Danubius Health Spa Resort Héviz

The hotel is a plain and simple building of the seventies, 7 floors. International guests for instance from Swizzerland, Germany, Austria, Russia, Czechia. One or two times per week Chinese groups on their way around Europe stay overnight, then it may become a bit crowdy in the thermal pools. Age of the customers from 45, mostly older. The weekends are usually a busy time due to he Hungarians who come to the hotel for 2 or 3 days.

From the hotel it takes 5 min. downhill (partly stairs) to the centre, 5 min. more to the thermal lake. There also is a little train, starting every hour directly in front of the hotel for small money.

The rooms are sufficiently big with balcony. Rooms to the frontside get the sun from approx. noon, but there are awnings. Backside look is to the woods, only from the 6th or 7th floor you have a view to the city.

Personell at the reception and housekeeping were very friendly, service in restaurant and café also but often unattentive and unorganized.

Extremely good is the big pool and treatment area. One big pool, 16 m long, 28°, never overcrowded, wonderful to swim in, big Jacuzzi nearby. The Thermalpool, divided into two temperature zones (32-34° and 36 -38°), here you can sit and enjoy the warmth for recommended 20-30 min. You quickly get used to the smell of sulphur. Outside is another “event”-pool, normal water, with waves, underwater-music etc. The area for the deck chairs is a bit small. A further pool is outside in the back of the unfortunately untended garden. This pool has thermal water, there are many deck chairs and ample space. This is a nicely quiet place.

We had booked a treatment-package, the doctor was definitely in a hurry and prescribed quickly massages, thermal baths and mud and we added some mud packs and massages extra. This could be organized without problems. All treatments were very professional. There is also a “Beauty-Spa “Emporium” which, however, we did not use.

The restaurant is big and can be enlarged by the terrace at warm weather. First impression: oldfashioned. The salad buffet is plentiful, it is constantly filled up. The main course is ordered from a small menu and is served at the table. The quality was okay, unfortunately meat or fish was mostly “drowned” in heavy sauces. Two times per week there is a full buffet.

The gym is small, hot with old equipment.

Transfer from Budapest Airport by car, organised by the hotel, takes 2 1/2 hours and costs only 142 Euros. It is well worth it to get to this superb spa. The spa facilities are much better than anything I have found in Budapest and everything is so professional from the spa treatments to the waiters in the restaurant. Healthy dishes are available and these tend to be of a more refined quality than other rich dishes available. The Heviz air is always clear and seems to be free of polution. The small village is clean and modern but everything you might want to buy is available. It is a pleasure to be able to walk round the thermal lake. With round trip air fare from London, the airport transfer from London and half board this excellent spa costs less than half of going to a spa in the UK. The negative posts seem to be from people who have come for only one night. This is a place to come and relax for a weekend or more, not for a one night stay. It is true that on Sundays it is not easy to book treatments but that is insignificant in the broader scheme of things. In the weekends it attracts a younger crowd, in the winter weeks an older crowd and in the summer families and all ages. Six nights a week there is a superb violin player plus pianist in the dining room, another reason I keep returning.

This was to be our 4th trip to Hungary and staying in a Danubius Resort. We have stayed twice in Budapest, once in Buk and now to Heviz. The Hotel is one of the top ones under the Danubius chain. We signed up for the 3 week complete SPA package. The package includes transportation from New York to Budapest, 21 nights at the Hotel, 2 meals per day and 15 SPA treatments per week. We paid extra for a car to pick us up in Budapest and drive us to Heviz, about 2 hours - round trip. The Hotel reception staff were about the best we have ever seen. The all spoke English which was very helpful since we spoke no Hungarian. The room was excellent and enough room to get all our clothes out of our suitcases. Maid service every day and they were excellent. After seeing a Doctor, who helps you decide what kind of treatments you want you are sent to a "scheduler" who schedules you our for the next three weeks. My wife and I had, Massage, Mud Treatments, Hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, traction, and we also had a person who worked on any specific area you might have problems with . You had use of the indoor and outdoor thermal pools, the indoor and outdoor regular pools, sauna, steam bath, jacuzzi and workout center. There was music both in the dining room and in the bar area. We scheduled no treatments on Wednesday and Saturday, and there were no scheduled treatments on Sunday, so it gave us 3 days a week to travel around the area. Food, was ok, the buffet meals on Wednesday ;and Saturday were outstanding. The off the menu meals for the remaining 5 days a week was just ok. The salad bar, both for breakfast and dinner was outstanding. So were the deserts and the fruit at every meal. There is also a Beauty Salon and daily scheduled workouts (for free) by the gym staff, like stretching exercise, water exercise, etc. Overall a great place to go for three weeks. The town is Heviz, and the center is about 3 blocks away from the Hotel. There is also one of best Wine Cellars we have ever been to in Heviz that is only about 2 blocks from the Hotel. Heviz is also the home of Hevizi Gyogyto (the curative Lake of Heviz) which is the largest natural peat mud thermal lake of volcanic origin in the world.

I stayed here at part of a tour group for one night.

The Good
- GREAT view! I believe the hotel is one of the tallest in the vicinity, and therefore had great mountain and city view
- Decent rooms with a nice balcony
- Natural hot springs spa with a variety of temperature
- 2 outdoor pool (one of them is kind of hidden!) and 1 indoor pool

The Bad
- Slow elevator
- Spa/massage closes way too early! I think it was at 3:30pm or 4pm. Just way too early!
- No additional towels provided for pool/hot spring (which was very inconvinent)
- The restaurant/dinner place was quite .. just say that it could have been cleaner. The food was delicious though!
- Staff may not be fluent in English (which can be a hassle)
- It wasn't luxurious - I'll give it a three star