My wife and me accompanied my mother for a shorter spa-stay at the Stubicka Toplica in Zabok near Zagreb in Croatia.

We had initially booked rooms at the Dijana hotel only to find out that this place was a hospital with a hotel wing. As neither of us wanted to stay there after having seen the rooms, and seen that there are a lot of rehab- och ill people we decided to cancel our reservations there and go to the nearby Hotel Matija Gubec instead.

Hotel Matija Gubec is a a two-star hotel in the middle of a recreational area and near a spa, balkan style. The spa includes two indoor pools, saunas, different kinds of massage and aroma therapies, and also includes a slightly
neglected fitness room with a variety of machines. The only other spa experience I have is from the Blue Lagoon on Iceland, and I was a bit disappointed that Stubicka Toplica wasn't at all like that. The water in the seven outdoor pools are apparently heated with some kind of geothermal thingamagigs though. The pools range from cool over warm to hot (20-40 degrees Celsius). Very nice.

I had two or three back massages for my aching back the massage lady's. She was a bit hard-fisted, but it apparently made my back good.

The stay at Matija Gubec includes free visits and use of the pools and fitness room. For the double room we payed about €50 per night and person, including a complimentary bottle of their local white plonk-style wine. This was BTW, the half-pension deal (breakfast buffé and dinner). We had light and cheap lunches at the outside pool caffee. I recommend their apple strudels, they are plain heavenly!

The hotel has special deals if you stay more than six consecutive days, it's some 33% off the regular fee.

The double room me and the wifey had, was rather cramped. No AC however, which was rather bad, as the weather was pretty warm when we were there. There was however a balcony and door you could keep open to let the breeze in. Just outside was a small stream with a steady pour that made you fall a sleep pretty quick. The doublebed was ok. The bathroom was rather cramped too. They had fit in a toilet, a sink and a shower-cabin in about a squaremeter and a half. It almost felt as if the shower-cabin was roomier than the rest... 8*) I think this room might have been a single room before, where they have fitted a bigger bed to accomodate people w/o reservations (we didn't have any). Since we didn't spend much time in the room, the crampiness didn't really matter though. The outside pool area was where we spent the days.

We also had a resident big spider in the shower-cabin which I intended to leave alone, as long as it didn't try to make any contact. But when I took the first shower, I saw it coming down along it's thread next to my face and check things out, so I decided to let it examine the sewers instead. After a few minutes close-combat with the shower-head, I flushed it down the drains and it was no more, to my wife's relief. And to mine really. It was rather big...

My mother's single room was as big as our doubleroom, but had two separate beds, which made the room roomier. It went for about €60 a night.

The hotel has it's own restaurant where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served. The breakfast includes all the regular cold dishes including a few warm ones. The dinner usually includes a soup for starters, a main meal (choose between two different ones) and a desert (usually fruit or cake of some kind). Any drinks are payed for separately, or so was my understanding. You won't get excited over the meals, but you won't stay hungry. There are restaurants and pubs in the near vicinity, if you want to eat somewhere else.

This hotel is rather expensive if you compare what you get for the price, but as it's the only real hotel in the area they charge you accordingly. You can however get private rooms around there (privatniks), for about 25% or less of what Matija Gubec charges you. We however felt we didn't want to go hunting for rooms in the middle of the night, as we arrived rather late at the
hotel and in the middle of a wedding reception. The nearby Dijana is half the price, features AC but is located in a hospital, which to tell the truth felt rather creepy with nurses running around and all...

Overall the hotel was ok. Nothing fancy or so, but ok.