Spa Towns
A spa town (also called a bathing-place or simply a spa) is a specialized resort town situated around a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visited spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau (town of water).
The term spa is used for towns or resorts offering hydrotherapy which can include cold water or mineral water treatments and hot thermal baths.
Read more about Spa Towns: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Other Countries, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word towns:
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)