Caracalla Spa — Attraction in Baden-Baden

Tourist beware, they will try to falsely overcharge you. I would give negative 5 stars if I could.

Update

After disputing the false charges with American Express, American Express did their inquiry to the spa requesting all the information that they needed. Caracala spa could not provide the documentation of of items I was charged for

Review edited and reposted The dishonest management informed me in their reply that they are trying to have my review removed because it featured a photo of their employee. However if you look through at the thousands of photos, there are many pictures that people have posted with their employees in them. And in those responses, they praised the reviewer. So they only try to report and remove those reviews that are not positive.

And in response to their reply, they didn't care when I made the complaint at the spa, so the only reason they care now is to look positive to anyone reading the review.

We went here expecting a nice relaxing spa day, and it turned out to be anything but.

When we first arrived, the unkind woman at the front desk told us we could not pay with credit card, because the machine was too difficult to work. So we paid cash, no problem. They also would not accept my guest card they gave a discount from hotel Rathausglöckel. She told me they did not accept those cards.

Then she told us we could not use our own towels that we brought, she told us we had to use their rental towels, according to her it is the spa policy. We didn't have any more cash on us and I told her that all I had was credit card, which she then said was fine. This is completely contradictory to her earlier statement that the credit card machine was too hard to work.

Anyway, we went to the changing room, then on to the spa. We had purchased the spa and sauna package, but the spas were only halfway open at 11:00 a.m. The main indoor pools were reserved so we could not use the indoor pool. The 100° f pool was shut down for cleaning, so the only pools we could use were the outdoor pool or the 60° f pool.

After soaking in the outdoor pool for about 30 minutes, we decided to go to the upstairs sauna. Despite having already paid for the spa and sauna package, we still had to pay an additional 5 euros each to go up to the sauna.

The upstairs sauna area was nice, with a large indoor sauna, there are two outdoor saunas as well that were quite nice.

After spending some time up there, we went back down to the indoor pool, which still had a private event going on, there was some trainer doing water sports with clients there. I feel they should have disclosed to us the fact that we could not use the pools due to a private event.

After we left, spending approximately an hour and a half there, we turned in our towels and paid for the towel rental which we were told were 6 euros each, for a total of 12 Euros. This time they accepted credit card.. they could not provide me a receipt, because the printer was not working allegedly, so we left.

When I later checked my credit card statement, they had charged me $126 Euros, which equates to approximately 126 US dollars at the moment.

Confused by the amount, since the cashier told us it was a charge of 12 Euros for the towel rental. I called to speak to someone, but no one was willing to explain in any way shape or form how 12 Euros went to 126.

Keep in mind, we did not make any purchases other than the forced rental bath towels. We did not eat there, we did not rent a locker, nor purchase anything else, and the main entry fees with paid with cash.

Fortunately American Express has my back, and took care of the fraudulent charges that Caracalla charged me.

After reading other reviews, it's apparent that similar issues have happened to other...

I am a breast cancer survivor, and had an extremely embarrassing and humiliating experience at the Caracalla Therme Spa in Baden Baden last Thursday. I wore a bathing suit that I normally wear, which has a bit more covering top (simple black short top with cap sleeves) to cover scars from my surgeries and for other obvious reasons why women who have gone through breast cancer treatment (mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation) need special swimwear. As I started to go into one of the pools, a woman who works Caracalla spa approached me in front of other guests and basically demanded that I leave the spa area because my top did not look like what she considered to be a standard swimsuit top. Even though it is a swimtop and made of the same material as any other swimsuit, it just has more coverage (see photo), with a cap sleeve that covers my upper area more so than the standard revealing swimsuits with bikini style straps. I explained my condition (while other spa guests watched and could hear), and she did not seem to care. Another young man who worked there came over to try to assist and he also tried to explain to her my medical condition (she did not speak English so he translated it for her), and this did not help either. Her response was simply as though the fact that I had been through breast cancer and have "appearance" issues from treatment did not matter at all, and that I had to leave the spa area. Again, in front of other guests who were at the spa (all watching me, which was very embarrassing). She escorted me into the locker area near the entrance of the spa, and again I had to explain my condition to additional staff at Caracalla as to why I had to wear a more covering swim top...and no one did anything. They simply did what this person wanted, which again she still demanded that I would not be able to wear my swimsuit top into the spa. Again, this was extremely embarrassing and humiliating to have to keep explaining this to workers at the spa. Eventually, I had to go to the Caracalla gift shop and purchase a different swimsuit, and figure out a way to put a cover-up over the top of the swimsuit to keep from exposing my deformities and skin issues from radiation and scars. I did this rather than leaving the spa because I did not want to ruin the day for the other oerson I was with. And I had to pay much more money for this swimsuit than you would in a normal store, because of course it was the spa gift shop. Caracalla of course did not offer me any type of compensation as a result of this treatment. No apologies, and no refund for all the time I had to spend to do this. They charge admission by the hour, so I had to use the time I had already paid for to go to the gift shop and figure out how to fashion an appropriate cover-up for this new expensive swimsuit. All of this happened to me during Breast Cancer Awareness month, in which when I walked through the streets of Baden Baden, Germany, and saw that they proudly display their support for Breast Cancer awareness month "Pinktober in Baden Baden." As one of the primary tourist lattractions in Baden Baden, the Caracalla Therme Spa does not seem to support breast cancer survivors who are forever scarred from this disease. That is why I am writing this review, to bring awareness of how they treat poeple like myself at Caracalla. Maybe others will see this and take note of this, and maybe Caracalla will change...

Overall a great experience I would recommend. Since young children are not allowed, I let my wife visit first (she’s been here many times but not me), so she gave me great advice on what to do and where things are. This was crucial because had I not had firsthand information, this would be very difficult for me to understand all the rules.

I’ve been to many saunas and spas all over the world and I must say I really enjoyed the sauna here for the most part. I didn’t realize there were showers by the outdoor saunas and had kept going inside to shower, like four times. That was a bit annoying.

Another issue I had was a man came in behind me in the sauna and sat down directly below me. He proceeds to turn his head around into my genitals and stare at them. I asked him what he was doing and he abruptly ran out of the sauna. It was a bit uncomfortable and I think this man was harassing other younger men and following them.

I also had a terrible time trying to unlock my locker in the sauna 3rd floor area. I couldn’t figure it out and of course German people won’t offer any help. I had to climb down the stairs again to speak to staff who assured me someone is upstairs to help.

I never saw a single person upstairs for help, no staff whatsoever. I finally asked a naked German man and he helped me and showed me but we couldn’t communicate directly. It was very awkward to say the least. I think staff can do more to help or have better signage in various languages. I saw many tourists from many countries there so it would make sense to do more.

One thing I really loved here is getting out of the sauna and walking into the forest to lay naked in the woods under the trees. It was absolutely beautiful, peaceful and calming. I spent 20 minutes in the woods and listened to the birds soothe my soul. It was very nice!

I also brought camphor oil from Thailand which increased my senses incredibly during sauna. I just rub it on my body and it goes from freezing cold to burning hot! Mixed with the steam it gets very interesting and real!

I also fell asleep inside the sauna entry area in a lounge chair for 30 minutes and that was fantastic too! Just being able to relax like this meant a lot to me.

I did notice that the outdoor hot tub had naked people having sex. I think that was a bit gross and not sanitary. I saw a lot of couples making out in the pool and getting sexy. I wish they wouldn’t.

I also saw some young men play fighting and it was distracting everyone near the pool. I watched security leave his office and walk right past them, and I was shocked! I guess it’s okay to wrestle here? Don’t ask questions about your locker though, they may scold you.

In the main pool I found a lot of women’s hair in the water and it wasn’t pleasant for me. But the fountains that massage you made up for that, as I used it for almost an hour.

For the price this is very reasonable and well maintained. My wife said they have upgraded the lockers since she last visited and they were very nice.

Overall I would recommend this place to family and friends but I wouldn’t go on a...