Baden-Baden travel guides

Plan Baden-Baden with landmark visitor guides, practical itinerary choices, family ideas and links to researched city guides and attraction details.

Caracalla Spa sells two separate kinds of admission: the bathing area alone, and the higher-priced bathing-plus-sauna area. This guide explains how timed tickets work, what the wristband covers, what to pack, how long to allow, and how Caracalla differs from Friedrichsbad next door.

Admission to the Friedrichsbad buys more than a swim: it covers a Roman-Irish bathing circuit, slippers, towels, shampoo and lotion, plus tea in the reading room. This guide explains the operator-stated inclusions, the textile-free rule with its Wednesday and Saturday swimwear exception, the age limit, opening hours and the separately booked soap-and-brush massage.

Hohenbaden Castle, known as Altes Schloss, is a ruined hilltop residence above Baden-Baden with free entry to the ruins. This guide covers the walk up from town, arriving by car, what stands at the site, the Battert rocks next door, and the weather conditions that can affect access.

The casino inside Baden-Baden's Kurhaus sells two distinct products: daytime guided tours of the historic rooms and evening gaming admission. Knowing which one you want, and checking the operator's current price list and closure days before you travel, prevents most disappointments.

The Lichtentaler Allee is Baden-Baden's elongated landscape park along the Oos, free to walk, jog or cycle. This guide explains its origin, how to choose a segment when time is short, what is ticketed nearby, and how the avenue connects to the Kurhaus and the museum end of town.

The Merkur rises above Baden-Baden and the MerkurBergbahn funicular climbs it. The key planning fact is operational: the operator states departures run on demand, triggered by a button, and that daily service runs from 10:00 to 22:00. A free tower lift, a restaurant and picnic lawns wait at the top.

One ticket, one privately run museum: the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden shows rotating presentations from a collection of around 1000 works, and its Richard Meier building is linked to the adjacent Staatliche Kunsthalle by a glass bridge. This guide explains what admission covers, why you should check the exhibition calendar before booking, how opening hours shape a day in the Lichtentaler Allee, and where to verify current prices and concessions.

Baden-Baden's Roman bath ruins are an underground site entered from Steinstraße or the Friedrichsbad car park, not a monument you can see from the square. This guide explains what has survived, how the audioguide and film work, and how the ruins differ from the town's working thermal baths.

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is a contemporary art hall on Lichtentaler Allee, open Tuesday to Sunday. This guide covers admission rates, tour surcharges, the 2026 programme and how the Kunsthalle differs from the neighbouring Museum Frieder Burda.

The Stiftskirche is Baden-Baden's oldest continuously used building and the burial church of the Margraves of Baden. This guide explains its Romanesque tower, late-Gothic choir, Baroque rebuilding and the artworks inside, and shows which details you confirm with the parish before you travel.

Baden-Baden is a compact spa town best seen on foot, but the phrase free walking tour needs unpacking. The streets, colonnades and parkland cost nothing, while the thermal baths, museums and casino are ticketed separately. This guide covers the certified German-language operator tour and two self-guided routes split by how much time you have.