I'll be in Dusseldorf in December. My admin reserved a hotel in Ratigen for one night, and I see that it is close to Oceans.  I have a rental car, and will be driving up to Recklinghausen for two nights.

I'm thinking of trying Oceans since its so close to my hotel. But I hear it's hit or miss.  Any suggestions for near Recklinghausen?

Also, what's the language situation in these clubs, especially away from tourist areas.  Do the people at the front desk usually speak English?  My German is non existent, with the exception of "Ein bier, Bitte!"

Bowman

Near Ratingen there are plenty of options within about a 20 minute drive:

Actually in Ratingen you have Acapulco gold, which is cheap (entry 20 or 30 and sex 40 for 30 minutes). this used to be the highly praised Panthera, but has been slipping...

Oceans is very close by and is indeed hit and miss, only gets interesting late at night.

Heaven 7 (small), Magnum, Dolce Vita and Livingroom are all easily reached. Like Oceans, Magnum doesn't get interesting till late at night. Livingroom and H7 are more daytime clubs (as is Acapulco Gold btw). You could also go to the original Acapulco, but it is kind of in the middle of nowhere near Velbert.

In Recklinghausen there is only one club I know of (villa romantika), but this is one of the RTC clubs (cheap and BBFS readily available; less than 10 girls and not always the prettiest). Unless this is you niche, I would not reccommend it.

Nearby there are other options though. As you drive up to Recklinghausen (you'll take the A52 towards Essen, where you have a few miles on the A40 until you take the A43 towards Recklinghausesn) there are multiple options.

I'll mostly stick to the bigger clubs, although a few smaller clubs are nearby as well (Luderlounge, Neby, Verena, Arabella, Grimberg - the last three of which are also RTC clubs like the one in Recklinghausen itself).  

Right next to the A40 in Bochum, you have the biggest of the RTC clubs: Freude. A very large club (which is completely run down) with about 30 girls, many of which also offer the rubberless service. There are quite a few cute girls however and at any give time between 5 and 10 girls will not play the risky game and many of these girls are quite pretty. The girls are all nude as well (in every RTC).

On the A43 towards Recklinghausen at the first real exit (Bochum Riemke), you have Salome very close to the highway. This is kind of a double club, with a quiet daytime with women that provide decent service and a more lively evening with younger girls that are more hit or miss. Sex is 40 for 30 minutes, in the evening there is mostly immigrant visitors (which is reflected in the food, the Hamam etc.). On weekends you should expect about 50 girls (sometimes more).

Even closer to Recklinghausen you have Great Palace. You have to switch from the A43 to the A42 and get off at the first subtown of Castrop Rauxel. The club is nice, cheap and offers fairly decent services. On weekends you should have 40+ girls. Normally I have a decent time here, although I haven't been for a while. It used to be real fkk (nude), but the have loosened the dress code recently.

Not many tourists come here, but many of the girls also speak next to no German. I'm sure you'll be able to exchange money for a robe and locker key

Dolce Vita is very central, ambiance is nice, but the girls are "unionized" (won't do this, won't do that).

If you get a chance to get outside of the center a bit (15 minutes drive) GoldTime offered great bang for the bucks (no pun intended) and girls looked good.

Golden time is way more than 15 minutes from Ratingen. probably about 35-40.

I recall driving from Dusseldorf to the place and it didn't take me more then 15/20 minutes, yet I was sort of in a hurry to get there, believe me ;

Sigh, you would expect someone to check before posting something correctly for the second time. According to google maps it is 60.7km from Ratingen to Golden time. That is just under 40 miles. At the moment the predicted time is 52 minutes, but there is some congestion.  

https://www.google.nl/maps/dir/Ratingen,+Germany/GoldenTime+FKK+Saunaclub,+Heidweg,+Br%C3%BCggen,+Germany/@51.2561975,6.372214,11z/am=t/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47b8c5fa04fec05b:0x42760fc4a2a75c0!2m2!1d6.8401844!2d51.2964148!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c753d6be65f1d7:0xe6ddfa291a5702ae!2m2!1d6.1870704!2d51.2637057!3e0?hl=en

if you take a starting point in dusselderf closer to the highway, it's down to 27 minutes.

Are you going to bust everyone's balls here for 5 minutes difference?

https://www.google.nl/maps/dir/51.2164975,6.6482736/GoldenTime+FKK+Saunaclub,+Heidweg+1,+41379+Br%C3%BCggen,+Germany/@51.2564124,6.2752439,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c753d6be65f1d7:0xe6ddfa291a5702ae!2m2!1d6.1870704!2d51.2637057!3e0?hl=en

are you german or something?

No I'm not. And he is staying in Ratingen, as I have mentioned in both my posts about his actual travel time to GT. You claimed 15-20, even 27 is quite a difference really. Almost twice as much as 15. Most of the time you won't make that time anyway, given the traffic on the A52.

Fantastic! Danke!!

Gentlemen...no need to argue about traffic! Thank you both for your input.  I think I'll try Acapulco Gold for my first experience.

Bowman

OK, maybe I'm missing something, but what is RTC?

Bowman

It stands for Rote Teppich Club, referring to the red carpets you find in all of them. They used to belong to the same owner and have exchanged hands a few times, it is a long story (that I only know half of).

Nowadays it is shorthand for about 6/7 clubs that derived from these originals and they have a few things in common: little to no info on the website, entry prices changing all the time, no real food, no alcohol and many local visitors. Also the principle that you pay for the time and all extras (when offfered) are included in the price (they sort of stopped this in Freude). One of these extras is bbfs, 90% of the girls in these clubs offer it to anyone... unsurprisingly it has become the go to place for guys that look for this thing.