Monte Mare Wellness Spa and Waterpark — Attraction in Kaiserslautern

For my fellow Americans looking to try it out:

It's a great local indoor water park. Don't let the language barrier stop you, as it is a great place to wear your kids out. It's probably best for kids up to around 14. Here's the process: -An all day family pass for two adults and all your kids (yes, all of them) is around 22€ -You get these tokens. They are "tagged" to your account, so don't lose them! -You'll go through the turnstile one at a time. Wait for the light to turn green as it "logs you in", then take the token and go through. -Head downstairs. There is over big coed locker room, but with closed small changing rooms you pass through to the actual lockers. There is a side room with hair dryers by the stairs as well. Bathroom/shower areas are separated (Damen=Women, Herren=Men) after the lockers. -Available lockers have the arm bands attached to the front. Stick a token in and turn the dial. Load the locker and take the arm band with you. It has your token in it and can be used to buy food cash/card free, so lock those up. The arm band opens the locker again. Only one person needs the arm band, so don't take up a bunch of lockers. -There are three areas: spa/sauna, lap pool, and water park. Only the sauna/spa needs you to scan your arm band in, because (I think) it's a separate cost. Everywhere else is open to go to. The lap pool has a blow up obstacle course and a shallower pool for general swimming/playing. Yes, bring your pool floaties if you want. -The water park has a bunch of rotating features: wave pool, jets, bubbles, waterfalls, and whirlpool. There are a bunch of nooks to discover and explore. There is even an swim out to an outdoor pool. The water is heated, so it's actually pretty refreshing. -There are two slides. The entrance is to the bottom right as you face the water park area inside. The tube slide is with or without tube. You can just grab one from the pile at the bottom. The top "blackout" slide is not for tubes. Wait for the green light to start on the blackout slide, but go as fast as you want on the tube slide. Recommended age is 6, but no height required or staff manning the slides, so use your discretion. You can go down doubles, triples, whatever. -For food, order and just place your token or arm band on the metal box to add it to your tab. Only eat in the food area. It seemed like you could bring in some of your own food, but I didn't see any rules. -Need the bathroom? Look for "WC" which stands for water closet. That's the bathroom. -At the end, go in reverse order: lockers, changing rooms, then upstairs to turn in your tokens. If you didn't buy any food, just put them in the turnstiles to leave. To pay for food, go to the desk first. They'll scan them, you'll pay, they'll give the tokens back, and then you go out through the turnstiles. Last advice: It can get crowded. Try to avoid peak times for max...

Bad welcome and sad feeling all over the day. Before we booked tickets for monte mare in Kaiserslautern we contacted them by phone one day before, discussing some Covid-19 restrictions and general informations. We explicitly asked, if it is allowed to bring our food with us, as we are planning to go with our family and friends and want to stay the entire day. The guy explained, that it is allowed to bring your own food, however this cannot be consumed in the restaurant section but at the different eating areas in or outside the building. The next day, when we arrived at the car park of monte mare we bumped into one red hair lady working there. When seeing our cooling she explained us, there is no external food and drinks allowed in the Fun and Wellness Resort. When explaining to her, that we had called the day before, she did not respond in a friendly way but explained again, that there is no allowance for external food and drinks. We ignored her and went to the entrance.

Within minutes she appeared there as well, spoke to the cahsier and explained again, that bringing food and drink is not allowed. Howeber, other families with big bag packs or even trolleys have not been asked nor checked, what is inside their bags. We turned away back to the car, unpacked some food and came back as we had bought the entrance tickets the day before via the online system and the kids where already excited to go to the pool.

However inside the monte mare we got really shocked when seeing all the families unpacking their food - as well as inside and outside the building. Some families came with thermo seal bags from the well known discounters, having their drinks, sandwiches and snacks, walking freely on the lawn without being adressed from anyone of the staff.

This is really ridiculous! For sure we don't have a problem to follow rules, but accepting this "special decision" only for us is not acceptable.

We also recommend the monte mare team to keep an eye on the general cleanliness as the whirl pool was dirty, the sunbeds outside haven't been wiped for weeks for sure, we found two used wound plasters floating around the pool at 10:30 am already and several used handkerchiefs on the floor of the changing rooms - especially with the Covid-19 pandemic in mind this is a threat for personal health. Same problem is the red hair lady as well as the cashier not wearing masks. When asking she explained that she is working behind a plexiglass separation wall and therefor the masks is not necessary.

Instead of chasing the guests with unfriendly and unnecessary stress regarding the food which is obviously allowed as no one controlling it, it would be my recommendation to concentrate on the quality of services at all.

However for us it was first and last time to be here. Never experienced such a bad start in a family...

**editing my review. As much as I had a lovely time, I started some type of fungal/bacterial infection on my foot from the spa. So just be aware.

My husband and I went yesterday to the sauna and wellness section. He made reservations for massages prior and booked everything online. It was our first time at Monte Mare, my second time at a European spa, so I had a rough idea of how they operate.

I will say that the website gives absolutely no information for first time visitors, on what to bring, or how anything is. He did pay in advance to rent the robes and towels. I do agree with other reviews with how some maintenance and grounds up keeping does need attended to, but otherwise it was a lovely experience and not too crowded for a Saturday afternoon. I cannot give any reviews towards the family and children side, only the wellness spa side. As for anyone new to European spas - everyone is naked! I love that aspect, very judge free zone, no one feels uncomfortable, everyone was very nice. I’ll also add that as an American currently living in Germany, I never expect places to have English in addition to German, but with not being allowed to use your phone in that area and everything in German, I can’t use google translate and don’t want to feel like an inconvenience asking what everything things mean (I am learning, slowly).

Tips: Save money and bring your own towels, robes (if you want), and sandals for walking around. You take off your sandals going into pools and saunas. -You can bring your own bag into the area (I saw quite a few of them), and bring some water or snacks to also save some money. My husband bought the ticket that had free cups of water and coffee. Absolutely definitely try to book a massage. We booked the “ChillOut” 60 minute massage (it was included in the ticket price he booked) and it was AMAZING! 10/10 recommend. We both had great experiences with our ladies. -They give you a token when you check in. Don’t do what we did and share a locker at first because everyone needs their own locker to give you a bracelet (when putting in your chip), and that’s how you get through the gates, pay for things, etc. And then you use it to check out as well. My husband had to go back to get our second token to make a second bracelet to get through the one gate before entering the spa area.

Like I stated, overall 4/5 experience. We’ll probably be back again before we leave, but will also try other spas in the area as well. I personally liked my...