September 2016
I was on my way back from the OPTBR Congress, where I had given a presentation about the Spa Market. A young lady called me with a cheerful and energetic tone, inviting me to be a speaker in October at the event she was organizing through the Pro Turism Herculane Association.
I get home, check my agenda and start looking for information about Baile Herculane - because I had never been there before.
After a few websites and blogs I get into a big dilemma: it seems that everything is down in Baile Herculane. However, I decide that I can't miss the opportunity to promote the Spa concept, so I accept the invitation, admittedly, rather bent.
What did I find in Baile Herculane? Although I was expecting to see a town in disrepair, I had the revelation of a town that was beginning to bloom. I realized that our Romania is wonderful and it seems that nothing compares to the mountain scenery and ionized air at 2000 meters altitude.
I admired the team from Hotel AfroditaVery young, but full of life and goodwill.
But perhaps the most important thing was that I came home with my batteries fully charged - although, I had been at a conference, not on vacation - and with a desire to move things even more than I had done before.
In April 2017
I'm going to a new edition of the conference, this time I'm also getting a bit involved in the organization, in the sense that I'm helping them to turn the annual conference into a wellness conference.
It struck me how much renovation they had done in the hotel between October and April. To continually invest in two hotels (Afrodita 4* and Diana 3*), in a resort where you hardly manage to attract customers, is admirable.
With me it happened exactly the same: I left tired to Baile Herculane, I came back full of life. Amazing. Only later I found out why.
In 2018
I arrive at the conference a day after it had started, after a long drive from another event. My ankle was in thumbtacks - I'd fallen and had a painful sprain from straining it. I was definitely not in the best shape. And yet, in Herculane I was back in less than 2 days.
Why and how? I'll tell you in a minute. And no, I didn't go to Spa in 2018.
And in September 2019 la Afrodita Resort Baile Herculane
we organized the annual congress of the Balnear and Spa tourism in Baile Herculane. I felt the pressure. I was very tired before I arrived in Herculane and I knew that I would have to leave the last evening, from dinner, and be the first at breakfast, on top of all my other duties. However, after the 4 days in which I don't think I managed to sleep more than 4 hours / night, I came back home fresh and revitalized.
Then I convinced myself that this resort really is a marvel and I decided to go for a stay at Afrodita Resort with my boys. Except the pandemic came and I kept postponing my departure.
Last week, in a last minute decision, I left with my husband and youngest son, Edi. Sebi - almost 17, preferred to stay at home.
After a long drive in which it rained most of the time, we arrived in Baile Herculane around noon.
I liked the fact that, as I remembered from previous years when I had stayed with them, a 2 liter bottle of still mineral water bottled in Baile Herculane was waiting for us in the room. Every time I arrive after the trip I feel the need to drink a lot of water. So that 2-liter bottle - at room temperature, not cold like the bottles in the mini-bar - gives me a special comfort. Plus, I appreciated having a coffee capsule machine.
The first place we went was Herculum Spa - Spa at Afrodita Resort. I can't wait to see it again, especially as I have a deep connection with this Spa. In 2016, when I first went, it looked totally different. Design-wise it was beautiful, but I realized it might have super potential that they weren't exploiting enough. In 2018, they started to redesign the Spa and the Spa concept with Maria Rendes, a consultant with a lot of international experience in 5-star Spa resorts around the world - you can read here about Maria.
Since 2018, through Herculum Spa, they have developed a new approach to the spa resort business - more creative and efficient. They have brought an innovative element to the Romanian market: while the tradition was for spas to address mainly recovery and primary prophylaxis, they have brought wellness on the same plane, in a wonderful synergy, those with ailments and the healthy find remedies for their wellness and health under the same roof.
What's more, natural health factors such as sulphur-based healing waters, which strengthened even Hercules, can be tried by anyone.
Facial and body treatments are made with Romanian product based on Herculane Thermal Water.
Spa has always been and will always be about health, and the health of the 3rd millennium is prevention. Through the wellness services at Herculum Spa, the natural factors of the area are also offered to the healthy, active and very busy man.
Herculum SPA has won 5 awards, including the European SPA Association's Best Spa Concept in Europe in 2019.
At Herculum Spa they have brought nature indoors to offer guests the full experience of what Baile Herculane means.
In the design of the SPA they kept as much as possible natural elements - including in the choice of building materials, which were organic whenever possible.
They used elements such as massive tree trunks of local tree species, moss panels and vegetation of exclusively local flora to familiarize visitors with the nature of the place and to make them feel that it is a mountain Spa.
As water is at the center of the Baile Herculane experience, the Spa at Afrodita Resort has 8 indoor and one outdoor wellness pools, in addition to the mineral sulphur pools that anyone can try.
The indoor pools, along with the various saunas and saline rooms, create contrasting hot and cold circuits - true detox and regeneration experiences.
Children have their own wellness corner with swimming pool, water games and salt wall room.
When I proposed to go to Baile Herculane, Edi asked me if the hotel was 4 or 5 stars. I told him it was a 4. In the elevator, as we were going up to our room after the spa, he said: "Mommy, it's five stars! From the looks of this spa, it's five stars". He maintained his opinion after having been in the 8 pools and whirlpools.
As far as spa treatments and rituals are concerned, I'll go into more detail. For now I only reveal that they can be done in both individual and couple versions, but the most important thing is that they really recharge your vitality.
They are attentive to the needs of their guests, to the inner peace and tranquility that each of us yearn for and that we can receive from Spa therapies.
They have blended in spa rituals and treatments all the necessary ingredients for relaxation and energization.
I leave you here, as a short preview, some pictures of the spa therapies I did in these three days and about which I will write in the following articles:
After redoing the spa in 2018, Maria Rendes has remained their Spa Consultant and is also their Spa Therapy Trainer. He comes periodically to Herculum Spa - from Afrodita Resort and Diviana Spa - from Diana Resort - which is their 3* hotel, 100 meters away from Afrodita. I did a spa ritual there too - so I will come back to this topic in a future article.
I really enjoyed being able to spend these days with Maria. I tested the spa experiences with her and I will tell you during the articles of this stay everything I learned from her.
One of the elements that clearly differentiates Afrodita Resort from other hotels in Baile Herculane is the fact that they have their own spring with sulfurous thermal water. So, at Maria's suggestion, my mornings started with stretching in the sulphurous water pool.
Every evening the 2 sulphurous water pools are emptied and cleaned. During the night the pools are filled with water from our own spring, so that in the morning at 8:00 you can bathe in fresh water.
In the morning, the water is warmest, during the day it gradually cools down. But interestingly, the water can have different temperatures every day. For example, if it rains a lot, the water will be less hot.
I was surprised to find that the sulphurous water from the Aphrodite Resort keeps me afloat because it has other minerals in its composition, probably salt as otherwise I can't explain how I could float.
But, mind you, each of the sulfur springs in Herculane has different compositions and concentrations. What you find at Afrodita you won't find anywhere else.
About the benefits of thermal waters you can read here and about the benefits of this spring you can read here.
As it was sunny, we went caroling as much as we could. It was the perfect opportunity to tell and show Edi the history of the place, with legends, deities and mythological heroes. To explain to him how the benefits of the thermal mineral waters in this area have been the basis of the resort's development. I knew this information from the articles published on despreSpa.ro by Dr. Gabriela Dogaru, by the tour guide Florin Arjocu, and by the Afrodita Resort representatives.
Two millennia ago, the locals knew about the hot springs, they used them routinely.
Later the Romans discovered the healing power of the waters of the Cerna Valley with the help of horses.
Horses would enter the water after battles with the Dacians and their wounds would heal very quickly. They immediately regained their strength and vitality.
Then, the Romans started to try these waters. They noticed that not just the water helped them, but the whole mix (air, water, earth) invigorated them like nowhere else.
And as they had a bathing cult - and in Herculane they didn't even need to heat the waters - after winning the war with the Dacians, they established a thermal spa here.
They chose Hercules as the spiritual father of this space because the hero of mythology symbolizes the ideal combination of physical and spiritual health, between the strength of body and mind. But not only did Hercules give the resort its name, we also find him engraved on a rock in the Roman Baths over 2000 years ago, around which the Roman Hotel was built in the 1970s.
These Baths - built 2000 years ago - are still functional today in the Roman Hotel 2*.
I was impressed to learn from Maria that not only the bricks and baths, but even the vents and pipes made of Banat black pine date back to that time. They've been in use for 2000 years and are still going strong. Without any reconsolidation.
After this engraving, the Austrians made the statue in the city center.
Near the Roman Hotel, we find a spring with the inscription: "Ad Aquas Herculi Sacras" (Holy Waters of Hercules) as the sons of Rome said two millennia ago to this blessed place.
A second city was built on top of the Romans' city by the Habsburg Empire - a city which today is still in the process of renovation and rehabilitation.
At the request of Emperor Franz Joseph I, the cazion was built between 1862-1864 by architect Wilhelm von Doderer.
On the frontispiece of the casino is inscribed the Roman greeting - SALUTI ET LAETITIAE - Health and joy. I was really thinking that I, at least, that's what I wish for today: health and happiness.
In the Casino there was a dance hall, a restaurant on the ground floor, and upstairs, the casino itself and the auditorium.
The casino is partially restored.
Right next to the Casino, on the right as you look from the street towards it, you will find the Giant Sequoia tree - the emblem of the resort. It was planted in 1862, at the time of the inauguration of the Casino's park - Gisela Park, today's Central Park.
And behind the Casino is Europe's purest mineral spring:
Just like in all resorts in Romania, the water flows continuously at the spring, it costs nothing to drink it.
Initially, we had planned to go to Sissi's Foisoarele - which we had visited at the 2017 conference and I would have loved to tell Edi their story. But as it had rained the day before it was very muddy and the route is not exactly the easiest. We asked at the hotel and they indicated another option: the Domogled mountain.
We stopped at the first objective: the White Cross. We could have climbed much higher, but as the forecast was for rain, we decided not to push our luck.
We found out that in the nature reserve of the Domogled Cerna Valley National Park, the concentration of negative ions in the air is over 2000 negative ions per cc. - This concentration is generally found at altitudes above 2000 meters.
On the other hand, I remembered from the articles that the air in Baile Herculane is comparable to that of the Swiss Alps in Davos. One of the sources of negative ions are ferns, beech forests and black pine, a species that grows only in the Domogled Park.
But before we reached them, we came across scorpion. Later we found out from the hotel that there are quite a lot of them in the area, but they are not dangerous to humans, unlike vipers. As an aside, I had forgotten my leggings at home and didn't find them there. If you plan to hike in the area, it's a good idea to take them with you.
The Banat black pine grows on the ridges and limestone walls of the upper basin of the Cerna to Baile Herculane. It is found at altitudes between 500 m and 1200 m.
The black pine is a protected species. It was the source of inspiration for the Hercules sauna, along with the first type of sauna known in the world - smoke sauna, black in color. It uses black pine essential oil, mixed with mint and juniper.
The exact story of the White Cross is still unknown. One of the legends says that a young man decided to conquer the Domogled mountain, which towers imposingly over the resort of Baile-Herculane - to show his love for his beloved.
But, bewitched by the grandeur and spectacular scenery, he stepped into the void and embraced eternal life forever.
From other writings we can learn that this cross was erected in memory of an officer who fought under the command of General Ion Dragalina in the First World War. The death of the officer occurred after the enemies cut the legs of the bridge he was crossing on his way from Podeni to Herculane. Source:
domogled-cerna.co.uk/legends.html
But whatever the legend may be, the road to the cross is beautiful, with sensational landscapes!
And besides the mountain views, we could also admire the city from above:
There would have been so much more to visit, but we preferred to save it for next time and spend as much time as possible in Spa in these 3 days.
Whether you choose to come for the spa, or for the nature, the waters or the strongly ionized air, I guarantee that you will return home revitalized, with your batteries fully charged. Because, after all, that's the purpose of any vacation: to come back in top shape. And from Baile Herculane, you're guaranteed that's what you'll get, no matter how tired you are when you get there.
Most of the photos of me are taken by Maria Rendes.
Ioana Marian,
Founder despreSpa.ro
Founder despreSpa.ro
