You wake up. Roll over. Look out the window. A penguin stares back at you. This isn’t a fever dream. This is the Spreewelten Hotel in Lübbenau, Germany, where the line between human habitat and penguin territory dissolves into 46 metres of acrylic glass…
The Most Bizarre Penguin Experience You’ll Ever Have
The hotel opened in March 2019 after a €12 million redesign. Sixty rooms including children’s sleeping areas designed as “penguin caves” with 360-degree themed décor…
Your kids sleep in penguin-themed bunk beds whilst the Humboldt penguins (native to Peru and Chile), now calling the German Spreewald hotel and park home glide past outside.
The facility connects directly to Spreeweltenbad water park through a 105-metre “bathrobe corridor” starting on the second floor. You walk from your room to ‘swim with penguins’ without even getting dressed. No queuing. No changing rooms. Just penguins..!
What Actually Happens When You Swim..?
Europe’s largest acrylic glass front separates you from the penguins along that 46-metre stretch. Visitors describe it as an “oddly intimate shared space between species.” You’re swimming. They’re swimming.
The penguin facility provides three times as much space as the previous habitat – 500 cubic metres of pool. Feeding shows happen daily at 11.30am and 3.30pm. For an additional €10, you can participate directly in feeding them, though spaces are limited.
The Stuff Nobody Tells You
The hotel sits in the Spreewald region, Germany’s “Green Venice” with over 1,500 kilometres of canals winding through forests and villages. Some residents still depend on boats for mail delivery, fire services and rubbish collection in this UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
The region is home to the Sorbian people, the world’s smallest Slavic ethnic group numbering just 60,000 individuals. They created over 250 kilometres of navigable waterways through extraordinary engineering dating back potentially to the 5th or 6th century.
The facility features “world first” interactive water slides with customisable digital slide technology. You design your own ride before plunging down a 118-metre slide. Colours, effects, individual tube sections—all configured online beforehand.
Fourteen themed saunas including a ‘gherkin sauna’ where you swing whilst sweating. Traditional German wellness protocol applies: no swimsuits allowed(!)
Take ‘The Plunge’ & Book It Now…!
This is quite possibly one of the most bizarre and unusual hotels in Germany – so what are you waiting for, book your room now – and say hi to the penguins from us…!
FIND & BOOK NOW
PRICE : ★★★★☆
WOW FACTOR : ★★★★☆
BIZARRENESS : ★★★☆☆
