Splish! Splash! We were takin' a beer bath!

Just like the Germans, and pretty much every other European, the Czechs take their beer seriously. We knew about how Czech's naturally hard water was conducive to brewing some of the best "pivo" from our tour of Pilsen, but this weekend we found out that the best pivo is not only for drinking, but also for bathing!

That's right, this weekend we indulged in a bath of mineral water, dark beer, hops, herbs, and beer yeast at the Pravé Pivní Lázně Beer Spa in Chodovar, Czech Republic. The 20-minute beer bath is supposedly good for your skin, muscles, and joints. The spa offers single and double tubs for about $33/person, which also includes two unfiltered home-grown Chodovar beers.





Patrick's flaming dinner at
Stará Sladovna restaurant

Though I don't know that my skin is significantly better off, this trip was a blast. We stayed in the Hotel U Sládka which was perfect. The hotel, spa, brewery, and two restaurants are all connected through the gated square which functions as the parking lot and features a tempting putt-putt course. This made it easy to dash back to our room with wet hair in the freezing April temperatures. The hotel also offers free breakfast and a shockingly reasonable mini-bar with large beers priced at just over $1.



Beer barrel in the
Ve Skále restaurant

The two restaurants were delicious and also incredibly reasonable. Though they have similar menus, the Ve Skále was our favorite solely due to the atmosphere created by eating in an 800 year old beer cellar and drinking the natural beer from the neighboring lager barrels. You can also tour the brewery and cellars, but we opted not to when we found they were given in Czech or German with an English handout.

Walking out of the tunnel with our newly purchased,
incredibly reasonably priced Chodovar beer

For our unique getaway, including one night in the hotel, the couple's beer bath, lunch and dinner at the restaurants, breakfast at the hotel, a case of Chodovar beers for later enjoyment, and moderate use of the mini-bar, we spent under €175. We booked the hotel and beer bath online through the Chodovar website, which didn't even require a credit card to secure the reservation. The Chodovar channel also highlighted some of the festivals over the summer which looked amazing (beer barrel rolling competition?? Chugging contest?? Count me in!). It was the perfect weekend escape from a so-far dreary and cold April!