Close your eyes and picture it: vaulted sandstone cellars beneath a family brewery that has been malting since 1573, the air thick with hops and warm wood, and you sinking into a hand-carved oak tub filled with mineral water and dark Chodovar lager. Beer Spa Chodová Planá – set inside the Chodovar brewery complex in the heart of West Bohemia – is not merely a spa. It is the world's largest beer spa, the place where the whole modern Czech beer-bath tradition began, and the benchmark every other venue is measured against. From the moment you step into those ancient cellars, you understand why guests come here from across Europe.
Beer bath procedures at Chodovar are booked directly with the venue or via local Czech providers. Prices below are indicative reference prices in CZK. For accommodation at or near the brewery, use our Booking.com link in the section below.
What to expect at Beer Spa Chodová Planá
A visit to the world's largest beer spa is a carefully orchestrated ritual where centuries of brewing tradition meet modern wellness. From the moment you enter the Chodovar brewery complex, you are in a different world – one of arched stone cellars, the scent of malt in the air, and absolute quiet.
Partial body massage (20 min)
Your journey begins with a professional massage that loosens muscles and prepares the body to absorb the therapeutic compounds from the beer bath. It sets the tone: deliberate, unhurried, restorative.
Beer bath in an oak tub (20 min)
You lower yourself into a solid oak tub filled with Ilsano mineral water – sourced directly on the brewery grounds – at 34 °C, blended with a special dark bath beer brewed to a secret Chodovar recipe. Hop acids, brewer's yeast, and barley minerals absorb through your skin. There is no clock on the wall here. There is only warmth, the faint scent of hops, and complete stillness.
Relaxation in the rest room (25 min)
After the bath you rest on a lounger while the beer compounds continue working. Muscles release. The mind goes quiet in a way that is genuinely hard to achieve elsewhere. Most guests describe this as the moment they truly let go.
Dinner at Stará Sladovna brewery restaurant
The evening ends at the Stará Sladovna – the brewery's own restaurant. A meal credit (350 CZK per person) is included in stay-and-spa packages. Taste Czech food paired with Chodovar lager poured straight from the tank. This is where the experience moves from wellness into something more like a story you will keep telling.
What's included in stay packages
- Accommodation in the Chodovar brewery complex
- Partial body massage
- Beer bath in an oak tub with Ilsano mineral water
- Relaxation in the dedicated rest room
- Dinner credit at the Stará Sladovna restaurant (350 CZK per person)
- Voucher valid for 1 year from purchase
When should you go?
Beer Spa Chodová Planá is open Monday through Thursday – the venue is not available on Fridays or weekends. Because this is the world's largest beer spa and draws guests from across Europe, oak-tub slots fill up fast: book at least 3–4 weeks ahead to be safe.
Tip: Spring and autumn are ideal – the surrounding Český les (Bohemian Forest) and Slavkovský les are at their most beautiful, and daylight hours are perfect for combining the spa with a tour of the Chodovar brewery, a drive to Mariánské Lázně (25 km away), or a walk up to Loket Castle. Vouchers are valid for a full year, so you can buy whenever the mood strikes and pick your date once the schedule opens up.
Which experience to choose?
Chodová Planá has one of the richest menus of any beer spa in Europe. Here is a quick guide:
- Beer bath only (from 690 CZK) – the pure experience. Oak tub, Ilsano water, dark Chodovar bath beer. Ideal if you are visiting for the afternoon and want to keep it simple.
- Beer bath + massage (from 1,550 CZK) – the complete body-and-mind package for one. Professional massage before the tub, dinner credit included. Hard to beat for solo travellers.
- Beer spa for two + massage + dinner (from 3,100 CZK) – the best-seller and the obvious choice for couples. Shared oak tubs, a massage each, and dinner at the brewery restaurant. The full Chodovar experience in one afternoon and evening.
- Weekend stay packages (from 4,100 CZK) – 2 nights with half-board, spa, sauna, and wellness. If you have never done a proper brewery-hotel stay, this is the one that will spoil you for everything else.
- Extended stays (from 6,360 CZK) – 3-night luxury packages with unlimited wellness, daily massages, and half-board. The version for people who take relaxation seriously.
Health benefits of a beer bath
A beer spa is not just a good story – there are real, documented benefits to soaking in hops, brewer's yeast, and barley. And here's the best part: you do not need to enjoy drinking beer to benefit from a single one of them.
Boosts circulation
The 34 °C hop-infused water activates the heart and drives blood flow to every corner of the body.
Strengthens immunity
B-group vitamins from live brewer's yeast support the immune system, absorbed directly through the skin during the soak.
Soothes skin
Hop acids (humulone) have bacteriostatic properties – they calm acne, psoriasis, cellulite, and irritated skin.
Melts away stress
Hops are a natural sedative – they calm the nervous system and guide the body into a depth of rest that normally takes hours of sleep to reach.
Rejuvenates skin
Enzymes and minerals in the bathwater detoxify the body and leave skin noticeably softer – even guests who were sceptical are surprised.
Relieves aches
Lupulon in hops acts as a natural analgesic – easing joint and muscle pain in a way that a regular hot bath simply cannot replicate.
Who is Beer Spa Chodová Planá perfect for?
- Couples – side-by-side oak tubs in a 450-year-old brewery cellar, dinner at the table afterwards. A romantic weekend that is genuinely hard to top.
- Groups of friends – each with their own tub, Chodovar lager on tap, and a story that beats every other group trip idea.
- Gift buyers – a stay-and-spa voucher at the world's largest beer spa. Valid for a year, works for any occasion, guaranteed to impress.
- Beer lovers – where else do you bathe in beer from a brewery that has been malting since 1573? This is the bucket-list version.
Beer Spa Chodová Planá as a gift
Looking for a gift that will genuinely surprise someone? A stay at the world's largest beer spa – in the vaulted cellars of a 16th-century family brewery, with an oak-tub soak, a professional massage, and dinner – is one of the most memorable experience gifts you can give. It is the combination that sounds impossible until you are actually there, and then it feels completely inevitable.
It works for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, hen and stag dos, or no occasion at all. The recipient picks their own date (vouchers are valid for a full year), and Chodová Planá is an easy drive from Prague, Plzeň, or Mariánské Lázně.
Why a Chodová Planá beer-spa weekend makes the perfect gift
- A private beer bath in a hand-carved oak tub
- Dark Chodovar bath beer and Ilsano mineral water – a recipe found nowhere else
- Professional massage before the soak
- Dinner at the Stará Sladovna brewery restaurant
- Overnight stay in the historic brewery complex
- An experience that works for couples, friends, and serious beer fans alike
Give Beer Spa Chodová Planá as a gift
The world's largest beer spa – oak tubs, Chodovar lager, and a brewery hotel in West Bohemia. Find the right accommodation and make it a full getaway.
Why Chodová Planá for a beer spa?
Chodová Planá and the Chodovar brewery – a story that has been written since 1573. No other beer spa on the planet combines this kind of history, authenticity, and scale. This is not a wellness centre that added beer as a gimmick. This is the original – the place that defined what a beer spa can be.
- The world's largest beer spa – a vast wellness complex inside the historic Chodovar brewery cellars, with no real rival in size or scope anywhere in the world
- A family brewery since 1573 – Chodovar is one of the oldest continuously operating family breweries in the Czech Republic, surviving wars, nationalization, and the Velvet Revolution
- Ilsano mineral water + dark Chodovar bath beer – a unique bath composition you cannot find anywhere else: mineral water sourced on-site, blended with a proprietary dark bath beer brewed to a secret recipe
- 150 km from Prague – under 2 hours on the D5 motorway. Close enough for a weekend escape, far enough to feel like a proper destination
Why you will love it
Birthday gift for my husband – who is obsessed with Czech beer. I ended up loving it more than he did. The cellar atmosphere, the mineral water in the oak tub, the smell of hops, the complete silence – it was extraordinary. Dinner at Stará Sladovna was the perfect finish.
Four of us, each in our own tub, in a 16th-century brewery cellar. Chodovar beer straight from the tank. A massage beforehand. Best group trip I have ever organised – and I have been trying to top it since. The title of world's largest beer spa is not marketing, it's genuinely earned.
I don't drink beer. I was the sceptic in the group. But the Ilsano mineral water and the herbal compounds left my skin feeling like I had never had a spa treatment before – genuinely soft. Slept better that night than I had in months. We drove up from Munich for a weekend and are already planning to go back.
The history of Beer Spa Chodová Planá
The Chodovar brewery's roots in Chodová Planá stretch back to 1573, when the first malthouse was established here. For nearly five centuries the brewery passed from generation to generation, becoming one of the oldest continuously operating family breweries in the Czech Republic. It survived the Thirty Years' War, Habsburg rule, Communist nationalization, and the Velvet Revolution – each time emerging as a going concern with its recipes and cellars intact.
The beer spa opened in 2006 – and became a sensation almost immediately. The concept was genuinely new: combining Ilsano mineral water (which rises naturally within the brewery grounds) with a specially brewed dark bath beer and herbal extracts, then placing guests in solid oak tubs inside the historic brewing cellars. No modern wellness centre could replicate the atmosphere those 450-year-old stone vaults provide.
The scale and ambition of the project earned Chodová Planá recognition as the world's largest beer spa. Thousands of guests now arrive each year from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and further afield – and a significant share come back. The fact that you can have dinner at the brewery restaurant, sleep in rooms inside the brewery complex, and tour the working facility the next morning makes it something that goes well beyond a single spa session.
Chodová Planá & around
Chodová Planá is a small, picturesque town in West Bohemia, tucked into rolling hills on the edge of the Český les (Bohemian Forest) and Slavkovský les nature reserves. Its brewery has given it a reputation far beyond its size – and the surrounding region is one of the most rewarding corners of the Czech Republic to explore.
What to see and do
- Chodovar Brewery tour – a guided walk through the historic cellars and the working brewery, ending with a tasting of Chodovar lager direct from the tank. Runs alongside the spa complex; easy to combine.
- Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) – one of the great Bohemian spa towns, 25 km away. The colonnaded spring hall, the Singing Fountain, and the elegant 19th-century architecture make a natural half-day excursion.
- Loket Castle – a romantic medieval castle perched above the Ohře river, 40 km from Chodová Planá.
- Zámek Kynžvart (Kynžvart Chateau) – a Metternich-era country house with an English landscape park, 20 km away. Quiet, beautiful, and almost always uncrowded.
- Kladská nature reserve – peat bogs and a nature trail through the Slavkovský les. The best walk in the region if you want real West Bohemian countryside.
Getting to Chodová Planá
Chodová Planá sits 150 km west of Prague – under 2 hours by car on the D5 motorway (the same road that goes to the German border). The nearest larger town is Tachov, 10 km away, with regular bus connections. From Plzeň it is about 45 minutes by car. The brewery has its own free car park directly on site.
Where to stay
The obvious – and best – choice is to stay inside the Chodovar brewery complex itself. Rooms combine modern comfort with the atmosphere of a working historic brewery. For a longer stay or different options:
- Accommodation in Chodová Planá – hotels and guesthouses in and around the brewery town, including on-site options at Chodovar
- Mariánské Lázně – broad selection of hotels and pensions in the famous spa town, 25 km away – combine beer spa with a classical Bohemian spa break
- Pensions around Tachov – quiet, affordable accommodation in the West Bohemian countryside, 10 km from the brewery
Chodová Planá beer spa vs. other destinations
Beer Spa Chodová Planá is in a category of its own. No other beer spa combines mineral water sourced on-site, a proprietary dark bath beer, centuries-old brewing cellars, and the scale of a full resort – all under one roof of a brewery that has been operating since 1573. The comparison is not really fair to anyone else.
That said, if you are exploring the wider Czech beer-spa scene:
- Beer spas in Czech Republic – a full overview of Czech beer-spa destinations, from spa towns to city-centre venues
- All beer spas – the complete BeerSpaGuide directory, including Germany, Poland, and beyond
Ready to book Beer Spa Chodová Planá?
Contact the Chodovar brewery directly to reserve your beer bath. For a full overnight stay, find the best accommodation options below.
Contact & booking information
Frequently asked questions
What should I bring to Beer Spa Chodová Planá?
Just yourself and a relaxed attitude. Towels and amenities are provided on site. It is worth arriving with some time to spare so you can take in the brewery grounds before your session begins.
Do I need to book in advance?
Yes – book at least 3 to 4 weeks ahead. The world's largest beer spa attracts guests from across Europe, and oak-tub slots – especially in the Mon–Thu window when the spa operates – fill quickly. Popular times (school holidays, long weekends) can sell out even further in advance.
Is Beer Spa Chodová Planá suitable for children?
The beer spa is for adults aged 18 and over. The Chodovar brewery complex and restaurant are family-friendly in general, but the spa itself is an adult wellness experience.
What exactly is in the tub – is it real beer?
The bath is a blend of Ilsano mineral water (sourced on the brewery grounds), a specially brewed dark bath beer, and herbal extracts – all prepared to a secret Chodovar recipe. It is not the same beer you drink at the bar, but it is brewed at the same facility and has documented benefits for the skin and nervous system.
How long does the full experience take?
A standard procedure runs about 65 minutes: 20 minutes of massage, 20 minutes in the oak tub, and 25 minutes of relaxation. If you are on a stay-and-spa package, add dinner at the restaurant – expect a full afternoon and evening, arriving around 2–3 pm and finishing after dinner.
Can I give Beer Spa Chodová Planá as a gift?
Absolutely – and it is one of the most striking experience gifts you can give. Contact the Chodovar brewery directly to enquire about gift vouchers. Validity is typically 1 year from purchase, giving the recipient plenty of time to choose a date that works for them.
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