Bentheimer Mineraltherme

The Bentheimer Mineraltherme is a thermal brine bath in Bad Bentheim, a spa town in the Grafschaft Bentheim district of Lower Saxony close to the Dutch border. It stands on the grounds of the Fachklinik Bad Bentheim, the rehabilitation clinic that operates it, and the town holds the state designation of a thermal brine and sulphur spa. According to German Wikipedia, used here as a second source, the bath covers more than 3,000 square metres and offers two indoor pools and one outdoor pool with a sunbathing lawn, a sauna landscape, sun beds and a bistro, with a training-therapy centre directly attached.

The operator states that the salt water of its pools comes from a depth of 1,200 metres and that the temperature in the pools is at least 29 degrees Celsius with a salt content of up to three per cent. The natural thermal brine allows year-round swimming in the open air, and the bath attributes to it effects on muscle relaxation, joint mobility, circulation and the airways, the latter through the rising salt mist. Alongside open bathing, the site is used for prescribed movement baths, therapeutic applications and preventive aqua-fitness courses, and bookings for these are handled through the clinic.

The outdoor pool is described as more than 400 square metres in size and equipped with floor bubblers, a counter-current system, massage jets, colour effects and underwater music, held at a minimum of 29 degrees in summer and winter alike. The therapy pool, at 200 square metres, has a salt content of three per cent and a water temperature of 32 degrees, with underwater massage jets and a whirlpool. The brine sports pool has 25-metre lanes, at least two of which are reserved for early-morning swimmers, and a salt content of at least two per cent; the operator notes that it is periodically restricted by club sport.

The sauna world contains a steam bath, a rose sauna scented with fragrance oil, dry saunas in the Finnish style and a sanarium with changing light, with a plunge pool, cold and cascade showers and warm and cold foot basins for cooling, plus quiet rooms, a garden and a sauna bistro with an open fire. A brine graduation works stands on the site. The pools open Monday to Friday from 07:00 to 21:00 and at weekends and on public holidays from 08:00 to 20:00; the communal sauna opens Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 21:00 and at weekends from 10:00 to 20:00, with a women-only sauna on Mondays. Admission ends 45 minutes before closing, and the sauna area is textile-free.