Next week I'll be on the Rhine River with AmaWaterways and am esepecially excited to visit Baden-Baden in Germany's Black Forest because it's been on my own list for years. I first became aware of it through learning about the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the beautiful Brenners Park Hotel & Spa. The hotel is near the Museum Frieder Burda designed by Richard Meier, the opera house, and the town's famous thermal springs. Baden-Baden sounds so, so dreamy to me.

Baden-Baden is only 90 minutes from Frankfurt, a major airline hub. It's easy to reach but probably really hard to leave. You'll definitely want to stay at the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa on your visit!

Excerpt of 3/4/2026 Virtuoso article by Devorah Lev-Tov can be found here.

 A legendary German wellness retreat debuts a big refresh.

The plucked-from-a-fairy-tale town of Baden-Baden in Germany’s Black Forest might be where Cinderella and Prince Charming holed up for a wellness-focused honeymoon. Romans bathed in the town’s thermal waters more than 2,000 years ago, and Europe’s elite have long summered there, seeking the springs’ healing benefits. In 1872, the opening of what’s now the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, adjoining Lichtentaler Allee park, ushered in yet another wave of spa-goers. Since then, Oetker Hotels’ 105-room flagship has evolved into an all-seasons escape, home to one of the country’s premier med-spas. It reopened last fall after an extensive 18-month revitalization, and as a spa obsessive, I was excited to check it out. 

During my December visit, my time at Brenners Park revolved around the spa, but I was quickly impressed by the hotel’s bend-over-backward staff, excellent restaurants, and enchanting Black Forest surroundings. As I reclined fireside in an overstuffed chair on my first afternoon, I relished knowing that my only evening plans were a massage. Here, five things I loved about my stay.

New Rooms, Old School Touches

When it undertook the most extensive update in its history, Brenners Park aimed to modernize, but retaining the property’s nineteenth-century Beaux-Arts facade and character remained paramount. So although rooms now sport enhanced automated climate control and better soundproofing, bedside iPad controls remain verboten. Richly patterned curtains – all selected by Bergit Douglas, a member of the Oetker family who led the hotel’s interior design – still have to be drawn by hand. New brass switches by Meljac turn lights on and off with a satisfyingly analog click. The reimagined rooms have new marble bathrooms, antique and local-artisan-made furniture, and lighter color palettes – in mine, I loved the pale-pink armchairs, white rattan headboard, and the Pierre Frey tasseled curtains.

Historic Public Spaces

Famous past Brenners Park guests – from Otto von Bismarck and Edward VIII to Henry Ford and Walt Disney – all once descended the lobby’s grand, quarter-turn staircase. Crews refurbished its ornate railings and added a new custom, fern-printed carpet inspired by the surrounding Black Forest. The property’s antique gilded mirrors and crystal chandeliers remain, but new furniture and fresh coats of paint brighten up common and private spaces. At checkout, staff gifted me a notebook covered in fabric wallpaper that was uncovered during the renovation, with the room it was found in noted inside.

Celery Root Soup for the Soul

Given its med-spa credentials, I assumed Brenners Park’s culinary focus would be “health food that leaves you wanting way more.” But when I arrived from Strasbourg, very ready for lunch, the maître d’ led me to the light-filled Restaurant Wintergarten for its daily prix fixe, three-course special. An amuse-bouche of white asparagus preceded a velvety celery-root soup hiding smoked trout and drizzled with port wine, which was followed by a crispy-skinned trout fillet atop a dreamy, cauliflower-studded lemon risotto, painted with a rich beurre blanc. It was soul-nourishing: healthy but not depriving. My lunch was the first of a series of meals across the hotel’s six restaurants and bars, including charcoal-grilled entrées at Fritz & Felix and afternoon tea in the lobby’s cozy Kaminhalle lounge.

Tiers of Wellness

Brenners Park’s health legacy attracts retreat seekers like me, as well as biohackers looking for longevity-focused biocellular renewal treatments, patients receiving preventative health care, and guests booking aesthetic dermatology services. The doctors on staff at the hotel’s Brenners Spa & Wellbeing specialize in everything from dentistry to physiotherapy – guests can book one-off appointments or two- to ten-day programs. Following a personalized assessment with Dr. Harry König, the med-spa’s director, I settled into a cozy chair with a vitamin-packed IV drip. Twenty minutes later, my jet lag had dissipated, and I was ready to wander into the Black Forest. Over in the Villa Stéphanie building, the hotel’s spa houses an indoor pool, saunas, steam showers, multiple lounge areas, and 15 treatment rooms.

Into the Woods

Brenners’ parkside perch is quiet, but it’s only a ten-minute walk to the city center and its famous casino and opera house. Stroll a bit farther and you’ll reach the spa district, where the ruins of the town’s ancient Roman bathhouses still stand, and visitors take to the waters at the public Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths. A short walk south from the hotel, across the River Oos’ footbridges and past nineteenth-century summer villas, takes you to the trailheads that lead directly into the Black Forest. The hotel’s concierges can arrange hiking and forest-bathing walks (they’re also part of many of the spa’s wellness programs), and my guided Black Forest trek left me tranquil and ready for yet another relaxing session at the spa.

Virtuoso travelers receive breakfast daily, $100 hotel credit, and if available: upgrade on arrival and early check-in/late check-out. Stay for five or more nights and receive an additional $100 hotel credit.

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