Summary:

Spa town are usually areas highly attractive with regard to country lore and their natural environment. The environmental values of each spa influence their efficiency. Environmental values include: elements of tourist infrastructure, tourist attractions, tourist services which are in demand on the tourism market. Two spas from the Kotlina Jeleniogórska have been the subject of the study: Świeradów-Zdrój and Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój. One may consider them to be the more efficient spas in the Lower Silesia region. To a certain degree, they owe the high level of curative services they provide, as well as the standard of their spa infrastructure, to the basic determinants of the area, which influence the spatial features of the spas. These determinants include: sources of therapeutic natural resources (the climate, mineral springs, peats, peloids); green patterns which are unique with regard to their aesthetic, historical and compositional values; the presence of neighbouring large forest complexes, which influence the climatic and therapeutic conditions and which provide an aesthetic background for the spa
establishment; the spa's localisation within or in the vicinity of legally protected areas; its localisation in areas traditionally used for leisure; its localisation in ar-eas accessible through public transport (efficient communication routes).