Chodovar Beer Spa

A few weeks back we were able to take a trip to a small town in the Czech Republic called Chodovar.  I had found out about it online and its known for its family brewery and beer spa.  The week prior to us going was extremely crazy so it was a much needed trip!  Let's back track a bit...On Monday morning I drove a friend's father to the airport, luckily I didn't have to work that day so I could relax a bit during the day.  That night we went out to celebrate the same friend's birthday!  Tuesday I substituted in a wonderful 2nd grade classroom and then had an FRG leaders and POC meeting that night.  Wednesday I shadowed the teacher I took over for maternity leave to meet the kiddos and that night we had Hail and Farewell that we needed to go to.  Thursday was Shayne's company's BBQ so I was up early that morning making two large pans of my Aunt Jan's chicken ceasar tortellini salad (which had become my go to for events and is always a huge hit!) and 3 dozen regular and 4 dozen mini chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  By the time I finally finished and got there it was around noon but it was a beautiful day and all of the families had a great time.  That night we went out to dinner with friends to a great chinese buffet in Weiden.  So needless to say we were both VERY ready for a nice relaxing weekend!

It was a quick hour and fifteen minute drive to the quaint little town.  We got there around 10:30 and went right to our hotel.  The hotel we stayed at was connected to the spa and right down the street from the brewery and restaurant.  I've begun to realize that Europeans really don't like it when you arrive prior to check in time at the hotel.  Luckily they had a room ready for us and we checked right in.  We had reservations for the spa later in the afternoon so after relaxing in the room for a bit we decided to go explore.  First we headed down to the restaurant for lunch.  It was a really cool place because it was built into a hill, so you were under ground the whole time.  You walked through a rock enclosed tunnel to get to the restaurant.

After sitting we ordered some food and beer and enjoyed our lunch.  We both really enjoy Czech food.  It is more flavorful than German but still has a heavy emphasis on meat.  We had some time before our planned events so we walked back to the hotel room for a bit.  We noticed there was a minibar with some beer and water, both produced at the brewery down the street.  When I looked at the price I saw each beer was 20 Czech Koruna.  For those of you not familiar with the Czech currency (because honestly who would be unless you lived in the Czech or close by!) their currency does not hold a lot of value in comparison to ours and the euro.  So 20 Koruna is the equivalent of $1.06.  With that being said we definitely took advantage of the minibar!  At 2pm there was a tour of the brewery so we headed back down to the restaurant, bought our tickets, and waited.  Obviously they knew we did not speak Czech (it is a very hard language, similar to Russian and I don't even know how to say hello) so when the tour guide came out to start the tour she handed us a sheet of paper that told all about the brewery.  So as we went to each stop we read our packet while she talked.  Having been to a lot of breweries now, both in the states and in Europe we've seen a lot of the things that were on the tour but unfortunately couldn't understand any of the jokes she told or any of the questions asked.  So I probably wouldn't recommend the tour to non Czech speaking people.

After the tour it was time for our spa services!  It was called the "Beerrarium".



We walked over to the spa and were given a white sheet (like a top sheet for bedding) and were told to undress and put that on.  Once we were ready we went for our beer bath!  We got into a large metal tub that was filled with beer and relaxed for 20 minutes.  They also gave us a beer to drink while we were enjoying our bath.   When our time was up the woman opened the curtains grabbed the first sheet and held it up in front of her face.  We quickly gathered that we were to get out of the bath and be wrapped in our sheet.  They then led us to our "relaxation room" where we were wrapped in a fleece blanket, given another beer, and listened to calming music for 20 minutes.  After being wrapped up with was quite difficult to try and drink you beer without completely undoing your burrito wrapped blanket.  I'm pretty sure we spent more time laughing than actually relaxing but it was still great.  When we left there it was time for our massages!  This was Shayne's first massage, but it was a bit different than ones I had back in the states!  I was always used to being shown into a room being told to undress and get under the blanket and then the masseuse would come back in and begin the massage.  Not in Europe!  We were still wrapped in our white sheets at this point.  The area for massages was a long, large room that had curtain dividers up around each massage table.  We were told which table to each go to and once we got inside the curtains we were told to put our sheet on the chair and get on the table.  I guess you would say Europeans are very free with their bodies!  In the end it was actually one of the best massages I have ever had!  After they finished the massage they wrapped us up in blankets again and left us for some more relaxation time.  This time I almost fell asleep.  When we left the spa we headed back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before dinner.  We went to the same place for dinner that we did for lunch. It was great traditional Czech food.  We started off by sharing a bread and cheese plate.  Everywhere in Europe has had great cheeses and here was no exception!  After we finished that we both weren't that hungry anymore so we just shared a meal that had meat, pickled red and white cabbage, and potato dumpling balls.  I had never really had cabbage before but this was really good!  And the dumplings were very heavy and dense but great also.  The town we were in was very small and there wasn't much else to do so we ended up heading back to our room after dinner.  Unfortunately there were no English channels on our tv in our room so we watched some winter sport games in German.

The next morning we woke up and headed to breakfast.  As I'm sure I've said before, I always enjoy European breakfasts.  This one was no different.  There was a selection of meats and cheeses as well as breads and pastries.  I usually always look forward to a piece of baguette with some Nutella, but we were visiting during Lent and I had given up chocolate so I had to go with something else.  After breakfast we did a little shopping at the little store next to the hotel, buying a glass, some beer, and a magnet that had the brewery mascot on it, a yellow lab!

Since there was nothing really to do in the area we decided to just head home.  So we left, went and picked up our furry friend who was staying with friends and finished up our weekend!  This is something that I definitely would love to do again.  And it was so affordable!  For the one night of hotel, beer bath for 2, and 2 massages it was $183!  We lunch, dinner, beer, and souvenirs we ended up spending around $250 total.  That was a great weekend get away!  Anyone who comes to visit, if you would like to take a trip there we are always willing to go back!!

Sbohem!