What to do in Baden-Baden, the German spa town loved by Queen Victoria

Romans raved about the healing powers of Baden-Baden’s thermal waters 2,000 years ago, and those same springs bubble up to regal spas today. But the elegant, good-living town on the German-French border doesn’t rest on past glories. Following a revamp of some its best beaux-arts addresses, including the Brenners Park Hotel and Steigenberger Europäischer Hof, it now offers fresh bases for a wellness break.

Baden-Baden’s petite, cobbled old town is a joy to walk through first thing. Start your day at retro-cool Kaffeesack for fresh coffee, then call in to the rose-tinted gothic Stiftskirche church before climbing up to the Neues Schloss atop Florentinerberg hill. Once the 15th-century stomping ground of German nobility, this ivy-swaddled palace has a lookout with mood-lifting views to the Black Forest’s dark ripple of hills. 

Heading back into town, the Roman Bath Ruins museum is a remarkably preserved, age-old wellness complex. Bring a bottle to fill at the nearby Fettquelle, a grotto-like fountain — its piping hot spring water is said to knock years off the drinker from the first salty sip. 

Plenty of Baden-Baden’s ornate architecture dates from its 19th-century heyday, when the likes of Queen Victoria, Victor Hugo and Mark Twain all dunked into its waters seeking a kur (cure to an ailment). Examples include the neoclassical Trinkhalle pump room, with a 90-metre-long Corinthian colonnade; and the adjacent Kurhaus, which has a frescoed, chandelier-lit casino inspired by Versailles. 

Steps away is the landscaped Lichtentaler Allee, unspooling along the banks of the Oos River that flows through town. In summer, the gardens are a fragrant mass of roses, azaleas, dahlias and lime blossom. It’s the site of the modernist Museum Frieder Burda, bearing the imprint of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier. Themed exhibitions present works from the likes of Pollock, Picasso and Gerhard Richter; outside is Miró’s biomorphic bronze Femme. Afterwards, go for a lunch influenced by French flavours on the terrace ofpink villa Rizzi.

Baden-Baden’s raison d’être is its miracle waters, in which you can float and emerge radiant. The Friedrichsbad bathhouse is a neo-Renaissance fantasy of marble columns and majolica tiles. Its hot-cold circuit involves thermal baths, hammams, soap-brush massages and swims in a domed pool — note that it’s nude bathing every day but Wednesdays and Saturdays. Just a splash away, its modern incarnation, the glass-fronted Caracalla Therme, has 38C indoor and outdoor pools, aroma steam baths and saunas. 

The Black Forest is on Baden-Baden’s doorstep. Get a taster by hoofing the two-and-a-half-mile ‘Wildgehege’ loop trail from the Merkur cable car station (a 10-minute bus ride from the centre) on Mt Merkur. Or ride the funicular itself, one of Germany’s longest, to the 668-metre summit. Paragliders wheel on the breeze and views cover the Murg Valley, Upper Rhine Plain and the Vosges. 

For a traditional dinner, try Weinstube im Baldreit, a wine tavern with a courtyard. The order of choice is a tarte flambee — the Black Forest version has smoked ham, mushrooms and pear. Or treat yourself at Michelin-starred Maltes Hidden Kitchen, which wows with dishes like Wagyu with radicchio and mushroom essence.