Coffee between treatments. A guide for spa guests

A spa stay lasts two or three weeks, treatments take up the morning, and then a few free hours are left along with the question of where to sit down for a coffee without walking across half the town. We checked what stands within a short walk of four large spa hotels in the spa district. The distances are calculated from coordinates, and the prices and hours come from the source rather than from brochures. Prices are in złoty, the Polish currency.

Arka Medical Spa, Sułkowskiego 11

Here it is simple, because the café is in the building. Eleven Cafe works on the 11th, the top floor, and it is the famous revolving café, the only one in town. The room turns on its own axis, so every table gets its turn with the view of the sea, the pier and the Kołobrzeg skyline. According to the venue's menu it is open daily from 10:00 to 21:00.

The prices are hotel prices and worth knowing before you go up: black coffee 16 zł, cappuccino and flat white 20 zł each, latte 22 zł, tea 15 zł. Cakes cost from 35 to 42 zł, ice cream desserts from 32 to 43 zł. The menu also has matcha latte at 24 zł and soft drinks from 12 zł. For comparison: in a café in the Old Town a coffee usually costs 10 to 15 zł.

A rating of 4.5 from more than 1,200 reviews is high for a place most guests visit once. The recurring complaint concerns the queue before sunset, because the lift and the room hold only so many people. Anyone with a free morning after treatments arrives at the calmest time.

The second address nearby is Marini Café, 300 metres from the entrance, rated 4.5 from over 500 reviews, open daily from 11:00, until 22:00 on Friday and Saturday and until 20:00 on other days. It is the only option in this corner if you want to leave the building, because Arka stands apart, by the Eastern Eco Park.

Perła Bałtyku, Sikorskiego 3

The best served spot in the whole town. In the building itself, on the twelfth floor, there is Widokówka with a terrace and a view in two directions: out to sea and over the town. To be fair: 3.9 from nearly 1,300 reviews is weak for a location like that, and the most common complaint concerns hot drinks, which can reach the table lukewarm. An address for the view and for an ice cream dessert, not for carefully made coffee.

Within 300 metres, on the other hand, you have plenty of choice:

• Caffe Venezia, 114 m – rated 4.3 from nearly 1,900 reviews, open daily 10:00–21:00.
• Kurort Café, 296 m – 4.4 from almost 2,000 reviews, daily 10:00–19:00. It closes early, so do not count on it for the evening.
• KoraLove Cafe, 286 m – 4.7, but from only 23 reviews, so the score is not yet reliable. It opens at 14:00.

A little further, 412 metres, is Kawiarnia San Faro rated 5.0. With 39 reviews we would not treat it as a safe bet yet, but it is the highest rated address in this part of town.

Muszelka, Słowackiego 6-8

At the same address there is Kawiarnia Cafe Muszelka, 64 metres from the entrance, rated 4.6, open daily from 10:00 to 22:00. The closest there is, practically on site.

Still, the extra hundred metres are worth walking. Kawiarnia Krówki Kołobrzeskiej, 135 m, opens as early as 9:00 and works until 21:00, on Sunday until 18:00. It is one of the few cafés nearby open before ten, which makes it a real option before morning treatments. Kawiarnia Kaprys, 188 m, has 4.5 from over 750 reviews and is open 10:00–18:00.

Two venues rated below 3.5 also stand in the same area. We are not naming them here as recommendations, but you will find them in the full district listing together with their ratings, so the choice stays yours.

Mewa, Ściegiennego 4-6

The most interesting address nearby is Dworcova, 293 metres, rated 4.9. It opens at 8:00 and works seven days a week, but closes at 16:00. In other words, an address for the morning after treatments and for the early afternoon, not for the evening.

For later hours there is Caffe Venezia, 314 metres, open daily until 21:00. Within 300 metres there is also Baskijka rated 4.6 from nearly 700 reviews, but it is temporarily closed after the season.

Sunday: coffee by the basilica

Many spa guests go to Sunday mass at the co-cathedral basilica in the Old Town. It is a walk: about 900 metres from Mewa, a little over a kilometre from Perła Bałtyku and Muszelka, 2.6 kilometres from Arka, so guests of that last one will probably drive. Since you are in this part of town anyway, it is worth knowing that the densest cluster of cafés in Kołobrzeg stands around the basilica, and that Sunday here is a working day.

Colbergcoffee, 190 metres from the basilica, is the highest rated venue in town: 4.9 from more than two thousand reviews, a number of votes no other café with such a high score comes close to. On Sunday it is open from 9:00 to 19:00, so you will make it both before and after mass. It is a roastery with its own roast, the menu has espresso and filter methods, and you can buy beans to take back to your room, which over a two-week stay often beats coffee made with a kettle.

Alternatives in the same block, all within two minutes of the church door:

• W Filiżance Café, 76 m – 4.5 from over 1,200 reviews. We have not confirmed its Sunday hours, so it is worth calling.
• Domek Kata, 144 m – 4.6 from over four thousand reviews, the most frequently rated address in town. Open longest on Sunday, from 10:00 to 22:00.
• KG Café, 148 m – 4.9, though from 245 reviews. On Sunday it closes as early as 16:00.

What is open before ten

In practice this is the most important question during a spa stay, because treatments start in the morning. Most cafés in the spa district open only at 10:00. Working earlier: the bakery on Okopowa street from 6:00 (six days a week), Dworcova from 8:00 (seven days), Colbergcoffee from 8:45, Cukiernia Sowa and Krówki Kołobrzeskiej from 9:00.

What it costs

Of the forty venues within walking distance of these hotels, twenty-four fall into the mid price range, four into the cheapest, and for twelve the range is not known. The most expensive are the addresses with a view: a coffee in the revolving café costs as much as two in the Old Town. It works out cheapest in bakeries and patisseries, where coffee comes with the pastry rather than being the main item.