The present article analyzes the comparative characteristics of the recreational potential of hydro areas of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 20 hydro areas were marked out for comparative assessment of their attractiveness and recreational possibilities of the development of medical health tourism on the basis of balneological resources. The aim of the study is to identify the areas with the high natural recreational potential, but with a low level of exploration, thus identifying the most promising areas for the development of medical health tourism. The article gives comparative characteristics of areas with health-improving resources and the level of their development to achieve this goal. The outline maps of natural and socio-economic and recreational resources of Kazakhstan and zoning were made for the purpose of comparison of the recreational potential areas on the basis on the performed analyses. As a result, the hydro mineral regions of Kazakhstan were classified into 4 groups with very high, high, medium and low-recreational potential. The presented results of the study will help to formulate proposals for the development of specific areas with a high medical-health potential.