Borsec

Borsec is the resort that gave its name to a mineral water everyone knows — the "queen of mineral waters", bottled here for centuries and once sent to the courts of Europe. The town sits in a high basin between the Giurgeu and Bistricioara mountains, in an air of resin and limestone; the wooden villas of the spa park, some restored, others left in romantic decay, keep the atmosphere of a resort from another age.

People come for the springs captured in stone fountains, where locals still turn up with canisters, but also for what surrounds them: the travertine plateau with the Bears' Grotto and the ice cave, the Sipoaia waterfall, meadows made for walking. Borsec slots easily into a loop with the Bicaz Gorges and the Red Lake, under an hour away, or with Ceahlău National Park to the east.

Good to know Every spring tastes different — it is worth trying several, glass in hand, as people do here. Winters are long and hard in the basin, and summer evenings cool abruptly, so pack a warm layer. See the other mineral and thermal spa towns, the rest of the Harghita–Covasna region, and check the mountain weather before you set off.