When we visited Vienna a few years ago, I wanted to visit a “spa” that had soaking pools. I read that you could find them all over Austria. We found Therme Wien – it was the closest to the city and a fairly easy trip from town. Back then we took the U-Bahn to a Tram to a Bus and then walked. Well, now the U-Bahn goes all the way to Oberlaa and you don’t need to worry about a multi-transport journey!
Therme Wien has a LOT of pools – 26 of them! Several are spring water pools, several are thermal pools, there is a salt water pool and a grotto. There are kid-friendly pools, spray parks, water slides, diving boards, diving platforms, saunas, restaurants and more!
Here are a few of the outdoor pools. Some of the outdoor pools are connected to the indoor pools with a small window where you can swim through to the other side. Chris likes the outdoor thermal pools because they have these jets along the outside edge of the pool and they are all labeled for where the water jets massage you. I like the salt water pool that you see in the upper right. The salt water pool also has music underwater! There is another pool outside that smells like sulfur.
One of the indoor pools looking out to some of the outdoor pools:
Then we headed to another outdoor area that is kid-friendly. There is a nice big slide so I OF COURSE had to slide down it three or four times. You can’t help but smile after going down this slide:
We headed back inside and the diving board and diving platforms caught my attention. Chris dove off the diving board like a pro – I was really impressed! He grew up with a pool and a diving board and he has not forgotten how to dive! I was never one to dive but I did like to back flip off our dock into the lake. I considered a back flip off the side of this dive pool for about a minute and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to try something I hadn’t done in probably 20 years! But I did want to jump off the top diving platform! I walked up there and looked down. Oh HELL NO. I decided to walk back down. But after a few minutes I realized I would regret not jumping off the top platform so back up I went. It was really scary but I did it! I think I screamed – haha!
After a few hours I noticed my fingers were looking pretty wrinkled and we decided it was time to leave.
Chris and I were both a little hungry and there is the Kurkonditorei Oberlaa pastry shop right outside the doors to Therme Wien. This traditional Viennese operation processes 16.5 tons of chocolate every year!!! We didn’t get any chocolate but we did get two delicious cappuccinos. Chris ordered the trout:
I ordered the pumpkin soup:
I highly recommend Therme Wien if you are near Vienna and you want to soak in some thermal pools!