Activities & Surroundings

The Bad Liebenstein healing spring was first mentioned in records in 1590. As early as 1601, the “Sauerbrunnen” (sour spring) – named after the small village below Liebenstein Castle at the time – was said to have a “mysterious” effect.

From 1800 onwards, Duke Georg I began the strategic development of Liebenstein as a spa. He designed its structure and set up a spa administration in 1801.

You are welcome to experience the healing power of the water for yourself with a relaxing bath in the newly built Kurhaus (spa house); the healing water is also available for treatments every day in the Wandelhalle (pump room).

The Liebenstein castle ruins stand north of and above the town of Bad Liebenstein on the Schlossberg (castle hill). It is a hilltop castle (460 m above sea level) and was most probably built around 1360. After a fire the castle fell into disrepair and was already regarded as a ruin in the 18th century.

In 1932 the Liebenstein castle community built a lookout tower and a log cabin at the foot of the ruins. Today the Bad Liebenstein nature and local history society lovingly looks after the castle ruins. Every two years it also hosts a medieval castle festival.

On the advice of the famous poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Duke Georg I had a playhouse built in Bad Liebenstein in 1801. The spa theatre, known today as the “Comödienhaus“, was handed over to the spa administration in 1804 and has once again been hosting regular performances since its 200th anniversary in 2004. Whether drama, cabaret or music – the programme is very varied.

The palace was built between 1804 and 1805 as the summer residence of the ducal family of Meiningen and later, through marriage, passed to the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. The building’s impressive dome is an architectural gem.

Today Palais Weimar houses the town and spa library, and the domed hall is home to the music room.

Not far from the hotel (approx. 2 km) you can admire Altenstein Palace, the former palace of the Dukes of Meiningen. It was built in 1736 as a residential country house for the Dukes of Meiningen and extended after 1800 as a summer residence. The palace is set in extensive parkland, Altenstein Park, and together with its outbuildings forms the Altenstein district of the spa town of Bad Liebenstein in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia.

Public transport will take you directly to Altenstein Park, from where it is just a few minutes’ walk to the palace. We will also be happy to arrange a taxi for you.

Tours in and around Bad Liebenstein by e-carriage and e-tuk-tuk

Discover the spa town of Bad Liebenstein and its picturesque surroundings in our unusual vehicles. Click here for the offer.

Altenstein Park is a listed landscape park within the spa town of Bad Liebenstein. Covering around 160 hectares, it is one of the largest historic parks in Thuringia.

Here you can discover many more sights, such as the Devil’s Bridge (Teufelsbrücke), the Morning Gate (Morgentor), the Luisenthal waterfall, the Boniface Rock (Bonifatiusfelsen) and the Herabzog.

Altenstein Cave, discovered during blasting work in 1799, is Thuringia’s oldest show cave and natural cave. It even has an underground lake on which boat trips were held in the dukes’ time. Duke Georg I of Saxe-Meiningen had the cave developed as a show cave when Altenstein Park was laid out.

Ice-age fossils and bones of cave bears have been found here.

Thanks to intensified research since 2000, around 2,000 metres of passages have been explored to date, including chambers with numerous stalactites and stalagmites.

Unfortunately, there are currently no guided tours; we will let you know as soon as they are offered again.

Built in 1799 on a steep rocky cliff, the Knights’ Chapel (Ritterkapelle) was the first architectural feature of the park. It is located in Altenstein Palace Park and was the meeting place of the first Freemasons in the time of Duke Georg I. Once you have climbed the 42 steps of the rather narrow, winding staircase, you can enjoy a magnificent view of the palace, the Devil’s Bridge and the parkland.

Bad Liebenstein Zoo is a green oasis on the edge of the spa town. It offers an insight into native and exotic wildlife and plants.

You can see over 200 animals here – fun for young and old alike.

The zoo is about a ten-minute walk from the hotel.

The Rennsteig is a historic boundary trail in the middle of the Thuringian Forest. Around 170 km long, it is a must for keen hikers. It is the oldest long-distance trail in Germany and, with around 100,000 hikers a year, also the most popular.

The Rennsteig starts in Hörschel, a district of Eisenach, on the banks of the Werra and ends in Blankenstein (municipality of Rosenthal am Rennsteig) at the Selbitz bridge.

From Bad Liebenstein, popular hikes lead past the inn at the Dreiherrnstein, to the Hohe Klinge or to the Kleiner and Großer Inselsberg.

The trail is marked by a large white R on trees and signposts.

Since 1999 the Wartburg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the best-known castles in Germany. It towers above the town of Eisenach on the edge of the Thuringian Forest.

The castle was built around 1067 by Ludwig the Springer. From 1211 to 1227 it was home to Elisabeth of Thuringia, who was later canonised.

In 1521/22 the reformer Martin Luther hid here as “Junker Jörg” (Squire George) and during this time translated the New Testament into German in just eleven weeks.

A visit to the Wartburg is absolutely worthwhile and a must for every history lover.

The gorge lies south of Eisenach, between the southern edge of the town and the Hohe Sonne forest area on the Rennsteig. The southern entrance is at Hohe Sonne, the northern entrance on the road up to the Waldhaus Sängerwiese.

Starting from the Marienthal valley, you pass a pond and enter the Dragon Gorge. Wide at first, the walls then close in and rise steeply, forming a wildly romantic ravine that is only shoulder-wide in places.

A stream rushes beneath your feet as you walk along metal grating walkways. In winter, meltwater and frost often create bizarre ice formations, which can spread so far that the gorge becomes impassable. The path continues through the Annatal valley to Hohe Sonne.

In 1820 the ducal house of Meiningen decided to build a new court theatre in Meiningen. Due to financial difficulties and the reorganisation of the duchy in 1826, construction was delayed until 1829. Under Duke Bernhard II, a large building that was modern for its time was erected in the neoclassical style to plans by the Brunswick court architect Carl Theodor Ottmer, with 600 seats and 160 standing places.

The theatre is the birthplace of modern director’s theatre, which is still practised today.

At the end of the 19th century, as the Meiningen Court Theatre of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, it made this far-reaching theatre reform famous through numerous guest performances throughout Europe.

The theatre’s ensemble offers music theatre, drama, concerts and puppet theatre.

The theatre is also home to the Meiningen Court Orchestra.

Experience health and well-being at the Solewelt in Bad Salzungen. Here you can feel the benefits of 200 years of spa tradition for yourself – ideal for relaxing, regenerating and simply feeling good.

With a warm water temperature of 32 degrees in the large activity pool, the brine bath invites everyone to join in water aerobics. The brine concentration here is 2 per cent. This provides gentle buoyancy, relieves your joints and actively strengthens your muscles.

A special feature is the brine flotation pool. With a salt concentration of 15 per cent and a water temperature of 34 degrees, it feels as if you are floating on the water.

The baths also have a spacious sauna area that is very popular with sauna lovers.

Medical applications and treatments are available at the adjoining graduation tower.

This sandstone cave is located in Walldorf, a suburb of the town of Meiningen. It is the largest of its kind in Europe. The underground labyrinth covers an area of around 65,000 square metres. Here you can get an idea of the lives of the German sand-making families who, with the simplest of tools, created an underground labyrinth with 2,500 supporting pillars.

On a walk through the show cave, your children or grandchildren can enjoy figures from all kinds of fairy tales.

mini-a-thür is a leisure park in Ruhla, Thuringia, around 12 km from Bad Liebenstein.

The park covers 19,000 m², opened in 1999 and now has over 100 models. With around 75,000 visitors a year, it is one of the biggest attractions in the Wartburgkreis district.

The permanent exhibition shows 1:25 scale models of Thuringian landmarks in an outdoor area during the summer months. In winter the models are displayed in a museum hall.

The Trusetal waterfall is the highest waterfall in the Thuringian Forest. It is located in the town of Brotterode-Trusetal and is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made attraction. The waterfall was created in 1865 by miners from Trusetal under the supervision of the building official Specht. Inspired by the imposing backdrop of granite and porphyry rock in the narrow V-shaped valley of the Truse, this wildly romantic waterfall – now a natural monument – was created in 1865.

From April to October, a weir below Brotterode diverts part of the Truse’s water, which then flows gently downhill along the Hübelsberg and Halbstein. Over a distance of 3.5 km, the man-made waterfall channel winds naturally and harmoniously through the forest landscape. Where the rock formations created by volcanic activity stand out most strikingly, the water thunders 58 metres down in three cascades into a basin before continuing on its way in the actual riverbed.

A circular trail, which begins with 228 steps at the waterfall, leads through the grounds of this attraction. Interested visitors can also visit the Trusetal Dwarf Park right next door.

At 916.5 m, the Inselsberg is not the highest mountain in the Thuringian Forest, but it is the best known and most visited. Its steep summit can be seen from far away. On the plateau, a mountain inn with unmistakable Thuringian hospitality awaits those who make it to the top. The Großer Inselsberg lies in the middle of a nature reserve.

The legendary ridge trail of the Thuringian Forest, the Rennsteig, runs over the mountain. In clear weather you can easily make out the ridges of the Harz and Rhön mountains.

From the 21-metre lookout tower, visitors can enjoy a 360° panoramic view. The lower floors display part of the original transmission equipment of the former telecommunications tower. The tower is also an unusual climbing location: there is a 17-metre climbing wall with an auto-belay on the outside of the building.

The summer toboggan run on the Inselsberg in the Thuringian Forest, between Tabarz and Brotterode, is one of the most popular destinations in the Thuringian Forest. In the stainless-steel channel with 12 steep bends, tobogganers can race down into the valley at up to 40 km/h, and the automatic lift takes you comfortably back up the hill.

Children aged 8 and over may toboggan on their own, and from the age of 3 when accompanied by an adult.

The Inselsberg Fun Park has been developed around the 1,000-metre summer toboggan run, and the new Wie-Flyer is certainly its most spectacular attraction: passengers fly through the air in aircraft-style gondolas at up to 40 km/h.

A challenge for the brave awaits visitors in the high ropes course at the Inselsberg Fun Park, a combination of climbing exercises and a flying fox course, where visitors fly through the air on zip lines up to 60 m long at heights of up to 8 m above the ground. The Nautic Jet, Luna Loop and a large trampoline area complete the varied range of leisure activities.

At the panorama snack bar you can refuel while enjoying the view of the fun park and the Thuringian Forest.

Above Bad Tabarz, right at the foot of the Inselsberg, you will find the family-friendly climbing forest. Here, out in nature, there are seven varied courses with different levels of difficulty and a total of over 100 elements at heights of between 1 and 22 metres.

Whether you are 5 or 50, a family, a group of friends, a school class or a company group – a trip to the Bad Tabarz climbing forest is an unforgettable, fun experience that will stay with you for a long time.