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 separate 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 °C, a multi-purpose pool at 31 °C with seven air-bubble loungers and neck showers, a 31.5 °C current channel to swim against, two whirlpools at 35.5 °C, and a shallow children's water playground, Cally KinderLand, kept at 33 °C 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 °C 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 runs on its own timetable, from 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 °C 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 °C in winter and cooled to 28 °C 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 °C 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 °C, seats up to 80 people and is themed on an underground mine gallery, complete with a Lambestubb warm room at 60 °C 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 °C holds 70. A herbal steam bath at 45 °C and a colour-therapy crystal grotto complete the round, and all infusions are made with pure essential oils rather than synthetic concentrates.