North Macedonia Thermal Springs: Five Spas and Prices

North Macedonia has five thermal spas worth a detour, and the four big resorts among them are medical centres first: there are doctors, therapy rooms and patients on referral alongside anyone who simply wants hot water. The quickest soak is Katlanovo, about 30 km from central Skopje and 13 km from the airport terminal, where the spa’s own list charges 350 MKD (about €6) for 30 minutes in the large thermal pool. For a few days of it, Negorski Banji near Gevgelija has put its whole 2026 price list online: full board at Hotel Jasen is 2,500 MKD (about €41) per person a day in season when two share a double room, pool included. Out west, Debar has two resorts, Banjište at 880 m and Kosovrasti on the lake, and Štip keeps its own town baths at Kežovica.

Read one line of the Negorci price list before you plan around the weather: July and August are off season there, billed at the same lower rate as December to March.

Water, distance and day access

Drive times are routing estimates from each town centre, measured on 9 October 2026. Temperatures are the operators’ own figures; Katlanovo’s comes from the national tourism agency and Kežovica’s from the Municipality of Štip.

Katlanovo: a soak 13 km from the airport

Katlanovska Banja sits above Katlanovo village, on the lower course of the Pčinja river. The tourism agency puts the resort at 230 m and its water at 40 °C, and mentions an old stone slab with an Arabic inscription inviting guests to bathe. Today it’s a medical centre for physical medicine and rehabilitation with a spa centre bolted on, so the day bathers are guests at a working clinic.

The spa centre sells timed sessions, which makes this a soak-and-go, not a lazy afternoon. Its price list, checked on 9 October 2026:

• Large thermal pool: 350 MKD (about €6) for 30 minutes.
• Old pool: 170 MKD (about €3) for 60 minutes.
• Thermal bathtub: 370 MKD for 30 minutes.
• Private thermal pool: 1,800 MKD (about €29) for 60 minutes.
• Full-body massage: 1,600 MKD (about €26) for 50 minutes.

By road, the spa is 13 km and about a quarter of an hour from the terminal at Skopje Airport, closer than the city centre is. With an evening flight out and a car to return, you can fit a session and a shower in before check-in; the hire desks are on our Skopje Airport car rental page.

If you’d rather stay and have treatment, the medical centre takes private patients. On its posted list, a day of board and health services runs from 1,950 MKD a person in a double room with a shared bathroom to 2,350 MKD in the rooms renovated in 2016 and 2018. That daily price includes full board, a specialist’s examination and one bath a day; other therapies are charged on top, and a stand-alone specialist examination on the services list is 1,500 MKD. The list’s 1,300 MKD a day supplement for having a double room to yourself sits in the column for patients with a Health Insurance Fund certificate, so ask what a private patient pays alone. For pool times, ring the spa centre on +389 2 2581 002.

Negorski Banji: spring and autumn cost more

Negorski Banji is a spa complex in 22 hectares of ash forest, about 4 km by road from the centre of Gevgelija and right beside the motorway south to Greece. It’s run as a health institution with a contract with the national Health Insurance Fund, and two springs feed it: the “hot bath” at 40 °C and the “cold bath” at 37 °C. The operator lists radon among the minerals, which is worth mentioning to your own doctor if you’re pregnant or being treated for anything.

The 2026 price list for Hotel Jasen, published in March 2026, is complete down to the tourist tax. Season means April to June and September to November; July, August and December to March are off season. Per person per day, two sharing a double room (alone in the room, full board is 3,420 MKD in season and 3,070 MKD off season):

Pool use is included for board guests. A tourist tax of 40 MKD and an insurance charge of 10 MKD come on top, children under six stay free and those from six to twelve pay half. In season only, stays of seven nights or more get 5% off, ten nights 10% and fourteen nights 15%.

Not staying the night? The complex’s third hotel, Bozur, sells a day stay of 10 hours for 3,540 MKD (€58) per room on its own 2026 list, with the thermal pools, a thermal-water jacuzzi and two saunas included, VAT and tourist tax already in the price. That’s a civilised way to break the drive to Thessaloniki, since the spa sits a few minutes off the road to the Bogorodica crossing: the border, tolls and timings of that drive are in Skopje to Thessaloniki Airport. From Skopje it’s about 152 km, roughly two hours by car.

Banjište and Kosovrasti: Debar’s two spas

Both belong to one company, Debar Baths “Capa”, and they suit different moods.

Banjište sits 880 m up, about 5.5 km from Debar. Its water comes out at 39 °C, and every stay is sold with full board. The spa centre has two private thermal pools, sauna, massage and fango wraps made with the volcanic mud found next to the springs. The tourism agency also points to two old pools built in 1797 by Hadji Mujedin, which have been restored and can be visited.

Kosovrasti sits on the road in from Gostivar, 7 km before Debar, with 75 rooms that all look out over Debar Lake. The indoor thermal pools run at 41-42 °C, and the outdoor pool of its Aqua Spark water park is kept at a gentler 33-35 °C across a complex of more than 6,000 m². On a page of the company’s site last edited in October 2023, Aqua Spark opens in summer and winter to day visitors as well as hotel guests, so phone to check it’s running before you drive out.

Banjište’s own page, last edited in October 2023, gives its treatment hours: therapies Monday to Saturday 07:00-14:45, hydrotherapy 07:00-17:00, shorter hours on Sunday. For prices, and for Kosovrasti’s pool times, phone the resorts: Banjište on +389 46 831 092, Kosovrasti on +389 46 842 222. Expect short sessions in the hot pools, too. The company’s own guidance is 5 to 20 minutes, depending on what the doctor recommends.

One more thing for anyone insured abroad. Capa says clients who live in Switzerland, Germany and France have claimed most of their treatment costs back from their own insurers, and it’ll issue a confirmation with your diagnosis, the therapies you had and the specialist’s stamp to send with the receipt. Whether your insurer pays is down to your policy, so check with them before paying for a course.

Getting there takes a car or patience. Ohrid to Debar is about 66 km, roughly 1 hour 20 minutes, and Skopje to Kosovrasti about 127 km, around two and a half hours on the road through Mavrovo National Park. The Bigorski Monastery stands above the same road, and its page has the bus times from Skopje to Debar.

Kežovica: Štip’s town baths

Kežovica is the most local of the five, a bath on the right bank of the Bregalnica at Novo Selo, about 3 km from the centre of Štip. It’s been used as a healing bath since Ottoman times.

It’s also the one in flux. The Municipality of Štip has EU cross-border funding to rebuild the spa’s accommodation building and create an open-air museum at the mineral spring, but the works tender has already been cancelled twice, in November 2025 and February 2026, both times because every acceptable bid for the spa came in above the budget. A third round closed on 15 September 2026; on 9 October 2026 no contract award had been published. Ask at your hotel about prices, opening times and what’s open before walking over. The drive from Skopje, the Isar fortress and what else to see in town are in our Štip guide.

Bansko, near Strumica: the Roman bath

There’s a sixth hot spring you’ll pass if you’re in the south-east. At Bansko, outside Strumica, archaeologists have been digging out a late Roman healing bath of the 3rd and 4th centuries since 1978: some walls still stand up to 7 m high, two rooms survive complete to the roof with their heating and ventilation, and six held pools. The spring that fed it rises about 50 m away. The temperatures and how it fits a day around town are in our Strumica guide.

Questions to ask on the phone

Macedonian spas run to a treatment timetable, so a two-minute call saves a wasted drive. Ask:

• Is the pool open to day visitors today, and when? Most operators publish phone numbers, not pool hours, so ask on the day you mean to go.
• How long is a session? Katlanovo sells 30 and 60 minutes; the Debar spas’ guidance is 5 to 20.
• Do I need a medical check first? Treatment stays are planned by the spas’ doctors, so check whether a single soak needs one too.
• Can I pay by card? Bring some denars in case the answer’s no.

Late autumn and winter are when a 40 °C pool feels best, and our weather by month guide shows how cold the evenings get, month by month. Pack flip-flops and a swim cap if you own one; you’ll rarely regret either at a pool run by doctors.