March the 23rd, 2026 – Known for parties, cheese and lace, the Croatian island that looks like the moon probably doesn’t spring to mind when you think of wellness. There’s a hidden natural spa on Pag, however, and it’s totally free. Meet this island’s best kept secret.
As Putni kofer/Martina Hrupic writes, next time you find yourself on the island of Pag, treat yourself to a special experience: apply healing mud to your body, let it dry slowly in the sun, and then rinse it off in the sea. This simple ritual has long been considered a natural recipe for the well-being of the body and mind on the most indented and certainly the most bizarre-looking of all Croatian islands. The most famous place for such therapy is Povljana, but there’s another hidden natural spa on Pag.
Healing mud may not be the first association you have with this island. As touched on above, it would likely rather be Pag cheese, lace and the triangle, the Life on Mars trail, the ancient Lun olive groves or even the party haven of Zrće. Now, you can add Segal’s healing mud to that list. It’s often referred to by those in the know as Pag’s best kept secret, and it isn’t difficult to see why.
pag’s peloid
Segal healing mud is actually a small lake which bears the same name, located not far from the island’s “Dubrovnik” beach. It’s well known for its silty sediment, known as peloid. It is mud or clay that is used for therapeutic purposes and contains a number of medicinal substances, consisting of all kinds of beneficial minerals. In combination with the sun and sea air, as well as with the salty Adriatic sea itself, it’s an elixir of natural health. Medicinal peloid is only actually found only on the very southeastern shore of this particular island lake.
It’s widely known that medicinal peloid helps with various degenerative diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and skin diseases. It is often used as a compress for the abdomen and kidney area for diseases of the digestive tract, as well as for diseases of the reproductive and urinary organs, rheumatic diseases of the limbs as a compress and coating for the hands, individual joints or groups of large joints and the spine. It is also known that natural mud is a good means of detoxification.
Medicinal mud can be found even in the very heart of the town of Pag, in the Lokunja area, next to the Prosika town beach. According to those on the island, this is a natural spa rich in sedimentary mud with a high healing effect on rheumatic and various dermatological diseases. It has allegedly been proven that this therapy helps to retain moisture in the body and skin, restore the skin’s natural pH value, relax skin pores and blood circulation, prevent and treat acne problems, it also has an anti-inflammatory effect, detoxifies and tones the skin, reduces pain and relaxes the body, all while successfully removes accumulated toxins from the body.
lokunja, a free island wellness retreat
Tourists began using peloid on Pag back at the beginning of the 20th century. “Expert analyses of Lokunja’s mud have shown that it consists of high-quality peloid that can be used for the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological and skin diseases. The inhabitants of Pag have long used this mud to treat rheumatic diseases, and it is even used by the Pag physical therapy department,” writes the Camping Šimuni website.
The same source also states how to use the mud. “When you come to Lokunja, applying a mud mask is incredibly simple. Just apply the mud to your skin, find a comfortable spot on the beach, relax, and let the mud dry for an hour. When the colour of the mud changes from dark gray to white, simply get into the sea and rinse it off.”
Caution around the eyes and mouth is advised when applying the mud, and it’s best not to keep it on your skin for too long. The sulphur in the mud can give your skin a slightly unpleasant odour, so maybe avoid visiting Lokunja before going for dinner at a nice restaurant.
