Reviews & Press



Telegraph - 50 holidays for under £500

Tightening your belt? Fred Mawer suggests how to have a break while you’re doing it. The details of why money is tight this year for many of us are irrelevant. Suffice it to say that with household bills and mortgages rising, and the stock market heading the wrong way, a bit of belt tightening is in order – and that means keeping costs down on the holiday front. Here are 50 holidays for this summer that won't break the bank. There are ideas for single people, couples and families. Some are very basic (though still appealing, I hope), while others are pretty luxurious, but – thanks to tactics such as travelling out of peak season, sharing a pool or renting large properties with other families – still affordable. The headline prices are per person, unless otherwise stated, for a week, based on two sharing. All but one of the family holidays are in school holiday periods and the per-person prices are averaged out across adults and children. £469 Watery fun in Slovakia At the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, the AquaCity eco-resort has indoor and outdoor pools, toboggan slides and spa areas for grown-ups. Stay at the AquaCity Seasons Hotel August 16-23 for £469pp HB FI, with free entry to the watermark and spa, based on four sharing, through Vamos Travel (0870 762 4017, www.vamostravel.com).

Daily Mail -  'Plunge into a Steamy Slovakia'

The vision of an eccentric Czech-born millionaire has led to the creation of a resort that was last week named ‘the greenest on the planet’. I’m here to soak up his flagship project, last week named the world’s leading green resort at the World Travel Awards. AquaCity is located at the foot of Slovakia’s snow-capped High Tatras Mountains, a four-hour train ride from the capital Bratislava, or a 10-minute transfer from low-key Poprad-Tatry airport. The resort plans to be generating zero emissions within a year and shares its wealth of natural resources with the 55,000 residents of the nearby town of Poprad, offering cheap power to many of the homes and industries. The sprawling resort, comprising a water park, spa, two hotels and conference centre – all connected by glass lifts and airy corridors – lives up to its green credentials in its use of alternative energy sources. Geothermal spring water, drilled from a vast subterranean lake and harnessed by heat exchangers, powered by solar power and wind turbines, heats the resort’s hotels, spa and water park, and supplies up to 80 per cent of the total electricity. By avoiding fossil fuels, the resort saves 27 tons of carbon emissions per day. But on checking in, AquaCity doesn’t feel like a tree-hugging retreat. It’s light, airy and modern – a theme that continues in my simple but comfortable three-star room and in the glass-fronted restaurant. Overall it looks like a modern chain hotel – not flash but clean, well run and family friendly, similar to a hot springs resort in Iceland or a water park in Germany. GREEN is the way forward!!! With an Olympic pool and water park – boasting a series of indoor and outdoor dipping pools, a floating bar, and a health spa – the resort currently attracts 1.2million visitors a year. The majority come from Central Europe but there’s also a growing influx of Brits, thanks to direct flights from Stansted by Bratislava-based airline SkyEurope. The latest addition is Relax, a solar-powered swimming pool complex of geothermal-heated water, enriched with magnesium and calcium. Over in the Vital World spa, I skip from the Celtic sauna (herbal) to the ice room (chilly) and then to the massage room for 30 minutes of gentle pummeling. I emerge feeling completely de-stressed. Not bad for £10. But most of all, I feel smugly guilt free that my weekend break is not only not harming the environment but actually offsetting the carbon emissions from my flight.

Go Green

Affordable, luxurious and eco-friendly are three adjectives rarely used together at the same time. Yet all three apply to a remarkable water park in Slovakia. Geraldine Faulkner reports. Dear guests, if the waiter does not bring you a receipt, please do not bother yourself with paying. This surprising and completely true statement appears on the restaurant menu of the huge indoor spa resort, AquaCity in Poprad, eastern Slovakia, which claims it is the only water park in the world to use geothermal energy as its primary energy source, produces almost zero emissions and which plans to be 99% energy self-sufficient by the end of 2008. Set in the foothills of the High Tatras, which at 8,000 ft are the tallest peaks of the Carpathian Mountains (the highest mountain range in middle Europe), AquaCity sits above a vast underground lake of hot mineral water 1,200m below the surface that is naturally heated to a temperature of 49ºC and which is believed to measure some 70km by 30km and is up to 500m deep in parts. Thanks to this massive natural resource, the spa can rely on an inexhaustible supply of natural heat to provide all the water, heating and electricity that it needs for decades to come. Surprisingly, the potential of the huge underground geo-thermal lake was only realised in 2002 when millionaire property developer and entrepreneur, Czech-born Jan Telenský was taking his baby son for a walk in Poprad (his wife‘s home town). While pushing his son’s pram along some waste ground, he came across a large rusty pipe pouring out hot water. “What’s this?“ he asked and was told that it was hot water from the earth that the town council saw no use for (in the early 1990s it had been drilling hopefully in search of natural gas) and consequently the naturally heated water (emerging out of the ground at 50ºC) was seen as useless and was being pumped into Poprad’s sewers. Mr Telenský says he stumbled across two of the most precious resources; energy and water. And for free. Further investigation of the site, which used to house a municipal swimming pool and tennis courts (heated ironically by fossil fuels), gave Mr Telenský the idea to build an affordable luxury and sustainable spa resort/hotel/conference centre that would use hot water from the underground lake beneath it to supply it with all the heat and energy it needs as well as bring economic prosperity to Poprad; a rundown industrial former communist town. With this in mind, he negotiated a deal with a private investor and the city of Poprad where he would own 85% of the resort and the city council owns the remaining 15% before investing some £50 million into the construction of AquaCity. “His vision was to produce affordable green luxuries and plough the benefits back into the local community,” says Jan Profant, AquaCity’s marketing manager. “If he had to pay for coal and gas to heat and power the resort, the cost would be three times higher.” Today, the thermal water resort with its utilitarian design and high glass walls boasts two hotels, a 300-delegate conference centre, 9 swimming pools, including an Olympic sized 50m long pool; 15 saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, whirlpools, a snow room (where it snows all year round) and, la pièce de resistance, a cryochamber (see fact file). So how is this vast array of facilities fed?A system of heat exchangers harnesses the raw power produced by the mineral rich hot spa water that bubbles up from the earth under its own steam. Surprisingly, the water containing minerals rich in calcium, magnesium, sulphur and other minerals flows without the need of man-made pumps at the rate of nearly 218, 212 litres per hour. The original bore hole discovered by Mr Telenský some five years ago, sits today in splendid isolation in an incongruous shed 300m away from the water park surrounded by a high wire fence and security cameras. At the top of the bore hole is a valve that enables the maintenance team to control the flow; either manually via a giant wheel or remotely by computer from AquaCity. According to the resort’s maintenance manager, Antonin Hiuska, the flow is reduced in the summer and, obviously, increased in the winter.What process is used to filter the water? “The water is disinfected via an ultraviolet system,” explains Mr Hiuska. “The UV filters kill the live bacteria and the stainless steel lining in some of the pools help prevent corrosion.” Due to the mineral-rich water, corrosion is an on-going challenge to the maintenance team.As well as keeping an eye on the corrosive property of the mineral rich hot water, cleanliness is high on the agenda.Currently, all the water in the pools is cleaned once a day and twice a year the pools are completely emptied for a thorough going over. “All the water in the pools is returned to the nearby river where it goes back to the underground lake at a considerably lower temperature than when it first emerged from the bore hold,” adds Mr Profant. A second bore hole is being drilled 2,500m below the High Tatras Mountains. This is particularly significant since plans are well underway to expand AquaCity. The intention is to double the sauna centre, create an indoor tropical beach under biomes (similar to those used on the Eden Project), offer under-cover activities such as water skiing as well as increase the number of pools to 38 and supply part of Poprad’s homes with hot water and heat. At the end of 2008, it is planned that three giant solar panels, each the size of a tennis court, will be sited on the roof of the complex and three wind turbines less than a mile away. All in all, this is intended to ensure that AquaCity will eventually use no outside energy whatsoever.What would be the scenario if the water park was not being fed its water, heat and power from the underground lake?Jan Telenský reckons that if the water park had used fossil fuels as its energy source, it would have generated around 50,000 tonnes of C02 each year. So does the Czech-born millionaire believe it’s all about ethics? “I use environmental technology because it gives me a business edge and because I think the environment is important. I believe that every businessman’s motto should be: ‘Go green - make money’,” he says emphatically.

Cryotherapy

The cryochamber is a chamber, the size of a sauna, in which cryotherapy is practised. Please note: this is not the same as cryonics, the process of preserving bodies at very low temperatures in the hope that one day they can be resuscitated. Cryotherapy is where people are exposed to temperatures as low as minus 120ºC. That’s right; minus 120ºC. With its roots going back to Egyptian times, cryotherapy is believed to bring relief to ailments such as rheumatoid joint problems, sclerosis, back pain, osteoporosis and fybrositis. The theory is that by subjecting the body to extreme low temperatures, its response is to release endorphins and hormones to eliminate the stress and protect itself from damage. Cryotherapy is also said to be good for reducing cellulite, improving skin conditions and helping sufferers of depression. The treatment involves putting on a t-shirt, shorts, knee-high socks, gloves, hair band, clogs and a paper face mask (to protect bronchial tubes and lungs from the cold dry air), having a preliminary health check with the resort doctor (who asks a few questions and checks your blood pressure) before entering an ante-chamber where liquid oxygen sends the temperature plummeting to minus 60ºC. Participants are told to stamp/shuffle around in a tight circle for a minute before going into the cryochamber proper (the coldest place to be found on earth; the record low surface temperature in the Antarctic is only -89ºC) where they stamp/shuffle around for a further two minute session. The entire procedure is closely supervised by the resort doctor and an assistant. Via a microphone, they let people know when the first minute is up and it is time to go through the connecting door to the cryochamber.“ You come out with a euphoric feeling that you are glad to be alive,” said one gasping participant emerging with frost on her socks. Phase two of the treatment is a 20-minute work-out in a small gym whose aim is to kick-start the body up again with a burst of energy. Cryotherapy is also used to help rehabilitation following an injury (they are said to undergo three minutes rather than the customary two) and consequently is popular with athletes such as footballers and rugby players; a sector that AquaCity is understandably keen to encourage.

Tatler Magazine


A brand new purpose built hotel and conference centre in the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia is delivering a whole new concept in ‘Green’, ecologically friendly, and above all, sustainable tourism. But don’t let its ‘Eco-Friendly’ label put you off, at AquaCity-Poprad you won’t have to spend your holiday shivering in a felt tepee in the middle of a muddy field to go green, instead you can just lay back and relax in three or four star luxury. From the turn of the twentieth century through to the end of the nineteen thirties, the High Tatras region in eastern Slovakia was the secret playground for much of the British Royal Family, Europe’s aristocracy, and the fashionable ‘Well to Do’. Today the Tatras is opening itself up to anyone who wants to explore and experience the perfect antidote to urban stress. Now the Edwardian grand style and the1920’s Art Deco chique that this fascinating region offers are available to everyone, and they’re going green. The secret of this great green success comes from the ingenious way one resort in particular, AquaCity-Poprad, has harnessed the power of the immense underground lake that lies buried deep beneath its feet. A bore hole drilled into this hot mineral-rich Slovakian spa, produces a staggering 60.19 litres of water per second (over 47,577 gallons per hour), all naturally heated to 49oC, forced to the surface under its own pressure. All this water is used to fill a series of heated indoor and outdoor swimming pools, baths, steam rooms and saunas, which have been wonderfully blended together to produce a combination of a Roman bath, and a Regency spa experience, which have been brought right up to the standards of the 21st Century. So if pampering, luxury, and detoxification are what you’re looking for, then AquaCity can certainly deliver. In addition to using the waters for their soothing and therapeutic qualities, the resort also extracts the geothermal energy to provide heat, light and power for the three and four star hotels and a state of the art 300 delegate conference centre; total luxury, virtually zero carbon emissions. All this saving on increasingly expensive energy costs means that in a part of Europe already known for its cheep prices, compared with those here in The West, AquaCity can deliver its outstanding quality at remarkably good value for money. AquaCity is more than just a water fun park, or a ‘Green Getaway’ however. Set against the stunning backdrop of High Tatras Mountains it is very much the gateway to exploring this wonderful mountain region. At only a little over two hours flying time from Stansted airport, whatever the time of year AquaCity and its environs never leave you disappointed. From a complete range of summer leisure activities such as walking, climbing, mountain biking, canoeing, white water rafting, horse riding and pony trekking etc, as well as a full winter sports package, with a skiing season that can last from October through to April, there are also the baths, pools, saunas and treatment rooms of AquaCity to let you either just ‘Chill Out’, or relax and recover after a hard day enjoying yourself. Now you can have the benefit of a relaxing holiday break, safe in the knowledge that financially, or ecologically, it won’t be costing you the earth.


The Travel Magazine

It is not often I find myself disagreeing with Kermit The Frog, but when he sang 'It's Not Easy Being Green' he had never been to AquaCity-Poprad. A brand new purpose built hotel and conference centre in the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia is delivering a whole new concept in ‘Green’, ecologically friendly, and above all, sustainable tourism. But don’t let its ‘Eco-Friendly’ label put you off, at AquaCity-Poprad you won’t have to spend your holiday shivering in a felt tepee in the middle of a muddy field to go green, instead you can just lay back and relax in three or four star luxury. From the turn of the twentieth century through to the end of the nineteen thirties, the High Tatras region in eastern Slovakia was the secret playground for much of the British Royal Family, Europe’s aristocracy, and the fashionable ‘Well to Do’. Today the Tatras is opening itself up to anyone who wants to explore and experience the perfect antidote to urban stress. Now the Edwardian grand style and the1920’s Art Deco chique that this fascinating region offers are available to everyone, and they’re going green. The secret of this great green success comes from the ingenious way one resort in particular, AquaCity-Poprad, has harnessed the power of the immense underground lake that lies buried deep beneath its feet. A bore hole drilled into this hot mineral-rich Slovakian spa, produces a staggering 60.19 litres of water per second (over 47,577 gallons per hour), all naturally heated to 49oC, forced to the surface under its own pressure. All this water is used to fill a series of heated indoor and outdoor swimming pools, baths, steam rooms and saunas, which have been wonderfully blended together to produce a combination of a Roman bath, and a Regency spa experience, which have been brought right up to the standards of the 21st Century. So if pampering, luxury, and detoxification are what you’re looking for, then AquaCity can certainly deliver. In addition to using the waters for their soothing and therapeutic qualities, the resort also extracts the geothermal energy to provide heat, light and power for the three and four star hotels and a state of the art 300 delegate conference centre; total luxury, virtually zero carbon emissions. All this saving on increasingly expensive energy costs means that in a part of Europe already known for its cheep prices, compared with those here in The West, AquaCity can deliver its outstanding quality at remarkably good value for money. AquaCity is more than just a water fun park, or a ‘Green Getaway’ however. Set against the stunning backdrop of High Tatras Mountains it is very much the gateway to exploring this wonderful mountain region.

Sky Europe Magazine

Why would you fly to a small, nondescript town in south-west Slovakia? Because it's five minutes from AquaCity, an eco-friendly spa resort that uses geothermal water, solar power and wind turbines to centrally heat the resort's two hotels, spa and water park and supply up to 80% of its electricity. The intention is to be completely self-sufficient by 2008. But how to square the dilemma of flying to an eco-resort? AquaCity saves over 8,500 tons CO2 per year - which goes some way to offsetting the CO2 produced by flying to Poprad (a return flight to Slovakia emits approximately 0.30 tons per person).

Telegraph - Can you hack –120°c in shorts and a vest?

The first place I feel it is in the backs of my heels. Cold. Very cold. Then my thighs. Every hair follicle on my legs snaps to attention. This isn't just normal cold though. It's Siberian chilly. Antarctically nippy. In fact, it's colder than that. It's –120°C. And I'm in little more than my underpants. "Cryotherapy. That's the thing Americans do when they die, isn't it?" my grandfather had said. "They deep freeze the bodies for a hundred years and then wake them up again." That, I pointed out, is cryogenics. For dead people. This is cryotherapy, a new spa treatment where you spend a few minutes in a sort of freezer. And I was hoping it would fix my injured knee in time for the ski season. Though cryotherapy sounds crazy, there is method in the madness. When we sprain an ankle or get a bruise, we use ice or frozen peas to cool the injury down and ease the pain. The brain reacts by sending blood rushing in to clean it out and hurry the healing process. In the ultra-cold of cryotherapy, so the theory goes, the brain goes into overdrive, contracting the blood vessels and pouring in blood loaded with adrenaline, noradrenalin, endorphins and testosterone. If you think of the blood vessels like a sponge, it's like they've been squeezed of all the nasty toxins, ready for a wave of super-charged spring cleaning. The first cryotherapy chamber was built in 1978 in Japan. The practice came to Europe a few years later and there are now more than 80 cryo-chambers in Poland, Austria and Germany. The one I visited in Slovakia is the first that's part of a spa centre, AquaCity – also home to an impressive heat suite which includes sauna, salt inhalation room and flower, menthol and super-hot steam rooms. Six people go into the freezer, sorry, cryotherapy chamber, at a time. In my group are four locals and two Britons. Jo, who works for AquaCity, is here to accompany me and says how good it is for her skin. Two of the Slovakians are in their early twenties and don't speak English. The other couple are teachers, Kamila, 49, and Juraj, 52. They are here for general health, as a preventative against arthritis – and because there's a two-for-one promotion for locals. We take it in turns to see the man in charge. Dr Jan Potocky is neat, tanned and friendly; he's also very reassuring. He asks about my medical history and checks my pulse and blood pressure. He explains the process and confirms what I'd hoped to hear: if at any point the cold is too much, I just open the door and walk out. The kit makes us look like pantomime boxers. The men are in black, the women in blue and white: mitts, headbands, skimpy shorts (and tops for the girls), knee-high ski socks, clogs and the sort of flimsy face-mask you'd wear to a fancy-dress party. In the first freezer compartment, we march a tiny circle like toy soldiers. The icy steam swirls round us as we stamp, keeping our joints moving. At –60°C this is the warm-up cool-down. There's a knock on the observation window. Dr Potocky indicates it's time for the –120°C chamber. Our merry-go-round now feels like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow, the movie where the world freezes over. Now we six toy soldiers stamp harder, but as our two minutes slowly passes, I feel the band's resolve weaken. The marching slows, the foot stamps become less audible, until we're six creaking humans in the darkest, coldest night in the Antarctic. Like any endurance test, there's a wall. I hit mine about half-way through my first session. But just when I've given up trying to work out how much longer I can handle it, when I've run out of swear words and I'm about to wimp out and make a dash for it, our two minutes is up and we're out. There's a rush of euphoria in the group, like school's out for the summer. And then we're swiftly ushered onto gym machines for 15 minutes' exercise to get the blood flowing. "Within two years I hope to have cryotherapy approved by the Slovak ministry of health as a treating method, but at the moment it's still an alternative, supportive method of medicine," says Dr Potocky. So who is cryotherapy for? "Sportsmen and women come to enhance their endurance. And it helps joint and skin complaints, such as eczema, psoriasis, rheumatism and osteoporosis. Symptoms are less and they are not so painful after cryotherapy. "To have these effects you must have at least five daily sessions in a row. It is also indicated for biochemical detoxification and regeneration of cells," – that's detox to you and me –"and it helps with wellness. People tell me: 'Before I could not sleep, now I can.' They say: 'I am not so nervous'; 'I argue less with my wife'. "And you know," adds Dr Potocky, "it helps with impotency as well. Since we opened in August, 10 women have come to thank me." So did it work for me? My wife says that my skin is glowing and, even better, the swelling on my knee has gone down. Roll on the ski season.

Trip advisor

Having Heard of Aqua City through the "Buzz" in the Industry, I had great expectations of this new resort. Upon arriving in little Poprad i was immediately blown away by the airport! this is, i believe, the highest altitude airport in Europe...and it faces an entire chain of Mountains( 3rd highest in europe)! Very efficient airport that takes flights directly from London. After a 10 minute drive we arrived at the famed Aqua City....! Upon entering i was whizzed through check in and brought to my room. The quality of the rooms is impeccable!!...clean, modern, confortable and most importantly...functional! This resort has a 3 star hotel as well as a 4 star hotel called the Mountain View ( we stayed at the Mountain view). Throughout my 5 day stay, the service was flawless and for once in my life i can safely say that the word "no" was never uttered in my presence! The service was so exceptional that they even offered to change the position of the satellite dish to provide me with more English channels! The resort itself is something else...as far as your eye can see..pools pools and more pools (hence the name...Aqua City),one of these pools is host to the most electrifying Laser show (yes in the pool) ive ever seen!! The spa is exceptional with steam room, menthol steam room, herbal steam room, tanning room( a room not a bed!!), relaxation room, massage, massage showers, relaxation rooms, ice pools, ice cave ....and the list goes on!! The resort itself offers every comfort and is impeccably clean with what i can only refer to as the most advanced conference center i have seen to date! If you think i sound euphoric about this place you are absolutely correct! It is a true experience! I recommend Aqua City to absolutely everybody and i will definitely visit it again,,,and again!! Pure relaxation in a great atmosphere sorrounded by all the modern comforts and amenities as well as entertainment! AQUA City offers something that no other resort in europe can say they offer...a completely guilt free holiday!!...no emissions at all!...A big thank you to all the staff at aqua city for making our stay something to remember! Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend? absolutely! I recommend this hotel for: Young singles, Girlfriend getaway, People with disabilities, Older travelers, Great pool scene, Families with young children, Families with teenagers, Tourists

News

Jan 28th 2008: Mr. Telensky, founder & Owner of AquaCity was recently invited to 10 Downing street to meet the Prime Minister - Gordon Brown.

October 2007: Winners of the 14th World Travel Awards, voted by travel agents worldwide - winner of category: World's greenest resort....and its CEO, Jan Telensky, awarded a World Travel Award for `World's Leading Green Travel Personality'. Mr. Jan Telensky said “AquaCity is the natural home for the World Travel Green Awards, having been the first winner of the World’s Leading Green Resort. The future of tourism is bound up in its responsibility towards conserving energy, respecting our surroundings and not destroying what the tourists are coming to enjoy when they come on holiday. That is why AquaCity is playing such an important role in demonstrating to the world’s hotels and destinations that they can be green, affordable and profitable”.

UK Sales AquaCity


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