sedlec Ossuary.
