SaarowTherme — Attraction in Scharmützelsee

Bad Saarow has long been one of my favorite destinations in Germany. Approaching the Therme yesterday afternoon, I remarked to my husband that nothing in the United States that I know of compares to its spectacle (the height of the coffered ceilings), its exquisite detailing (the pools' mosaic tile), and its signature combination of exhilarating fun (the roundabout) and relaxation. The only thing I could think of was the now ruined Sutro Baths in San Francisco. My husband remarked that perhaps Adolf Sutro's Old World roots had something to do with it; San Francisco is often cited as the most European of American of cities. As it turns out, Sutro was not merely European, he was Prussian.

But we left the Therme earlier than we had expected and I wondered if we would be back unless we learned of a change in management or approach. The problem is longstanding but this week it was acute, because it was louder. Piped into every part of these exquisite baths is the most insufferable musical kitsch. Everything was built with such care and taste, and situated in a place that could hardly be more beautiful, and yet this place sounds like the massage parlor of a down-on-its-luck suburban American mall. We spent so much time last night with our heads underwater, the only way to escape this music that is barely deserving of the term, that our eyes stung long after our departure.

I understand that many people, perhaps most who come to Bad Saarow, find this kind of empty, meandering, soulless music relaxing. For those of us who do not, it is the opposite of relaxing. It is agitating, and infuriating. The baths have their own music: of waterfall, of creek, the hiss of fizz, the sounds of the night. We left feeling as one does after seeing something beautiful and beloved badly vandalized. And we felt ripped off.

Couldn't those of us who can't bear this music be accommodated in some way? Couldn't the final two hours of the day, for example, be yielded to the music...

We came to bad Saarow for a weekend trip to get out of the city (berlin) and relax a bit. My girlfriend has not been to a Therme, but I’ve been to multiple ones over the year, mostly in NRW/the Rheinland.

Bottom line, it was an „ok“ experience. Value for money could be better, as the prices are around 40€ if you want to go to the saune and Thermalbad (4h)

Let’s start with the Thermalbad area: It’s one big inside pool that connect to the large one outside, and a few smaller whirlpools. Nothing special, not bad either. What surprised me most was the fact that they build the Therme on a rather large area, but still didn’t really feel big. It’s also not really cozy. There are a lot of places to lay down, but people occupy these with their towels even though it is explicitly said that you are not allowed to do that and should free the spaces and put your stuff in the provided baskets (nice feature) - the reality is that this is ignored by 90% of the guests and the people working there do not care (according to the notes on the wall they are the ones that will then remove your towels, if you don’t follow the rule as given). So this is quite annoying and you never get the chance to really find a spot, take out your book and unwind.

The sauna area: We were there ok a Saturday in February (no kids allowed day) and it was not overcrowded, but still the sauna area didn’t offer enough space to store your belongings, move comfortably around and/or really relax. The sauna concept is not really thought through and make good use of the areas. The silent room in the sauna area: This was super disappointing. Again, people occupied the loungers with their towels. Also there was no real silence and people talked - not really relaxing. There should be a worker there...

Huh somewhere between 3 and 4 tbh, but somehow more for three. So in consideration of price, and comparing price this price with vabali I would say that this spa fails the most. 6h with saunas and therme included is smth like 95 euros and ok its fine but I would for this price expect few basic things:

there is no shower gel.. really limited and hidden places for taking water even in new buildings there is no place for drinkable water towels not provided because of location I would expect that's cheaper

And then few things that I would expect for this money:

Ordering in a restaurant is like you need to go to the place order food and then they will bring it to you, it's kind of a half self service would expect a lot of more sun beds it's almost impossible to find one that's free and many of them are just covered with someone's towel. just found at the end that it's forbidden to take pictures, I don't have an issue with not taking pictures but it's really not so obvious

Positive things:

really nice big pools, salty water, sound pool Thai restaurants have really good food new building panorama sauna and last floor terrace is awesome

Overall, most of sauna's are really small so for sauna part if you want to visit there is much better sauna focus spa and it's in the center of Berlin. But for pools, I would definitely choose this one...