It was a great experience at this hotel. After a long walk of 17km i ended up at the salt pool and…read morecouple of treatment and a hair cut. I have never been to a resort like this. Kids has their own pool, there a lap swim pool, salt pool, sulfer pool, regular pool and sauna, spa, salon. Everything is in here to relax.

This was an incredibly relaxing experience. The spa area is without swimsuit, but their were many…read morepool areas to chose from (with swimsuit) if you are wanting more of a swimming family atmosphere experience. They had a great restaurant where I had a chicken Caesar salad and water. When you arrive you can purchase a kit that includes a robe and two bath towels. You can also get slippers if you need them. They give you a band that looks like a watch that you used to purchase items throughout the spa. Then you settle the bill before leaving. All in all it was a great experience and I wish I'd had all day instead of just four hours.

From the owner: Im Alpenquell Erlebnisbad gibt es viel zu entdecken: Das Mehrzweckbecken für Schwimmer und…read moreNichtschimmer mit 187 m2 (29°C), das Erlebnisbecken (33°C) mit diversen Sprudelliegen und Massagedüsen, das Kinderplanschbecken, der Whirlpool (37°C) und zur Abkühlung der Kaltwasserfall. In der Sauna-Welt können Sie entschlacken und den Kreislauf anregen in der Arven Biosauna (55°C), der finnischen Sauna (95°C), der Infrarotsauna oder im grossen Dampfbad. Zwischen den Saunagängen im Ruheraum entspannen.

Amazing! When we visited, it was not summer vacation time in the South of Germany yet, so…read moreblissfully few children ;-) Our toddler enjoyed the big slides and indoor kids' area as well as the outdoor water playground and the lazy river. I am IN LOVE with the sauna area and the killer view into the mountains. The saunas and steam rooms are textile free, so no bathing suits allowed. It takes some getting used to for foreigners, but it's really the best way to enjoy. I went to an "Aufguss", which means they keep the door of the particular sauna closed for a good 15 minutes while an employee adds scents and water to the hot stone inside and makes the whole room extra amazing and hot, hot, hot. Afterwards you can enjoy a nice plunge into the ice cold pool or rub yourself off with ice. They also have foot baths with hot and cold water to get your circulation going. An additional highlight was the cafeteria, believe it or not. Absolutely yummy foods like "Wurstsalat", "Currywurst" and the best soft pretzels I had during this entire trip. Will we be back? Hell yeah!

This place is by far the best part of a not-so-snowy ski weekend in Oberstaufen. Indoor and outdoor…read morepools, high diving platform, water slide, full range of saunas, and an awesome plastic chip system for access, lockers, and payment. If you're in town with the Oberstaufen Plus card, you'll want to come here every day (admission free with the card)!

Review #2500. "I…read morework a little bit like a sculptor. When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material" said the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. In the case of Therme Vals his material was 60,000 slabs of local quartzite and his space a mountainside in the Swiss Alps. Built atop thermal springs, this incredible homage to water is one of the most breathtaking places I've seen up close. When architects are particularly obnoxious they speak of building the space, not the walls. It's no wonder they're drawn here -- now they can pontificate on another dimension: the water. How it feels. How it sounds. Even how it tastes. All kidding aside, I think the architects are onto something here. In the same way that light animates a space, water at Therme Vals is similarly abstracted. Its echo as it rushes through the quarzite walls; the way in which as you are in the water you are also in the mountains from which the water comes. The ride through the Alps from Zurich alone is worth the trip to Therme Vals, and when you arrive you will notice the place has a somewhat sacred feeling to it. As the Pritzker prize (architecture's Nobel) winner aptly put it, "Our spa is no fun fair." You will not find a menu of detoxifying lunch options, herbal tea or magical panpipe music here. In place of such frivolities you will be given the chance to luxuriate in a pure and unadulterated bathing experience. Whilst doing so you may gaze out upon cleverly framed views of the expansive Alps (a reminder of where it all comes from) or fall asleep in the sunshine on the stone outside. It is meditative even for those least able to quiet their minds. You can hop from the fire pool to the ice pool, swim in the outdoor pool and then relax in the flower pool (my favourite) before doing it all over again. Should you want a beverage in the baths you can drink from a brass cup attached to a chain beneath a rush of water; its ferrous taste as unique as the place itself. I spent but a few hours at Therme Vals though I often fantasise about returning to stay at the hotel (in one of the Zumthor-designed rooms) and partaking of the baths at night (only hotel guests are permitted in from 19:00-20:00) and in between hikes in the Alps for several days at a stretch.

Bathing in thermal waters inside a national monument, the uncontested masterpiece of the famous…read morearchitect Peter Zumthor, makes always a certain effect, especially if the environment is so far from your everyday surroundings. When you enter the narrow corridor, like a tunnel which leads to changing rooms, you seem to go in a mine through bowels of the earth. The spaces are very elegant and linear, walls are flatware of squares of quartzite, the local rock, which colour is pearled grey with clearer and darker nuances. It is soft and warm and if the sunlight touches it, it glitters particularly when the rays reach the water of the outdoor swimming pool. In the indoor spaces there is half-light everywhere: in the elegant cloakrooms, in the cabins of the massages, in the relax rooms, in the indoor swimming pools. Except sun beds in mahogany tree and doors of blue glass there are no decorative elements, such as e.g. vases of flowers or quite simply some colour spots. The impression which you receive is of a total immersion in another (if I dare to say, almost supernatural) dimension made of silence and relaxation.