Croatia Online - Slavonia Part 3 - Bizovac

Today's photo was particularly hard to select. We could have chosen to picture a quiet village with a post office and a couple of cafes, or the behemoth of a building that is Hotel Termia, or a spanking new, almost as enormous, hospital near to the hotel, or a very tatty looking hotel bedroom with basic and battered wooden furniture, or the steam from the healing hot waters blowing up from fields. Instead, the photo shows the best of Hotel Termia - its vast swimming area, or part of it at least. Not shown is the large "standard pool" for those that just want to get some exercise swimming lengths. The area pictured is for more of a relaxing experience - a number of different sized jacuzzis dotted around, for want of a better phrase, a "designer pool". Outside there's much more, including a water slide that empties its contents into the indoor pool.

Hotel Termia has its good and its bad side but the bad is not to be underestimated and hits you as soon as you walk into your room. That said, it only claims two stars and the bathroom was ok, even if the state of the rest of the room was not. It was probably clean but hard to tell! The outside is imposing but promises more than delivered by the rooms. Inside it's a maze of corridors, doors and stairs, and a huge reception area containing a shop and bar. There's a classic and clinical mass catering restaurant - you know, from the style, it's going to be stewed white coffee from an urn for breakfast - but the "National Restaurant" has more than a little to commend it including some imaginative dishes and a good attempt to provide a cosy atmosphere.

We're told by "the management" that the hotel will be privatised this year so for those high rollers who've escaped the Wall Street Blues, and relish a challenge, don't say you weren't warned!

And if you haven't guessed yet, Bizovac is the source of underground thermal waters, rich in minerals and used in a wide range of health treatments; state owned Hotel Termia has, to date, cornered the market, but not for much longer it seems.