Staying in a castle has always been a childhood dream of mine. I must confess that I didn’t know you could actually spend nights or even a whole holiday in a historical castle until a few years ago. When I was invited to go to the Czech Republic to stay in a castle, I said “yes” without even checking the place out. I was so excited to spend some time with my friends in the luxury historical castle of Rubezahl Marienbad.
The mystery behind Rubezahl
Rubezahl was a folklore mountain spirit of the Krkonoše Mountains in northern Europe. He would manifest himself in different forms. He has been the main characters of various legends and fairy tales in Czech, Polish, and German.
According to one of the most famous legends, Rubezahl would appear as a toad or a frog, and if people were nice to him, he would award them with kindness and make their wish come true, but he would also punish bad people.
As the castle’s website says: “The construction of a hotel near the monument to Rübezahl started much later, at the end of the 19th century. The hotel was built as a fairytale castle, and fragments from different legends were reproduced in old paintings hanging in the halls of the hotel.”
Right next to the castle guests can find the statute of Rubezahl. You can hop on one leg around the Rubezahl monument 5 times, then climb the statue and touch his belt to make a wish. Then you should just wait for your wish to come true.
Location
The nearest town to the Rubezahl Castle Hotel is the famous Czech spa town of Mariánské Lázně, which can be reached by car in less than 10 minutes. The hotel is located on the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful Slavkovsky forest near the town. The green space around the castle makes the place perfect for relaxing, a weekend getaway or a family trip. You will also find a golf court, a model village and a deer farm at walking distance from the castle.
Room
There are different types of rooms in the Rubezahl Castle Hotel in regards to sizes. But all of the rooms have plush carpets over marble wooden floors. I was alone and my room was a spacious double room (22 m²), with a high ceiling. All of the rooms are decorated with a historical character but with modern amenities.
Bathroom
The marble bathroom was quite large featuring a hydromassage shower cabin. Like most of the hotels, there were bath towels, toiletries, hairdryer, bathrobes, and slippers. Apart from all of the usual things, there were also toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Spa & Fitness
The Rubezahl Castle Hotel is a great place for relaxing and spending time with your family. Literally, you don’t really have to go out to have fun, you can have fun inside the hotel. There is a spacious, modern and very clean wellness facility which includes a pool, sauna, steam room, and a fully equipped gym. One evening we spend our time in the pool and the sauna while on another day we worked out at the gym.
Food
There are three restaurants in the hotel: Cafe Bar, Castle Restaurant, and Wine Cellar. Since during our stay we only had food at the hotel, we tried all of the restaurants and we enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. You can have Czech dishes with a modern flair. We tried a few dishes, which were all really tasty and thinking about them now makes me very hungry. One of the dishes I tried and loved the most was the mushroom cappuccino soup.
We really enjoyed our stay at the Rubezahl Castle Hotel. It was my first experience staying at a castle. We all felt special because of its polite, kind and very helpful staff.
Thanks to Rubezahl Castle Hotel for hosting us. I was a guest, but this piece expresses my own experience and my own personal opinion.