Toskana Therme Bad Schandau

The Toskana Therme Bad Schandau sits on the Elbe in the middle of Saxon Switzerland, where the sandstone cliffs of the Elbsandstein range rise straight out of the valley, and it is one of three Toskana Thermen operated by Toskanaworld alongside Bad Sulza and Bad Orb. Its defining feature is Liquid Sound, a patented concept the operator describes as turning the bath into a concert hall filled with water: a tempered brine pool set inside its own temple, lit in coloured light and covered by a 360-degree dome onto which films are projected while music plays underwater. A weekly "Sphärischer Donnerstag" (Spherical Thursday) from 10:00 to 22:00 puts on a particularly float-friendly mix, and the calendar is extended by live concerts, Liquid Sound Club nights and a "Festival der Wasserkunst" (festival of water art).

Besides the temple, the bathing landscape holds an indoor pool with two 25 metre lanes and massage loungers, an outdoor pool, a current channel, a children's pool with a small slide, a whirlpool and a warm pool; the operator states that massage jets are fitted in every basin. Rest areas, a lawn for lounging and the Il Ristorante restaurant and beach bar round out the site, and the Hotel Elbresidenz stands a few steps away under the same ownership.

The sauna world is arranged as five separate rooms held at different temperatures rather than one hot cabin: the Laconium, a radiant-heat room at 55 °C in oriental dress; the Zisterne, another radiant bath at 65 °C with a single continuous bench; the Kräuterbad, where a herbal water is heated over the stove to raise humidity at 65 °C; the Schwitzstube, the classic hot room at 96 °C around a tiled stove; and the Panoramasauna at 90 °C with untreated wooden benches and a view over the Elbe. Cooling is elaborate: an ice-snow fountain, experience showers, a foot bubble basin and a Kneipp brook of five chambers at different temperatures to wade through, plus a cold pool and a Kneipp treading basin out in the sauna garden. Rest zones run from the outdoor lawn to an upper floor and two large round relaxation loungers facing the sauna garden.

The therme opens Sunday to Friday from 10:00 to 22:00 and on Saturday to 23:00, and stays open on all public holidays except Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.