Live: Baden-Baden - Sit back, Relax & Enjoy

Caracalla Spa

My next stop was a big question mark. To be truthful, before this trip, I have never heard of Baden-Baden before. All I knew about it when I was reaching there was that there was two huge baths and a really classy casino. Well, it turns out that these two was enough to make my experience an amazing one.

Town Center

After walking around the town center (there isn't much of it), I went on the first the only two highlights - the modern bath house near our hotel. Basically Baden-baden translated into English is literally Bath-bath and has traditionally been a spa-town since roman times. There are two major bath houses in the area, one is the traditional Roman bath house Friedrichsbad and the other a modernistic bath house Caracalla Spa. The traditional one requires full nudity throughout the entire experience whereas the modernistic splits the area into a nude and non-nude one. I chose to go to the modernistic one not for this particular reason but more for the fact that it looks 10x bigger and have a lot more to offer. If I had another day or so, I'll gladly give Friedrichsbad a shot.

The bath house was huge! When I entered and was faced with 5 different pools (2 outdoor and 3 indoor), 3 different sauna and steam bath and many other relaxation and massage facilities, I felt a rush of excitement to try all of them. Its really says a lot about our lifestyle when we get so excited just to relax. Once inside the pool, there was no turning back - minutes turned to hours within a flash and I had the best time of my life. Before I got too carried away, I had to try the upper stories where there are even more saunas available. If the experience downstairs was fantastic, the one upstairs is double the fun and enjoyment. After reading the "instructions", I had the tough choice of choosing the saunas that I want to go. Each of the sauna is a different experience. Yes, you do not just sit there a sweat like a pig, you basically get different types of oils and fragrances around and some of the sauna machine is a sight to behold. After the entire experience, all my travel stress had gone away, I was ready for more action and I lost a whole one kilogram of water weight.

The Kurhaus

Distance to the nearby cities

The next experience can't compare up to the first one. The casino Kurhaus is a little unter-whelming and there's nothing much to rave about it. Its definitely not one of those Vegas-style casino with incredible amount of games and gamers alike but its still worth it to check out how a traditional classy casino looks like. The ceilings are really high, the tables are pretty much spread out, a strict dress code is being enforced (I had to rent an €8 jacket) and there are many high-rollers around. However, if you are there to gamble, there are also tables with really low minimum bets, so its not so damaging to your wallets. So it may not be most over whelming experience, but with its beautiful decor and huge range of minimum bets, this place certainly caters for a huge variety of people - the tourists, the small-time gamblers and the high rollers. Just remember to grab a jacket and bring some cash in for the entrance.

All in all, Baden-baden is one of the best places in Europe to sit back and relax. This form of relaxation (and the cheap price that comes along) is really rare in our busy cities and its one of those things that have to tried at least once in a lifetime. The casino itself it not worth it (unless you want to gamble) if you plan to go into Monte-Carlo. I recommend a 1 day stop over for this little town. A good relaxing bath, a short visit to the casino and a good night sleep is all you need for this little town for an experience of a lifetime.

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