Termy Zakopiańskie

Termy Zakopiańskie stands at ul. Jagiellońska 31 in the middle of Zakopane, run by the company Polskie Tatry S.A., and its water has a documented history. In the 1950s the geologist Stanisław Sokołowski argued that the marl, limestone and dolomite layers under the Podhale basin should hold water heated from below; between 1961 and 1963 the exploratory borehole Zakopane IG-1 was drilled on Antałówka to test the idea. Thermal water was struck at 1,540 to 1,620 metres and rose artesian, without pumping, which the operator describes as the first confirmed and documented extraction of geothermal water in Zakopane and Podhale; the borehole itself continues to a full depth of 3,073.2 metres. A second well, Zakopane-2, followed in 1973. The operator gives the temperature found in the borehole as 36–37 °C and the water in the pools as 30–38 °C, and lists calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, silicon and natural sulphur compounds among more than twenty identified constituents.

All the basins are filled with that thermal water rather than treated tap water. Indoors are a 40-metre thermal pool 1.3 metres deep, a 25-metre thermal sports pool, a 60-metre wild river, a water swing throwing waves up to 70 centimetres, a climbing wall called the Volcano and a rope crossing, most of them held at 30–32 °C, plus jacuzzis and a 0.3-metre children's basin at 36 °C. Outside, a 33-metre pool with a view of the mountains runs at 36–38 °C, and beside it a dedicated sulphur balneotherapy pool at the same temperature and 0.9 metres deep. Five slides serve the complex, the longest a 166.5-metre green tube, the shortest a ten-metre chute for small children. The operator sets out the sulphide bathing effects in clinical terms – anti-inflammatory action, reduced swelling and improved joint mobility – and lists degenerative spine and joint disease, rheumatoid and ankylosing arthritis and post-traumatic conditions of the locomotor system among the indications.

The sauna area is adults-only and textile-free, and holds four heat rooms: a Finnish sauna at 96–100 °C with humidity as low as one per cent, a bio sauna at 65 °C with automatic aroma dosing, a steam bath at 40–45 °C with near-total humidity, and a brine steam room at 30–40 °C used for saline inhalation. A winter cabin at 10–15 °C and a separate relaxation room complete the circuit. It opens later than the pools, in the early afternoon on weekdays and at midday at weekends. The complex also has a salt grotto, a bowling alley, a play room, a gym, a rehabilitation centre and a restaurant, each with its own hours.