I’m actually not much of a spa treatment kind of gal while traveling. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. Sleek and indulgent spas tend to bring the feeling that I’m sitting idly by while unexpected discoveries or local interactions whiz past me in a blaze of travel glory. 

But when a chic former fashion model from the Czech Tourism office invited me to come along on a roadtrip 3.5 hours from Prague into the Moravia region to visit tiny Luhačovice — a sleepy town of 6,000, full of medical spas, dollhouse architecture, and evergreen trees — I was intrigued. Not only because I’d never been outside Prague, but because it’s quite common for Czechs to visit this ‘spa town’, and because my regionally-traditional spa treatment would be overseen by a bonafide neurologist.

Plus, it meant I’d spend about a half an hour in a dry bath of carbon dioxide. Whatever that meant.

Typical architecture around Luhačovice, in the Moravia region of Czech Republic / photo by Kim Mance

A sign in the medical spa sanatorium points the way to CO2 dry bath bags / photo by Kim Mance

Upon arriving at the Spa Hotel Miramare, which indeed had hotel rooms and package deals, it definitely looked and felt