Tropical Islands - Germany

When travelling with kids you have to add a few things to the itinerary that keep them entertained.  In Europe, whilst the culture and architecture are fascinating for the adults, the kids are not so readily impressed.  It is important to pepper the trip with a few fun activities.

Tropical Islands is a bizarre concept that we gravitated to.  About 60kms south of Berlin lies a large dome like structure that houses a year-round beach and waterpark.  For a country that spends so much of the year in cold and darkness, you can imagine the appeal a location like this would hold for locals.

For Australians, slightly a strange thing to do given we have amazing beaches and weather - but we always like to do something a little bit quirky on our trips.

Tropical Islands is a complete one stop resort in the middle of the German forrest.  Once you are in, they have you - there is not really anything close by.

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More than just a day trip

Visitors come not for the day - but the whole night, or longer.  Accommodation options range from pool side chalets, to fancy tents in the sand, to a block of hotel rooms - which we opted for. (AKA the cheapest option with it’s own bathroom).

Our family room was quite spacious, there was a seperate room with twin beds for the kids, a mini fridge with complimentary water and apple juice and the room included wifi. Rooms were made available at 4pm and checkout the next day was 11am, with access to the resort facilities until 10pm after check out.

Upon arrival guests are issued a wrist band that doubles as a room key, payment card and locker key.  Everything in the resort is swipe to pay and whilst we had breakfast included, all other meals had to be purchased. The breakfast buffet however was amazing and we certainly maximised this offer after a full day in the pool the day before.

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Mega Water Play ground

The actual water park offered a number of options.  Waterslides, outdoor pools and jacuzzi, lagoon pool, beach pool and an adult spa and sauna. 

When you got all wrinkly and needed a break from the water, there was a rainforest area walk through with a variety of animals and plants to explore - including some flamingos! Or for around AUD$100 a family you could take to the air for a balloon basket ride that gave an inside aerial view of the resort. 
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The sheer size and magnitude of this place blew me away. Taking a nap near the beach pool I estimated at least 2000 deck pool chairs in that area alone. It was mind blowing.

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not a cheap adventure

This was however by no means a cheap quirk to our itinerary, but we decided to add it in regardless.  At just short of AUD$500 for a family of four - including park entry, overnight accommodation and buffet breakfast - plus the meals and drinks purchased during the day, it was an AUD$600 overnight excursion. Actually - add in the apple watch that came off during a waterslide ride - and it brings it to over AUD$1,000!

So as long as you are not on a tight budget - or if you are happy like us to splurge on a couple of activities in your itinerary, we recommend you give it a go.  It is definitely something different that will be a forever memory.  Take a look at their website for more details. 

Penny - Itchy Feet Family

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