Swimming

TURM ErlebnisCity in Oranienburg covers indoor sports in their entirety: five 25-meter lanes in the sports pool, plus badminton, table tennis, bowling, skittles, and a large-field hall for volleyball, basketball, and football. In the adventure pool, real waves roll in a 400 square meter basin. On rainy days, one day here is rarely enough.

Lake Sacrow, located between Kladow and Sacrow, is the quietest swimming lake in the west: 110 hectares in a glacial channel, up to 39 meters deep, fed by groundwater and surrounded by the Königswald forest. Swimming is permitted at two tolerated natural bathing areas, including a sandy beach with shallow entry at the northern tip. No entrance fee, no infrastructure.

Lake Groß-Glienicke is one of the clearest swimming lakes in the region: 66 hectares, up to 11.2 meters deep, almost entirely fed by groundwater, with the state border running right through its waters. The Potsdam bathing area 'An der Badewiese' offers a fine sandy beach, sunbathing lawn, forest playground, and kiosk pavilion with excellent water quality.

With 1,275 meters of sandy beach and 355,000 square meters of grounds, Strandbad Wannsee is Berlin's largest lake beach: Baltic Sea sand, historic New Objectivity changing rooms, FKK zone, beach volleyball, and beach chairs. A day ticket costs 6.50 Euros, reduced 3.80 Euros, and the S-Bahn stops 1.2 kilometers away. The whole site is a listed monument.

Strandbad Wendenschloss is located on the Langen See in Köpenick, with a sandy beach, jetty, and diving tower. Admission costs 7 Euros, reduced 4.50 Euros, children aged three to twelve pay 3 Euros. Beach chairs, sun loungers, and umbrellas are available for rent, along with beach volleyball, table tennis, a bocce court, and a beer garden with a beach bar.

In Bad Wilsnack, thermal brine bubbles up from a depth of 1,018 meters at 39 degrees Celsius and about 16 percent salt. The facility combines five brine pools ranging from 1.5 to 12 percent, a salt lake with 24 percent brine, eight themed saunas in up to 300-year-old farmhouses, and a 50-meter-long graduation tower, the first graduation facility in Brandenburg.

The Liquidrom is located in the Kuppelhalle on Möckernstraße in Kreuzberg. In DOME 36, you float in 36-degree warm salt water and hear music beneath the surface. Additionally, there are five saunas and steam baths, a warm outdoor pool, a dark relaxation area, and a cold plunge pool. The shortest tariff is 90 minutes and costs 22 Euros.

Friedrichshagen Lido is located on Lake Müggelsee, Berlin's largest lake, and offers a diving tower, beach basketball, free ping-pong tables, and a lakeside bar behind the sandy beach. Residents of 12587, 12589, or 15566 pay less at this swimming lake, with day tickets starting at just 6 Euros and evening rates at only 4 Euros.

The Olympiastadion Summer Pool was the venue for the Olympic swimming competitions in 1936, and the facility from 1934 to 1936 still stands today. In addition to the 50-meter pool, there is a separate diving pool with one- and three-meter springboards, as well as platforms at five, seven and a half, and ten meters high. A day ticket costs 6.50 Euros, reduced 3.80 Euros.

On the shore of Lake Scharmützelsee, there is no thermal bath, but a pure sauna resort: seven saunas and a steam bath, including the SATAMA Theater for up to 160 guests and the Maa-Sauna with up to 120 degrees Celsius. Founded in 2002 with five saunas, today it hosts infusion world championships and attracts around 80,000 guests annually.

Strandbad Jungfernheide is Berlin's only swimming lake with its own waterski and wakeboard cable park, plus four 50-meter lanes in the lake, a long pier, and the Strandhaus Café with a terrace. The artificially created Jungfernheide Pond is located within Erwin Barth's registered garden monument; a day ticket costs 8 Euros, reduced 6 Euros.

The Jungfernheide lido on Jungfernheidesee offers a sandy beach, sunbathing lawns in semi-shade, and a long pier with four 50-meter lanes. Additionally, there's a waterski and wakeboard cable car directly on the lake, slides, and a beach volleyball court. Admission starts at 8 Euros; children aged three to fifteen pay less.

Wandlitzsee Beach is the deepest swimming lake on this list: 24.5 meters deep, 204.6 hectares of water surface, and rated excellent. The municipality of Wandlitz operates it itself, with a lift at the pier, a barrel sauna, 1- and 3-meter diving boards, and a bathing platform with a slide. Adults pay 5 Euros, children aged five and up pay 1 Euro.

On the shore of the Großer Zernsee in Werder, the Havel-Therme welcomes its guests with Moorish-Andalusian architecture and palm trees. The brine and spring pools range from 34 to 40 degrees, and at the pool bar, guests sit on underwater stools in the warm water. Additionally, there are 13 saunas and steam baths, and a 160-meter-long pier leading out to the lake for cooling down.

Learn to swim in one week: The Swimkids swimming school offers intensive swimming courses in Moabit and Prenzlauer Berg during the Berlin summer holidays 2026. Children from 3.5 years old train daily in age-appropriate groups until they achieve the Seepferdchen, Bronze, Silver, or Gold badge.

About 80 kilometers from Berlin, in the spa park of Bad Belzig, there is a facility whose spring brine, with around 20 percent salt content, approaches that of the Dead Sea. Six pools are spread over more than 750 square meters of water surface, plus seven saunas with hourly infusions, and the LichtKlangRaum, a brine pool with sound and light effects underwater.

Kallinchen Lido at Motzener Lake is the most affordable swimming lake on this list: adults pay 4 Euros, children 2 Euros. For that, you get a 100-meter swimming beach, a swimming island, a water slide, mini-golf, beach soccer, and a designated naturist area. Motzener Lake is 16.6 meters deep, and motorboats are strictly forbidden there.

Sommerbad Neukölln on Columbiadamm, known by many as Columbiabad, boasts Berlin's longest slide at 83 meters. Bruno Grimmek designed the facility, which was built from 1950 to 1951 and reopened in 2015. The 50-meter pool reaches a depth of 5.50 meters, supplemented by a multi-purpose pool and a toddler pool. A day ticket costs 7 Euros, or 4.20 Euros reduced.

The Kleiner Müggelsee (Little Müggelsee) near Neu Helgoland is the quiet alternative to the large Müggelsee: 10.3 hectares, natural shoreline in the Müggelspree landscape protection area and an official bathing area with excellent water quality. Accessible by the BVG ferry F23, free of charge, with a water rescue station and a bathing area protected from boat traffic.

Stadtbad Neukölln in Ganghoferstrasse is no ordinary swimming pool, but a listed bath palace whose neoclassical halls with columns, arcades and mosaics seem to have sprung directly from ancient Rome. Those swimming laps in Neukölln have been doing so since 1914 in one of Europe's most beautiful swimming pools.

The SSE in Prenzlauer Berg is Berlin's most impressive indoor swimming pool for fitness and sports: Europe's largest indoor pool with a 50-meter basin, ten lanes, and a 10-meter diving tower, attracting both recreational swimmers and competitive athletes.

Strandbad Wendenschloss is nestled in a forest on Lake Langer See and is the only swimming lake on this list where the evening rate costs nothing at all. A jetty with a diving tower, beach chairs, boules, beach volleyball, and boat and SUP rental are available, and the lido is barrier-free. A day ticket costs 7 euros, reduced 4.50 euros.

On the RAW grounds in Friedrichshain, the DJ collective Freak de l'Afrique has been operating Maaya Berlin since 2024, previously known as Haubentaucher. Surrounding the 240 square meter heated outdoor pool are a sun deck, sandy areas with hammocks, and a lounge under a wine pergola. During the day, people swim, and in the evenings, multiple stages play Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Bachata.

In Berlin-Mitte, not far from Nordbahnhof, awaits one of the city's most beautiful indoor pools: The Stadtbad Mitte "James Simon" combines Weimar architectural history with serious competitive swimming over 50 meters. Light, air, and high ceilings included.

The centrovital in Berlin-Spandau stands for wellness with a view: The 4-star superior hotel on Lake Spandau combines an expansive day spa with leg and foot massages, waxing, and pedicure treatments under a historic brick roof of the former Schultheiss Brewery.