What to see in Bardejovské Kúpele: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

You can do Bardejovské Kúpele, the spa town just outside Bardejov, in a weekend if you know where to go. I wouldn’t skip the colonnade with its mineral springs, the oldest open-air museum in Slovakia or a morning swim at the natural pool. For the surroundings I’d hire an e-bike, ride out to Zborov Castle and add Bardejov and its main square.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

How many days

I had three, two for the spa and the area and one for Bardejov; in a single day I wouldn’t have seen even half

Getting there

I flew to Košice and drove from the airport for about an hour and 20 minutes; the hire car cost me about €50 a day without insurance

Where I stayed

Hotel Dukla, booked through the spa’s website; some of the hotels aren’t on Booking at all

Colonnade

Drinking from the springs is free; bring your own mug, plastic bottles are not allowed

Open-air museum

Take the guided tour; I’d planned 20 minutes, stayed an hour and didn’t regret it

Around the spa

By e-bike from the information centre in front of Hotel Alexander; Zborov Castle took me about 45 minutes

What is there to see in Bardejovské Kúpele? People used to come here for three to six weeks. Not for a weekend. For a month. A guest arrived by train or by carriage, checked in, took the drinking cure, went for walks and to concerts, and after a few weeks went home. Empress Elisabeth, better known as Sisi, spent exactly 22 days here in 1895. I spent three. The difference? Read on.

That’s exactly what makes Bardejovské Kúpele such an unusual place. It was built for a completely different pace from the one most of us travel at today, me included. Nobody designed it for someone who rushes in on Friday evening and leaves on Sunday afternoon. And yet it works: you just need to know where to go.

Here’s the list of places I managed to see during my visit, plus what I wish I’d known beforehand.

Practical information: how to get to Bardejovské Kúpele

How do you get to Bardejovské Kúpele? I flew to Košice and hired a car right at the airport. The drive from the airport to Bardejovské Kúpele took me about an hour and 20 minutes, and the car cost me about €50 a day without insurance.

Accommodation in Bardejovské Kúpele doesn’t work the way I expected

One thing about accommodation surprised me: I couldn’t find some of the spa hotels on Booking. I booked Hotel Dukla, where I stayed, directly through the Bardejovské Kúpele website by sending an accommodation request. The reason is simple: guests on medical stays come first, and health insurance often pays for their stay. This is a spa first and a hotel second.

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By the way, Hotel Dukla only reopened on 31 March 2026, after more than 20 years of standing derelict. Cars aren’t allowed inside the spa grounds, so I left mine in the car park behind the hotel and got around on foot or by bike. I had three days here and split them like this: two for the spa and the surroundings, one for Bardejov. In a single day I wouldn’t have managed even half of it.

Things to do in Bardejovské Kúpele: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

The colonnade and its eight mineral springs

This is where I started. The colonnade is the heart of the spa, and also a place I walked through in two minutes the first time without noticing a thing. Eight springs rise here, each with a slightly different composition, for everything from digestive complaints to respiratory problems. Drinking is free. The catch is that you can’t fill up without your own glass or mug. You can buy one on the spot, but I only found that out at the counter.

My favourite was Herkules. It’s one of the most heavily mineralised springs in Slovakia, and it tastes exactly the way that sounds. If you’ve been to Karlovy Vary, you’ll feel right at home. The colonnade went up in 1972 to mark the 725th anniversary of the first written mention of the spa. It’s the first spa colonnade in Slovakia, and still the only covered one, so you can fill your cup here even on a rainy day in December.

In five niches stand wooden sculptures by Vladimír Kompánek, one of the most important Slovak sculptors of the 20th century. I walked past them with a glass in my hand about three times before it clicked.

• Tip from Milan I brought my own mug, because plastic bottles are banned here for hygiene reasons. And I’d keep an eye on the colonnade’s opening hours: outside them I couldn’t get to the springs.

The public spring (Ľudový prameň) in Bardejovské Kúpele

A short walk from the colonnade I found a public spring, free for anyone to use, with two waters, Hlavný and Lekársky. They aren’t heated, so the water is cold. It’s free, with no limits, and locals come here to fill their bottles instead of buying mineral water. In my view, that’s the best review a place can get.

The oldest open-air museum in Slovakia is in Bardejovské Kúpele

The Museum of Folk Architecture, right on the edge of the spa, opened in 1965 and is the oldest open-air museum (skanzen) in Slovakia. I went in thinking I’d photograph the wooden houses in 20 minutes. I came out an hour later. I took the guided tour, and it was the best decision of my whole stay. Without a guide it’s a pretty little village. With one it’s a completely different experience. Two things I heard there turned what I thought I knew upside down.

• The myth of buildings without a single nail. You’ve probably heard it too. The reality is more complicated: log buildings really don’t need many, but nails were used routinely on shingle roofs. The guide brought it up himself, without anyone asking.

The traditional cottage isn’t as old as we think. The white-painted walls and nicely furnished rooms we associate with ‘the old days’ only appeared with cast-iron hotplates for cooking. Before that, people heated with an open fire, there was smoke everywhere and painting the walls made no sense. So the picture of a traditional village I carry in my head is actually fairly recent.

There’s also a working wood-fired pottery kiln, and a few times a year they hold demonstration firings in it. And one exhibit I only appreciated the next day in Bardejov: an 18th-century boring machine for making wooden water pipes. Literally drilled-out pine trunks. Bardejov’s town water supply was built from them, and its last section wasn’t removed until 1965. More about that in my article about the town.

The Šariš Museum in Bardejovské Kúpele

The Šariš Museum is right next to the open-air museum, so I went straight there afterwards. It has traditional costumes, weaving, basket-making and pottery. Two things stuck with me. Bardejov baskets were exported all the way to Italy, to Turin and Trieste. From a village near the Polish border.

And the potter Frankovič, the last traditional master to work a kick wheel, came up with a maker’s mark featuring a little bird after the Second World War. Apparently a Czech tourist gave him the idea. So a craftsman in eastern Slovakia created a logo because a visitor suggested it. Seventy years before we started calling it branding.

The natural pool and morning swims in Bardejovské Kúpele

The pool works like any ordinary summer lido, with heated water. But there’s one thing I appreciated more than anything else in the spa. In the morning the pool is set aside for an hour for lap swimming only, not for splashing about. No jumping, no balls. The lanes are 25 m long. I went, and it was the best start to the day I had here.

Hiring an e-bike from the tourist information centre

At the tourist information centre in front of Hotel Alexander I hired an e-bike, and without it I wouldn’t have half of this article. The whole spa area is car-free, which is pleasant in itself.

More to the point, everything worth seeing in the area is right at the limit of walking distance and easy to reach by bike. The terrain is steep in places, and without a motor I’d have tackled those hills rather differently. On the way, it’s worth stopping at Dobrý les pond.

Zborov Castle, known as Makovica

From the spa it took me about 45 minutes by e-bike to reach the ruins of a Gothic castle above the village of Zborov. The first records of it date from the early 14th century, and in the 16th century it was one of the largest fortified seats in Slovakia. The view was worth the ride. And unlike the spa, I met almost nobody up here.

• Tip from Milan On the way back I stopped at the mineral spring in Dlhá Lúka; on the map you’ll find it as ‘prameň Dlhá Lúka’. In that heat it was exactly what I needed.

Čerešňa saddle, the Kamenná hora lookout tower and the Berzeviczy tower on Stebnícka Magura

Where next? Čerešňa saddle lies at 520 m and is the main junction of hiking trails in the area. From here I could get practically anywhere.

There’s a fire pit, a covered shelter and a treehouse, and the Trail of the Heroes of the Slovak National Uprising (Cesta hrdinov SNP) runs through here. A little further on is the Kamenná hora lookout tower, a 9.6-metre wooden tower. From the centre of the spa it took me about 20 minutes on the red-marked trail. It’s the easiest viewpoint in the area, and even families with small children can manage it. The view takes in the Topľa valley and Bardejov. I wouldn’t leave without a photo on the swing.

• Stebnícka Magura is almost 900 m high, and the tower on top is nearly 30 m tall. It’s free to climb all year round; I went up its 104 steps. On a clear day you can see all the way to the Tatras.

And now the part that made it more than just a viewpoint for me. Today’s tower is a replica. The original stood here from 1905 until it was destroyed in 1918, the last year of the First World War. It was named after Albert Berzeviczy, then Hungarian minister of education. And the same Berzeviczy unveiled the statue of Sisi in the spa park on 16 August 1903.

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Sisi in Bardejovské Kúpele: what’s true and what she did here

Empress Elisabeth took the cure in Bardejovské Kúpele from 1 to 22 July 1895. She arrived by train, aged 57, and stayed in a house then called Deák, which today is the Alžbeta spa house. She drank the water from the spring that now bears her name. It wasn’t only physical ailments that brought her here, though. Six years earlier, in 1889, her son Rudolf had died tragically.

When she left, she said she felt like an 18-year-old. That’s why the 1903 statue in the spa park shows her as a young girl, not as a woman in her fifties. The Alžbeta spa house has a museum and an apartment furnished in her style. I also walked the Sisi educational trail: seven stops over 2.3 km, which I did comfortably in 45 minutes.

What to see in Bardejov while visiting Bardejovské Kúpele

And what about Bardejov? The town is 6 km away and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, not only for its historic centre and square but also for its well-preserved group of Jewish buildings. I spent my third day there.

I saw the spot in the church where the executioner had his own pew and his own door, so that nobody in the main nave could see him. A stone boy sticking his bottom out at the burghers’ houses, because the stonemason was never paid. And under the square’s current paving lies the original, 70 cm lower. But that’s for a separate article: here are my tips on what to see in Bardejov.

I’ve also written about my experience at Kúpele Lúčky.

Head east!

*This article was written in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Šariš Bardejov Regional Tourism Organisation.