Water and rest · 45 minutes from our gate
A spa town built around a water that comes out of the ground cold and stings on the tongue.
The first surprise is that the water is not warm. The waters of Vatra Dornei are athermal, that is, they come out at ground temperature, and carbonated, that is, full of natural carbon dioxide. The baths are taken in a tub, with the water heated separately, and the bubbles do the work that heat does in other spas: they open the blood vessels.
That is why the resort is recommended first of all for the heart and the circulation, not for rheumatism, as many believe. Although for joints you still come here, with other procedures.
The second surprise are the mofettes: rooms where you go down to waist level into an invisible gas, carbon dioxide risen from the ground. You stay ten minutes, dressed, doing nothing. It is one of the few therapies in Romania with no equivalent in western Europe.
Five natural factors, all from the ground beneath the town.
Six kinds
in a tub, with natural mineral water
The best known procedure in the town. The water comes out cold and is heated separately, and the carbon dioxide bubbles cling to the skin and open the blood vessels. You stay ten or fifteen minutes, and the skin turns red. This is the heart of the Vatra Dornei cure.
in a tub
An infusion of herbs in warm water, used mainly for joints and for relaxation. Often combined with the wraps.
with a weak current
Four small tubs, one for each hand and foot, with a weak current running through. It feels like pins and needles. For neuralgia and peripheral circulation.
or a wrap
Peat mud from Tinovul Mare, brought from Poiana Stampei. Applied warm, on the part that hurts, and left to draw.
at Hotel Dorna
The classic version, with the mineral water heated. You find it at the treatment centre of Hotel Dorna, next to the pump rooms for the internal cure.
no water, only gas
Not a bath, though that is what people call it. You walk down some steps, dressed, into a room where the carbon dioxide sits at floor level, being heavier than air. You stay ten minutes, doing nothing. The gas goes in through the skin.
Five hotels with their own centre, all downtown, minutes from each other.
Beyond the spa town
Salt, fresh or merely breathed. All within an hour of each other.
For the salt water pools at Cacica and Solca we have a separate page: salt baths in Bucovina.
Warm water, no prescription
None of them is thermal: the water comes from the tap and is heated. But they are open all year, they ask for no papers, and some have a hot tub with salt water. Access is usually for guests, so ask if you only want an afternoon.
You do not have to be ill
Nobody here asks for papers and nobody asks what hurts. You choose how much you want, you pay, you go in. The body does not remember the intention, it remembers the hour you gave it.
Hydrokinesiotherapy, to give it its name: you move in the water and the water carries your weight. The joints work without being pressed. The gentlest way to start moving again after a winter at a desk.
Two or three rounds, with a cold shower between them. It raises the skin temperature, opens the pores, and the muscles let go. In the evening, after a day on the mountain, it does more than an extra hour of sleep.
A strong jet, aimed under water at the tight spots. It is massage, but without hands. Good for the back and the shoulders, which is exactly where stress gathers.
Hot and cold water in turn. It sounds unpleasant and it is, for the first thirty seconds. After that the circulation starts like a cold engine that has warmed up.
No referral, no consultation, just an appointment. The simplest thing on the whole list, and the one most people take when they come for a weekend.
Included in the access to the leisure centre. Useful if you are staying several days and do not want to lose your rhythm.
Four things that really do something, and one that does not.
Ischaemic heart disease and uncomplicated post-infarction states, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diseases of the peripheral arteries and of the veins.
Osteoarthritis and spondylosis, stabilised inflammatory rheumatism, conditions after trauma or after joint replacement, disc hernia and sciatica.
Pareses, paralyses, neuritis, neuralgia.
Chronic bronchitis and asthma, digestive and gynaecological conditions, neuroses, anaemia, diabetes and obesity.
Healthy people with risk factors: physical or mental overwork, a sedentary life, stress, workplace pollutants.
Before you set off
Not necessarily. Three steps: you go to reception between 8:00 and 13:00, Monday to Friday, and pay for the consultation; you take the receipt to the doctor, who sets the plan; you go back to reception and pay for the procedures. The consultation fee was 31 lei on the last published list, so call first, it may have gone up.
Procedures are done Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday the treatment centre is closed, although the hotel and the pool are working.
The usual formula is six nights with five days of procedures. For a real effect, nine or twelve nights are recommended. One day is not a cure, it is a bath.
The medical procedures, no: all of them are done on a doctor's recommendation. But the leisure part is taken separately, with no paperwork at all — the heated pool, the sauna, the jacuzzi, the Scottish shower, the massage, the solarium and the gym. For that it is enough to walk in and pay.
What a week costs
package prices, from agencies; the operator publishes no tariffs
Papers for reimbursement
with them you get, through the insurance system, two extra procedures a day on working days
Contact
A base for these days out
The house is in Câmpulung, in the middle of the map: the monasteries east, the mountains west, the steam train north. You don't drive far to get anywhere.
Via Transilvanica