A method and apparatus for cooling extruded plastic foil hose, which is cooled down by driving a pressurized coolant along the internal and/or external skirt of the foil hose. The coolant is fed in the area of a drawing aperture tangentially to the foil hose, and the coolant thus generated is driven as a spiral stream from the tangential inlet to the outlet by a centrifugal force affecting the coolant along the internal and/or external surface of the foil hose, and by the density and pressure differences between various parts of the coolant. The apparatus includes an internal cooling unit equipped with a distribution drum provided with nozzles with tangential inlets. Its external cooling unit has a tangential inlet, which is in connection with a ring channel around the foil hose, delimited by a tubular element.