Calypso Bade- & Saunawelt

Calypso stands in the Deutschmühlental valley on the western edge of Saarbrücken, a short walk from the French border, and is organised as three separately priced worlds under one roof: the tropical Badewelt, a 25-metre Sportbad, and a textile-free Saunawelt. The indoor bathing hall runs its basins at a spread of temperatures rather than a single one: a swim-up pool bar basin at 32 degrees, a multi-purpose pool at 31 degrees with seven air-bubble loungers and neck showers, a 31.5-degree current channel to swim against, two whirlpools at 35.5 degrees, and a shallow children's water playground, Cally KinderLand, kept at 33 degrees and just 25 centimetres deep. A 44-metre rope suspension bridge crosses the adventure pool 16 metres up, linking the catering level to the slide level. The sports pool alongside has six lanes at 28 degrees and doubles as a snorkelling reef; during school holidays an inflatable obstacle course takes three of its lanes.

The slide collection is the house's calling card. The AdrenaLoop starts with a trapdoor drop of ten metres into a 90-metre run with a looping that pulls up to 2.6 g, reaching 55 km/h in a ride that lasts about ten seconds; it is included in the standard ticket but runs on its own timetable of 14:00 to 20:00. Alongside it are the 100-metre Black Hole tunnel slide, a 98-metre tyre slide whose rings spin as they descend, the short 47-metre Turbo Slide at 50 km/h, and the Wildbach, a canyoning-style rapids run that flushes riders into a large outdoor basin.

Outdoors, and open all year, is a brine pool held at 36 degrees with a two per cent salt content, four bubble loungers, five seat jets and a geyser; next to it a stainless-steel basin is heated to 32 degrees in winter and cooled to 28 in summer, with the outdoor pool bar attached. A children's area of two basins linked by a slide, a sandpit under a shade sail, a beach bar, a lawn and a competition-sized beach volleyball court open only in summer. The sauna garden holds a cooling sauna lake with an integrated warm section, the rustic Sudhaus cabin at 80 degrees where a Russian-style birch-whisk infusion is performed, and a private sun deck for two above the water.

The operator counts more than seven saunas in the complex and holds a SaunaPremium rating. The largest, the Stollensauna at 90 degrees, seats up to 80 people and is themed on an underground mine gallery, complete with a Lambestubb warm room at 60 degrees named after the hut where miners handed in their lamps; the Finnish-style Rantasauna, also for 80, is built from Kelo pine grown north of the Arctic Circle, and the birch sauna at 80 degrees holds 70. A herbal steam bath at 45 degrees and a colour-therapy crystal grotto complete the round, and all infusions are made with pure essential oils rather than synthetic concentrates. The Badewelt opens daily 10:00 to 22:00, the Saunawelt to 23:00, and the sports pool keeps shorter weekday hours; a Badewelt day ticket costs 28.50 euros on weekdays.