Mineral and thermal waters are one of the country's old riches, and the spa resorts of Romania have grown around them since antiquity: the Romans used the springs at Herculane, and in the 19th century, under Austro-Hungarian influence, the villas and cure pavilions of Transylvania and the Banat appeared, followed by the resorts of the Olt Valley and Moldavia. The offer is varied: thermal springs and warm-water pools, salt lakes with mud, sparkling mineral waters for drinking and mofettes in the volcanic areas of Harghita and Covasna. Many resorts have renewed their treatment centres; others keep the air of a past era, with buildings still waiting to be restored.
Băile Herculane in the Banat has the longest history, and Băile Felix, near Oradea, is the largest spa resort in the country. In Transylvania, Băile Tușnad and Covasna are resorts of sparkling mineral waters and mofettes; on the Olt Valley, Călimănești-Căciulata has mineral springs, and in Bukovina, Vatra Dornei combines the cure with skiing.
Top 100The second resort of the Romanian coast, on the strip between the Black Sea and Lake Techirghiol: three kilometres of fine sand and a sapropelic mud cure a few hundred metres from the waves.
Top 100Romania's largest year-round spa resort, 8 km from Oradea: thermal springs of up to 49 °C, open-air baths that run all winter and a reserve of water lilies and thermal lotuses.
Top 100Romania's oldest spa resort, recorded as early as AD 153, in the Cerna valley: hot sulphur springs, a Habsburg old town around the Hercules statue and free thermal tubs on the riverbank.
Top 100A spa resort in the Olt gorge between the Harghita and Bodoc mountains: naturally sparkling mineral springs, mofettes, a wellness centre with thermal water and trails up to Falcon Rock.
Top 100A heliothermal salt lake in Sovata, formed in 1875 over a salt massif: beneath a thin layer of fresh water the salt water goes above 40 °C in summer; a lido runs on the shore in season.
Top 100A spa resort 15 km from Sibiu with salt lakes formed where old salt mines caved in: in summer you swim in water that keeps you afloat, between white banks of salt.
Top 100A spa resort more than two centuries old in a narrow valley of the Nemira Mountains: numbered mineral springs you drink from for free, a park with shaded paths and the 1894 Art Nouveau Casino.
Top 100A thermal and wellness complex on the edge of Bucharest, on the DN1: geothermal pools under a glass dome full of palm trees, water slides, saunas and a sandy beach open in summer.
Top 100A spa resort more than two centuries old in the Dorna Depression: carbonated springs, peat mud, a park full of squirrels and the Spa Casino, restored and reopened as a museum.
A modern spa complex in Ocna Mureș, opened in 2023, with heated salt-water and fresh-water pools, saunas and treatments. It is above ground only: the old salt mine cannot be visited.
A lido with two salt lakes formed where old salt mines caved in, 24 km from Cluj-Napoca, plus an indoor pool of warm salt water that stays open all year.
A summer lido on two salt lakes formed in collapsed old salt pits, 100 m from the Durgău entrance of the Turda Salt Mine. The very salty water keeps you afloat; the mine is visited separately.
Salt lakes formed over the old salt mines of Telega, near Câmpina: in summer you swim in water holding almost 277 g of salts per litre. The mine galleries cannot be visited.
A spa resort in the Vâlcea foothills, with iodine, bromine and sulphur waters, a spa park laid out in 1912 and the Palace Hotel designed by Ernest Doneaud.
A spa resort in a wooded valley below the Vâlcea mountains, with more than 30 numbered mineral springs, a springs walk along the river and Horea's wooden church, brought here from the Apuseni Mountains.
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