Amazing Spas in Bulgaria That Will Revitalise Your Life

At the foot of Rila, Bulgaria’s highest mountain range, you’ll find 31,000sqm (333,681sqft) of sprawling alpine luxury at Katarino Spa Hotel. The hotel’s modern spa centre houses an indoor mineral pool and a thermal zone with infrared as well as Finnish and kiwi saunas, an ice fountain, tepidarium, laconium Roman baths and salt rooms. In the wellness area, book individual and couples massages, facials or special spa rituals – we recommend hydrotherapy or an anti-stress floatation bath.

Located within the rolling hills and vineyards of southern Bulgaria, this family-owned estate is now home to a working eco-farm, a boutique hotel and six luxury villas. The estate’s spa, Zoma, is a testament to the local area and its spoils – grapes and wine, lavender, olive oil and honey from the estate’s beehives all feature in the therapies. The healing mud massage uses sage-infused thermal mud from a nearby extinct volcano.

A wine resort by name, this luxury hotel encompasses all that is wholesome and healthy about the Mediterranean way of life. This hotel in Sandanski, a city with a rich healing tradition and more than 80 mineral springs, boasts lush gardens, a year-round outdoor mineral pool and a wellness centre with a sauna, Turkish steam room and jacuzzi, along with a tiled and heated relaxation area. Massages and rituals are also available at this top spa in Bulgaria.

Home to ancient Roman baths, Kyustendil has been recognised as a spa resort town for centuries. At the five-star Strimon Garden, it’s no surprise that the spa is a real focus, with all of its healing water coming from the town. Indoor and outdoor pools, two saunas, a hydromassage bath and a spa capsule make up the offerings, and there is also a beauty salon and a fitness centre. For dinner, make sure you order the local speciality, freshwater trout.

The salt lake in Pomorie, found along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, is one of the best places for a healing mud bath. Stay at the Saint George Hotel and Spa, where you can indulge in a mud facial or mud bath, traditionally said to boost the immune system and slow down the ageing process. There is also a saltwater swimming pool, two saunas and a steam bath. Wellness programmes here range from half-day treatments to 10-day retreats. Have a drink at the Sky Bar on the hotel rooftop for stunning views of Pomorie and the coast.

If you’re looking for some pampering after a day on the slopes, the Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena, in the ski resort of Bansko, is the best place to rest your weary muscles after schussing across the mountain. Inside, expect a traditional ski lodge with wooden beams, stone walls and crackling fires. It’s undoubtedly one of the most luxurious spas in Bulgaria. There are three pools (two of which are outdoors), two jacuzzis, a steam room, a Finnish sauna and a herbal sauna. One of its most unique features is an ice-cold snow room, perfect after a steam-room session. Spa treatments are themed around the four seasons, and there are also Thai massages on offer and treatments using locally-sourced Bulgarian rose extract.

Just outside Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s cultural capital, the Landmark Creek Hotel sits next to the Rowing Canal. The town is home to ancient Roman amphitheatres and Ottoman-era baths, both of which inspired the hotel’s huge wellness centre. During the summer, the outdoor pool is busy with children playing and adults sunbathing. Retreat to the spa for a sauna, steam or jacuzzi session and a treatment or two – from chocolate body wraps to a Moroccan-style full-body massage, there’s plenty to choose from. There’s even a VIP area you can rent to have a mini-spa zone all to yourself (with champagne provided).

Take your spa experience to the next level with Bulgarian wine. Head south from Sofia, close to the Greek border, for a few days of pure bliss at Uva Nestum Wine and Spa. Set among the vineyards in Gotse Delchev, this hotel provides a spa centre, a winery and a great restaurant with Bulgarian and international cuisine. The spa houses a hot tub, saunas and steam rooms, including a halotherapy salt room. Try a salt flotation bath or massage using TheraVine products, derived from wine by-products. During the summer season, there’s also an outdoor pool with a water slide (in case the kids come, too).

Hisarya is a small town in central Bulgaria that has been famous for its mineral water treatments since the Romans built baths here. Spa Hotel Hissar is a huge hotel complex with an enormous spa split into the Relax Center and the Deluxe Spa Center. The former has an indoor pool, a Finnish sauna, a steam bath and a plunge pool, while the latter includes a Roman bath, an ice room, a kneipp path and a hot mineral bath. Unique treatments here include hyperbaric oxygen therapy, where you lie in a chamber and inhale high-pressure oxygen – it’s said to boost your metabolism and speed up the recovery time of sport related injuries.