Zvezdana O.
Yelp
I spent a few days in Berlin last month and this was one of the places on my list to visit.
As a non-European (well... culturally... ethnically, I'm all European, hehe), it was very confronting for me to realize that while there is a pretense of male and female change rooms... they're open in the middle. This was my first hint that I was going to have to step out of my "nakedness in mixed company" comfort zone :)
I assumed I'd at least get to wear my swimsuit wherever there were men around, but uuhhh... no. Well, you can wear a towel. But then you dont have a dry towel for later unless you rent one. I rented a robe and used that to dry off with when I wanted to go home. But if you want to go from pool to sauna/steam room, you have put on and take off your swim suit repeatedly, because the rules state you MUST wear your swim suit in the pool, but then you MUST take it off to go into the sauna/steam room.
That particular rule is annoying. Just let people keep their swimsuits on for goodness sakes. You're still pretty naked even with just a bikini on!
I did end up saying f*ck it, and just galavanting around in my birthday suit. That was interesting... *sniff*
It's pretty expensive and for the price, I expected a higher standard of hygiene and cleanliness. I got up out of both smaller pools when I noticed large globs of God-knows-what in both and just stuff floating around in the water upon close inspection. Yeah... pretty gross.
Also, the main reason I wanted to come here is because of the multiple steam and sauna rooms of supposedly varying heats. One of my favourite things EVER is a HOT, HOT, HOT steam room... I was expecting to be in and out of the deliciously steaming hot steam room, back and forth and back and forth, for as long as I wanted... but sadly, that was never to be! The hottest steam room was pretty mild. Mild as in vaguely damp, lame steam in a small room with people constantly walking in and out so its always cold. I was disappointed by that. I went in there once for 20 minutes, waiting for the steam to build up, and waited... and waited... finally I thought "this is crap!", and left to attempt to amuse myself with other things. Boo.
But its very swish and swanky, they have live music and everyones walking around either literally naked or pretty much naked... It's definitely a certain kind of scene, hehe. I had an avocado bagel and champagne. The bagel was gross. There was this salty green goop inside that I suppose was the avocado. It was an experience to say the least! I wouldn't be in a rush to go back if I found myself in Berlin again. Mainly because of the lame steam room and less than stellar hygiene I experienced.