Kudowa-Zdrój is a small spa town in the Kłodzko region of southwestern Poland, tucked into a valley of the Table Mountains right on the Czech border, about 10 km from Náchod. It has been taking the waters since the eighteenth century, and the bones of that genteel past are still visible — a leafy spa park, a pump room and colonnade where mineral springs are still drunk, and the slightly worn grand hotels of a resort that once drew Prussian and Austrian visitors in equal number.
The spa park is the heart of the town: ponds, clipped lawns, a bandstand, and shaded walks that make a pleasant hour or two between border and lunch. The colonnade dispenses several iron- and carbon-rich waters, an acquired taste worth trying once. Around the park the town is quiet and a little melancholy, in the way of spa towns everywhere out of season.
The reason most day-trippers cross over, though, is in the suburb of Czermna, where the Baroque Skull Chapel lines its walls and ceiling with thousands of human skulls and bones — one of the strangest interiors in central Europe, and an easy add-on to a stop in the park.
Kudowa-Zdrój is straightforward to reach from Náchod by car or bus, and the border crossing is open and unceremonious. Combine it with a meal on the Polish side and a stroll through the spa gardens for a gentle half-day across the frontier.