Driburg Therme

The Driburg Therme stands at Georg-Nave-Straße 24 in Bad Driburg, a spa town on the eastern edge of the Teutoburg Forest in North Rhine-Westphalia. All five of its pools are fed with water from the state-recognised healing springs of the town, and the operator positions the house explicitly as a health bath rather than a leisure pool, stating that it has no water slides or comparable attractions although children and young people are welcome.

The bathing area is divided between indoor and outdoor thermal basins, a whirlpool and two warm-water pools, alongside two cold-water basins. The indoor and outdoor pools and the first warm-water pool are held at 32 °C, matching the temperature at which the recognised healing spring is tapped; the whirlpool and the second warm-water pool run at 36 °C. LED underwater lighting is used in the main pools. Chloride is the largest constituent of the water, followed by sulphate and sodium; under a 1987 assessment by the Laboratorium für Wasseruntersuchungen Hannover, the mineral-bearing thermal water from the Bad Driburg well qualifies as Heilwasser in the chemical sense, with 3,250 mg/l chloride, 2,420 mg/l sulphate, 2,270 mg/l sodium, 1,648 mg/l hydrogen carbonate and 1,160 mg/l calcium.

The sauna landscape is extensive. Outdoors it offers an earth sauna, a circus-wagon sauna at 100 °C and a biotope sauna; indoors there are three further saunas including a hay sauna at 80 °C, a Sanarium of Swiss stone pine with colour-light therapy, a dry-mist salt cabin, an infrared cabin, an air steam bath, a steam bath with varying brine additives and a caldarium. Cold plunge pools are provided both indoors and out, together with two thermal-water rest pools, a cold-water shower tower, a rest hall and a sauna bar. The German Sauna Association has awarded the house its five-star Sauna Premium rating.

The bath opens Monday from 14:00 and Tuesday to Friday from 10:00, in each case until 22:00, and at weekends and on public holidays from 10:00 to 20:00. Women-only sauna hours run on Wednesdays from 18:00 to 22:00, and a candlelight sauna with a naturist bathing evening is held on the first Friday of each month. The house is closed on 24 and 25 December and on New Year's Eve, and opens from 12:00 on New Year's Day. It has been certified as barrier-free for people with walking impairments and partly accessible for wheelchair users.