Hotel Mercure Krynica Zdroj Resort & Spa

When my friend and I were invited to Poland by some Polish friends, we figured we would plan a spa week before going to Poznan for Pyrkon. After a fair bit of looking around, the Mercure popped up as highly recommended for our needs. I have an auto-immune disease that sometimes makes movement difficult, and my friend was overworked and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as well as severely agoraphobic. We are not, by any means, easy guests. We had such an amazing week here that we were genuinely sad to leave and we would be back in a heartbeat. The room we had was spacious, clean and had a great view from the balcony we didn't use as much as we should have. The beds were super-comfortable, a huge plus for physically disabled clients (I usually have to ask for extra pillows or blankets for support when I go abroad, I didn't need to here). It was so quiet and peaceful we slept beautifully every night. When we did eat in the restaurant the food was lovely, good Polish national cuisine (that I had, friend is somewhat picky). The crux of our visit, the spa, was an absolute treat. The therapists were so lovely to us, very accommodating and very skilled in their work. I had at least one treatment every day and on the first day there the therapist mapped them all out for me to get the most out of them. The pool was a fantastic place to just peacefully float away all day if you wanted, and the relaxation spots were so comfortable that you could nap there even after a good 12 hours sleep the night before. We particularly enjoyed the rocking couches overlooking the mountain trails. The best part about our whole experience is that it had a dramatic effect on our well-being. After a few treatments I was in a lot less pain, having very few spasms and able to walk around quite a bit without my cane. My agoraphobic friend, who usually can't leave her own house without someone escorting her, walked around outside without me for the first time in three years!

This is a rural part of Poland and the people we met had somewhat limited English, but I don't see that as a problem they had as we can't expect everyone to understand us, and their English was a hell of a lot better than our Polish was. We mostly communicated through hand gestures and apologies (from us for being awful tourists.) We got by just fine. As neither of us drive, we had to take a very long bus to get to Krynica Zdroj and that was a bit of a pain, but again not the hotel's problem, we knew what we were getting into. Those were the only problems we had. I haven't a bad word to say about the Mercure or anything that happened in it.