We wondered how Desi Leshtarska gets that aura of being well-grounded and clear-minded. Now we know.

Pchelin has a magic atmosphere. You lose your sense of time, nature embraces you tenderly and moves you to open up to its power. You can touch, feel, smell, hear and taste infinity: a sense with which we have lost touch in the big city. We have also forgotten how to enjoy being one with nature, away from human vanity. I became fully aware of this when my friend, arriving at the hotel, sat on a beautiful wrought iron chair and said: “I don’t know what to do. I’m so confused. If I was in in the city I know exactly what I would be doing at this moment, but now I just don’t know.” Soon the sunlight and the mineral water pool washed away all of his mixed-up thoughts and his smile never left his face, even when he returned me home in Sofia.

The Hotel Vitalis is in a picturesque mountain area nine km from Kostenets spa resort. From Sofia it’s about 70km by car (there is almost no other way getting to it). If you are in Vitalis in the winter and decide to spend your day skiing in Borovets, no problem, the resort is just 30km away.

The hotel is a part of the Pchelinski (Bees’) Mineral Baths resort. It is sheltered in the woody folds of the Ihtiman Middle Forest, surrounded by oak and pine trees, beautiful meadows, orchards, raspberry and blackberry bushes, and hundreds of beehives.

The history and popularity of Pchelinski Mineral Baths date from long ago. The place was known in antiquity. Proto Bulgarian king Samuil’s soldiers, and afterwards haidutite, guardians of the Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule, went there to heal their wounds. Legend has it that generations of thousands of women who had waited in vain for pregnancies found themselves with child after taking the healing waters.

Today it is a modern spa centre. There are open-air and indoor mineral water pools (I strongly recommend the open-air hot mineral water pool during the winter – the feeling is indescribable). The apartments are one of the cosiest I have been to. They have two, three or four beds, and a local source provides the hotel’s plumbing with mineral water. On a beautiful morning, you wake up to birdsong and take a long hot shower with healing mineral water in your own bathroom. Perfection. There are pretty decent restaurants, where you can taste yoghurt with honey and walnuts and kachamak – a traditional Bulgarian dish made with corn flour and cheese. There are also a lobby bar and open air barbeque.

If you are a follower of healthy living, you’ll certainly appreciate this place and want to spend a long weekend there.