Tropical Islands near Berlin: On a family trip to Europe's largest tropical water park and water park is written by Jacob Gowland Jørgensen.
'99 Balloons' in Tropical Islands – a unique water park
I see something streaked through the trees. It moves. It looks like a big lollipop, the giant red and white striped balloon that rises elegantly into the air right in front of our room in the middle of the hall. The balloon glides over the pools, over the trees and disappears by the slides.
My son is excitedly filming the flying wonder. Wow. I get the '99 Luftballons' song in my head as it floats by.
We have just arrived at Tropical Islands near Berlin, close to the Spreewald nature area, and we are sitting on the small terrace in front of the beautiful room and admiring the world we have landed in. It is beautiful and warm and invites adventure. My own skepticism about what water parks can be like disappears like dew before the sun.
It's November outside, dark and freezing cold, but in here it's bright and 26 degrees, and that's why we've also found shorts and a t-shirt as one of the first things.
Welcome to the tropics, only 7 hours away by car from Copenhagen.
A water park, a water park – and a gigantic hall
Tropical Islands is like no other place I have ever visited. It is built in a beautiful hall originally made for airships.
It looks like something out of Star Wars and is quite fascinating to look at. It's easy to imagine being on an intergalactic spaceship heading out into the universe - just in 26 degree heat.
It is also a very large hall. Both the Eiffel Tower og The freedom guide could be squeezed in here, and in addition to being Europe's largest tropical water park, Tropical Islands is actually the world's largest indoor water park. The hall is 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107 meters high.
However, you feel the size mostly in a good way, because there is plenty of space in most places. And there are many different types of activities, so there is something for everyone.
Naturally, we start by finding the nearest swimming pool, because now we have to get in the water and feel that we have arrived at a water park.
Tropical Islands has just been built up with many different small tropical areas, 'tropical islands', and we are no more than 50 meters from one of the large pools with built-in water slides and water games ad libitum.
Lovely.
Tropical Islands have their own rainforest
One of the advantages of the hall being so large is that it contains so many different experiences.
We lived right on the edge of the rainforest, which is a fascinating green space with paths and viewing platforms, so the next experience was a walk in the jungle, where the butterfly cage was a hit.
They also have nice pink flamingos that live down by a small river. The whole area is made quite original and in a way so that you easily immerse yourself in the tropical world.
When you walk on the paths, you also get around easily to the different areas in that part of the hall, and even though it was a weekend with many visitors, there was plenty of space.
Tropical food areas in water park
We stayed right across from a Thai food temple, Sawadee, which served as an all-day buffet restaurant. Here we ate a big breakfast with everything we needed, and they also had lunch dishes and an evening buffet.
There are most families and couples in the water park, and therefore there is also a focus on family-friendly food and easy solutions. Fortunately, the selection is large and the prices very reasonable. There is also the option to buy all inclusive or all-you-can-drink of soft drinks.
In the others restaurants in Tropical Islands there are many other options, so there is definitely something for everyone.
Family fun with slides and mini golf in the water park
We quickly made a decision that we should try as much as possible during the weekend we were there. And it was funny!
There is a whole range of huge water slides, where there are both for the brave - and for the rest of us. They were a huge hit.
We soon found out that there could well be a queue in the middle of the day, but in the morning and evening there was plenty of space. And they were so suitably different that even though there were 4 of us with different limits of courage, there was something for all of us for a long time.
We went over to Amazonia which is an outdoor area with warm water and lots of activities and it was a first. that my kids experienced swimming outside in warm water while the cold rain fell gently over the pool. They were quite excited - and so were the parents.
We visited the different pools and bathing areas, each with its own theme and style.
We also got to test the arcade games, and it's not really a holiday without a round of mini golf, so we also got to do that on the fine course.
Tropical Islands is also spa and wellness for the adults
Germany has distinguished traditions for spas, and spas and wellness are taken seriously. I was still pleasantly surprised that in a water park there is also room for such fine spa facilities as they have in the water park Tropical Islands.
We agreed that the children continued to enjoy themselves on the slides, and we adults went to their spa world, where there are saunas, cold and hot baths and just pure relaxation.
We had heard that there were several places in the enclosed spa area where there was a "Textilfrei Zone", which means that even swimwear must be removed, and they thought that sounded too wild.
It was now possible to use a towel in most places, but there was no mercy for sauna gas: You only got in if you put the textiles outside and then enveloped yourself in the hot steam. And what fumes! I'm not sure how I feel about the beer with garlic, which quite a few guests had requested, but the mint version was fantastic.
Badeland: The new accommodation options and practical information
We lived in what is called 'Tropendorf', the Tropical Village, in the middle of the hall.
Our rooms were in the Borneo house, which is built as a completely traditional longhouse from Sarawak in the Malaysian part of Borneo. They even had help from Borneo to make sure it was done just right – very impressive and really nice room.
There was also a beautiful 'fale' - a beach hut from Samoa – which is one of my favorite tropical islands in the world, so it was quite nice to see it here.
The water park has quite a few different types of accommodation and has just built a brand new Hawaii hotel just outside the hall, OHANA, where there is direct access to the hall.
They also have Indian tents, cabins and caravans, so there is something for every taste – and every budget. Note that they are located in quite different places in the area, and there are often good offers.
A good tip is that you have access to the hall all day on both the day of arrival and departure, and therefore you get a lot of waterpark time with just a few nights. You can also go on one-day trips, for example by train from within Berlin, but our recommendation is clearly to stay the night and get the whole experience.
We drove ourselves on Thursday from Denmark and then had the whole of Friday and Saturday in the tropics and drove on Sunday morning. You usually drive around Berlin, but on Sunday morning it is just as fast to drive through the city.
As the children had not been to Berlin before and have had a lot of history lessons, it was a great experience to suddenly drive past 'Die Mauer' - the Berlin Wall - and Potsdamer Platz.
It was the first long trip in our new electric car, and it was therefore quite practical that Tropical Islands has a charging facility right in front of the entrance. Just remember to order it in advance, as there is a limited number of charging slots for now. In addition, there were plenty of fast charging stations on the way to the ferry in Rostock.
You do not need to be able to speak German to visit the water park; English and sign language are perfectly fine.
Tropical Islands is a water park and a water park. But it's actually much more than that, so if you're into fun and wet experiences, it's definitely worth a trip.
Good trip to the Tropical Islands.
This is what you must experience in the Tropical Islands near Berlin
- The rainforest with flamingos
- The large water slides in the water park
- Amazonia outdoor area
- The beautiful rooms in the tropical village and OHANA
- Tropical sauna & wellness
Did you know: Here are the 7 cities in Europe with the most hours of sunshine
7: Nice in France – 342 hours/month
6: Valencia in Spain – 343 hours/month
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