Resorts and thermal baths

The 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.

Romania'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.

Romania'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.

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.

A 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.

A mountain spa resort at 900 m in northern Harghita, with carbonated mineral springs you can drink from for free, old wooden villas, travertine caves and a new spa centre.

A spa resort in the Olt Valley, where the river leaves the Cozia Mountains: sulphur springs known since the 19th century, the Central Pavilion of 1886 and thermal pools open all year round.

The spa resort in the town of Covasna, Romania's "resort of the heart": carbon dioxide mofettes, sparkling mineral springs on every corner and the Devil's Pond, a mud volcano in the central park.

Romania's largest salt lake, a former sea bay next to Eforie: cold mud baths on the Techirghiol shore in summer, flocks of rare birds on water that does not freeze in winter.

A spa resort in Maramureș with salt lakes that formed on the surface above old salt mines, including Lake Gavril, 30 m deep; salt-water bathing happens in the pools of the local complexes.

The resort that runs straight into Mangalia from the north: 1970s tower hotels, a beach in the middle of being widened, a public spa sanatorium and, behind it all, the Mlaștina Hergheliei nature reserve.

A 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.

A 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 resort on the southern coast, three kilometres north of Mangalia: a recently widened beach, bays closed off by breakwaters, hotels with women's names set around a lake and sulphurous waters used for treatment.