Thermal Spas in Croatia: Tuhelj, Sveti Martin & More

Croatia’s thermal spas are an inland trip, not a coastal one. The cluster closest to the capital sits in the green hills north of Zagreb, close enough for a day out: Terme Tuhelj is about 51 km by road, the spa village of Stubičke Toplice about 46 km, and Terme Sveti Martin up in Međimurje about 114 km. A full-day adult ticket costs €17 Monday to Thursday and €24 Friday to Sunday at Tuhelj, €16.90 / €21.90 at Sveti Martin and €12 / €14 at the Wrello pool in Stubičke Toplice, on the price lists we read on 3 October 2026. The indoor thermal pools run all year; the outdoor ones are summer-only, which makes these a good answer to a grey November day in Zagreb.

Weekends cost more at all three, by €7 for the same Tuhelj ticket. And the pools stay open late: Tuhelj’s indoor Water Planet runs to 02:00 on Saturdays, and Sveti Martin sells a night-swim ticket for Friday and Saturday evenings.

Terme Tuhelj: slides, saunas and Saturdays to 02:00

Tuhelj is the one built for a full day out: the operator describes its Water Planet as 15,000 m² with more than 5,000 m² of water across 8 pools, plus 6 slides and a children’s area. That makes it the one to pick if you’ve got kids or want more than a soak. The operator lists the outdoor pool as closed for the 2026 season, so from autumn onwards you get the indoor hall.

• Hours: Monday to Thursday and Sunday 08:00-22:00, Friday 08:00-24:00, Saturday 08:00-02:00.
• Day ticket: €17 Monday to Thursday, €24 Friday to Sunday and on holidays (about £14.50 / $19.10 and £20.40 / $26.90), for anyone taller than 150 cm. Children between 115 and 150 cm pay €14 / €17, and under 115 cm go free.
• Cheaper slots: after 15:00 it’s €14 / €17, and the last two hours of the day cost €7. On Saturdays those last two hours fall at 00:00-02:00, and the same price list also shows a €15 night-swim ticket for that slot, so ask at the desk which one applies.
• Saunas: the separate Sauna World, with 9 saunas over 1,000 m², costs €24 midweek or €31 at weekends for the whole day, and that ticket already includes the pools. On Saturdays there’s a night sauna from 20:00 for €28.

Children here are priced by height, not age, so a tall eleven-year-old pays the adult rate. Check that before you budget a family day.

There’s an older, plainer side to Tuhelj too. The pools at the spring, two outdoor basins fed straight from the source with thermal mud alongside, open in the summer season only, with an adult day ticket of €8 in 2026. When we checked on 3 October 2026 the operator’s page said they were closed because of a low water level, so don’t count on them outside high summer.

Terme Sveti Martin: the water found by oil drillers

Sveti Martin na Muri is further away and quieter. Its spring, the resort says, turned up in 1911, when the London-Budapest company drilled here looking for oil and hit hot mineral water instead. The resort calls the water 43,000 years old and rich in lithium, selenium and potassium, and its indoor complex, The Temple of Life, was designed around Rudolf Steiner’s ideas about balance. You don’t need to buy into any of that to enjoy a long soak, but it explains the look of the place.

• Hours for day visitors: Monday to Thursday 10:00-22:00, Friday, Saturday and the day before a holiday 10:00-24:00, Sunday 10:00-20:00. Hotel guests can swim from 08:00.
• Day ticket: €16.90 Monday to Thursday, €21.90 at weekends and on holidays (about £14.40 / $19 and £18.60 / $24.60). That price list runs from 18 September 2026 to 15 January 2027.
• Shorter visits: €14.90 / €19.90 from 14:00, or €12.90 / €17.90 for up to three hours.
• Night swim: Friday, Saturday and the evening before a holiday, 20:00-24:00, for €16.90.
• Children: aged 6 to 14 pay €12.90 / €17.90; under-6s go free with a parent, and children under 150 cm must be with a parent or another adult.

The outdoor MartiLandia aquapark opens June to August only. Sveti Martin na Muri is also one of the towns known for big celebrations of Martinje, St Martin’s Day, on 11 November, so a November night here can double as a young-wine weekend.

Stubičke Toplice and Jezerčica: the cheaper pair

About 18 km from Tuhelj by road, two spas sit about 2 km apart around Stubičke Toplice and Donja Stubica. Stubičke Toplice is run by a rehabilitation hospital, and two of its pools sell day tickets. Its spa hotel, Hotel Wrello, has a covered 33 × 20 m pool that day visitors can use for €12 on weekdays and €14 at weekends and on holidays, with the last three hours (18:00-21:00) at €8. Expect a €15 deposit on the entry wristband. Add wellness and a full day costs €28 / €32.

The hospital’s own indoor pool is smaller, 8 × 15 m and 1.40-1.60 m deep, kept at 33-34°C and open 11:00-21:00, with a €7 day ticket and €3.50 for the last two hours (18:30-20:30 on the price list). It’s the clinic’s therapy pool, so think slow lengths in warm water. Bring your own towel: renting one costs €10, which is almost the price of the Wrello swim.

Terme Jezerčica, the neighbour in Donja Stubica, has an indoor and an outdoor water park, with full-day tickets and half-day tickets from 15:00. On 3 October 2026 its online shop listed a full-day adult ticket at €15 Monday to Friday and €17.50 at weekends and on holidays, but prices are tied to the date, so check the day you want before you go.

What a day costs at each

Notice where the weekend starts. Tuhelj charges the weekend rate from Friday, Sveti Martin’s weekday column covers Monday to Thursday only (its price list doesn’t say which rate Friday takes), and Stubičke Toplice keeps Friday at the weekday €12. For a Friday swim, that’s the difference between €24 and €12.

Winter: indoor pools yes, outdoor no

These spas make most sense from October to March, when the coast goes quiet. What closes is the outdoor side: Tuhelj’s outdoor pool for the 2026 season, its spring pools after summer, and Sveti Martin’s MartiLandia after August. The indoor halls keep the hours listed above.

One name to skip for now is Varaždinske Toplice. Its operator, a rehabilitation hospital, says the Minerva building and both its indoor and outdoor pools are closed for renovation until the works finish, and the indoor pools haven’t run since 14 February 2025.

Croatia has other spa towns too, further east and in Istria, but this page sticks to the ones within a day trip of Zagreb.

A spa day also fits around Zagreb’s Christmas market, which runs from 28 November 2026 to 7 January 2027: our Zagreb Advent guide covers the evenings, and a hot pool in Zagorje fills a daytime gap nicely.

Getting there: car, train or both

A car is the simplest way to Tuhelj and Sveti Martin. On OpenStreetMap routing from Ban Jelačić Square, Tuhelj is about 51 km and the Terme Sveti Martin resort about 114 km. Insurance, the card deposit and the drink-drive limit, which matters if lunch comes with Zagorje wine, are all in renting a car in Croatia.

Without a car, Stubičke Toplice is the easy one. It has a station on HŽPP’s local line from Zagreb main station via Zabok to Gornja Stubica, with a change of train at Zabok, so check times on the railway’s planner and you can leave the car behind. Tuhelj works without a car too: Presečki runs direct buses from Zagreb’s main bus station to Tuheljske Toplice in about an hour and a quarter, with times on the bus station’s online timetable. For Sveti Martin, plan on driving.

Staying the night

Each of the big three has a hotel on site, and staying over is how you get the quiet morning swim. At Tuhelj it’s the four-star Hotel Well, which has new family rooms. At Sveti Martin, Hotel Terme Sveti Martin has 151 rooms and 6 suites and connects straight to the pools, so in winter you never step outside in wet hair. In Stubičke Toplice the four-star Hotel Wrello sits inside the hospital complex, next to the covered 33 m pool. If you’d rather keep a city base, where to stay in Zagreb sorts the neighbourhoods, and any of these spas is a day trip from there.

A December weekday by train

Put the budget options on this page together and you get a spa day that doesn’t need a car. Pick a weekday in December before Christmas, while the Advent market is on in Zagreb, and take a morning HŽPP train from the main station to Zabok and change there for the Gornja Stubica train to Stubičke Toplice; the day’s departures and the connection are on the railway’s planner. Pay €12 for the Wrello pool, Friday included, and pack a towel so you aren’t paying €10 to rent one. If the big pool is busy, the hospital’s 33-34°C therapy pool costs €7 for the day.

Check the return trains on the same planner before you get in the water, and the evening can go to the Advent stalls in town. Run the same day at Tuhelj on a Saturday and you’d pay €24 for the ticket alone.