Freizeitbad RIFF

The Riff is the spa and leisure bath of Bad Lausick in the Leipzig district of Saxony, standing east of the town centre at Am Riff, about 750 metres from the railway station. German Wikipedia records that the foundation stone was laid in March 1994 and that the bath opened on 20 December 1995 after fifteen months of construction, at a cost of 45 million Deutschmarks, 90 per cent of it funded by the Free State of Saxony; it was the first modern leisure bath in Saxony after the end of the GDR. The swimming bath is wholly municipally owned, while private investors hold a share in the attached Riff Resort, a three-star house of 23 holiday apartments opened in December 2018 and linked to the bath by an overground bathrobe corridor. In its first year the bath drew 800,000 visitors, later settling at around 300,000 a year. In December 2026 the operator will mark its thirty-first birthday.

The bathing hall is built around a cure pool with 25-metre lanes and a current channel, which the lifeguards release under full pressure at the top of each hour. Two large slides run from it. The Crazy River tyre slide is 125 metres long, and a gentler body slide, marketed as the Riesenrutsche, is 118 metres; Wikipedia gives both a drop height of 12 metres and sets the minimum age at eight years. A diving pool with towers of three and five metres has four metres of water beneath it and is also used for taster scuba courses. Children have an indoor toddler pool with its own slide and, outdoors from April to October, a water playground with two facing water cannons, alongside a large playground, lawns for lying and ball games and a mud play area.

The wellness wing is the second half of the house. The operator names six saunas with their temperatures: a steam sauna at 45 C, a scent grotto at 65 C, a Finnish sauna at 90 C, a Kelo log sauna at 85 C, a Kelo earth sauna at 90 C and a saunarium at 55 C, with a published schedule of infusions through the day. Around them sit a whirlpool, experience showers, a cold plunge pool, an ice fountain, a separate rest house, a large natural sauna garden and a sauna outdoor pool held at 23 C. The house is a certified Kneipp facility, with a Kneipp treading pool and an outdoor barefoot path, and offers massages, body wraps, an infrared cabin and packages combining admission with treatments.

On water type the position should be stated plainly: the bathing water at the Riff is ordinary heated water, not thermal water. The single mineralised basin is the outdoor brine pool, which the operator describes as having a salt content of 2 per cent, a made-up strength typical of German brine pools rather than a spring yield. German Wikipedia adds that a medicinal-water pool has existed since 2006 and that medicinal water is served from the Aqua Vitales drinking fountain, which is how the spa water of Bad Lausick mostly reaches visitors. Bath and sauna open Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 22:00 and at weekends, in Saxon school holidays and on public holidays from 09:00 to 22:00; the house closes for annual maintenance for about a week each August and on 24 December. A three-hour bath ticket costs 17 euro on weekdays, a day ticket 25 euro, and a day ticket with sauna 32 euro.