Alpamare Waterpark
Alpamare no longer exists. The waterpark at Ludwigstrasse 14 closed permanently on 30 August 2015, and what you find there now is a quieter, more ambiguous story. For forty-five years it was Germany's first wave pool — opened in 1970 under a cantilever hall with a fabric roof, a genuinely novel piece of engineering at the time — and at its peak it drew half a million visitors a year to the edge of the Bavarian Alps.
The site sits in Bad Tölz as a kind of ghost landmark: the attached Hotel Jodquellenhof briefly housed asylum seekers after closure, then reopened in part as a contractor's hostel. What Alpamare was, and what the land becomes next, is still unresolved.
The story behind Alpamare Waterpark
Max Anton Hoefter founded Alpamare in 1970 through Jodquellen AG, the company that had already shaped Bad Tölz into a recognised spa town. The park's wave pool — Germany's first — sat inside a large cantilever hall and was a genuine novelty: an American-style action park grafted onto a European thermal tradition. By the time it was certified to DIN EN ISO 9001 for hygiene standards in 1997, it was drawing international attention, and in 2001 it installed the first indoor FlowRider artificial surf wave in Europe.
Awards followed — a Parkscout Award in 2006, a World Waterpark Association Industry Leadership Award in 2007 — but visitor numbers had quietly declined. The Hotel Jodquellenhof closed in December 2014, and Alpamare followed eight months later. Anton Hoefter, son of the founder, was running Jodquellen AG by then. The Guinness-certified slide complex, the iodine thermal pool, the Bel'mare restaurant: all of it stopped on the same August day.
Good to know
Alpamare is permanently closed and cannot be visited. Bad Tölz itself is easily reached from Munich Central Station in about an hour by train. The town's Marktstrasse, Kalvarienberg and Blomberg mountain are all active and worth your time instead.
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What travellers say about Alpamare Waterpark
I don’t know why the other reviews say it’s dirty - in my opinion it was one of the cleanest water parks I’ve been to. Changing rooms, showers, and all of the pools were really clean. Slides were great fun. Pools were really nice too, and the warmer pool was very relaxing. The only downside was that the portion of ice cream I was served in the café was very, very small for the price paid. So I’d recommend having some food before you go instead.
Overall, our visit to Alpamare was okay, but there are several important issues that need urgent attention. On the positive side, parking is free and tickets can be conveniently booked online in advance. The water park is easy to find, and the overall layout is quite intuitive, even for first-time visitors. However, there are some serious downsides. Very often, especially on the water slides, you feel left completely on your own. The traffic lights on the slides work in a confusing way: you barely finish your ride when another person is already coming down right behind you. This creates dangerous situations and shows a lack of proper control. In addition, there are very few lifeguards. Even getting a simple bandage is difficult, which is unacceptable for a place like this. The staff is generally not very friendly, with the exception of a few employees. One slide in particular, Cresta Canyon, feels very dangerous. The drop is almost vertical (close to 90 degrees), and there is a real risk of falling or hitting the side barriers. Safety on this slide should definitely be reconsidered. Finally, there is no picnic area at all. The changing rooms are very crowded, with almost no space, and the layout is strange and impractical, especially when the park is busy. In conclusion, Alpamare has potential, but safety, staff availability, and overall infrastructure need significant improvement.
September Teenage birthday party also turned into a lovely and relaxing afternoon for the mum. Much nicer than anticipated and the outdoor pools lovely with plenty of space.
Very nice and clean place. My daughter loved it!! We definitely recommend it. The only thing is just that I find the lady on the register no that nice and she was looking rude at us like we want to steal something. Without saying anything, just the price.
Went there with my partner on a saturday afternoon during the easter holdidays. It was perfect. Not overrun never had to wait for the slides. The slides were incredible a lot more action than I thought they might be. Unsure why this place doesn't have 5 stars. Food was great and reasonable as well. Would 100% come back again! If you book your tickets a couple of days early on their website you'll get some discount as well.
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