Unfamous Places recommends
A Belle Époque spa resort where Kaiser Franz Joseph took the waters and a 19th-century treaty changed the map of Europe. It fell asleep after WWII. Three grand hotels have just reopened. Almost nobody has noticed yet.
Bad Gastein was one of the most fashionable resorts in the Austrian Empire. Kaiser Franz Joseph came every summer. Brahms composed here. Kafka came to write. Kaiser Wilhelm stayed at the Straubinger Grand Hotel, where the treaty between Prussia and Austria was signed in 1865. After the Second World War the guests stopped coming, the grand hotels closed one by one, and the facades fell into a state of magnificent decay. Since 2021, three of the most important historic buildings have been restored and reopened. The window between the revival and the discovery is the moment to go.
The Gasteiner Ache — the mountain torrent that drains the Gastein Valley — drops 341 metres through the town centre in a series of falls that are visible and audible from the main square. The Straubinger Grand Hotel is built directly beside it; you can hear the waterfall from the infinity pool on the roof. In a continent where most Alpine resorts have long since covered their rivers in tarmac and routed them underground, Bad Gastein’s waterfall is still the central fact of the place.
The thermal water that made Bad Gastein famous in the 19th century still flows at 47°C from springs that were already known to the Romans. The water is radon-bearing — a quality that the Austrian medical establishment spent decades debating and that gave rise to the extraordinary Gastein Heilstollen (healing tunnel), where patients with arthritis and respiratory conditions sit in a sealed mountain tunnel for sessions of thermal-radon therapy. The Felsentherme thermal spa is the most civilised way to experience the water without a medical referral.
In August 1865, Bismarck and the Austrian Foreign Minister Blome met at the Straubinger Hotel in Bad Gastein and signed the Convention of Gastein — the treaty that divided the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein between Prussia and Austria and set the course for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The agreement that reshaped the map of Europe was negotiated in a spa hotel where Eckart Witzigmann — arguably the greatest German-language chef of the 20th century — would later do his training. The restored Straubinger holds both pieces of history without making a fuss about either.
December to March. Skiing on the Gastein slopes, the thermal spa after a day on the mountain, and the Belle Époque hotels at their most atmospheric under snow.
April and May. The ski season ends, the hiking trails open slowly. The thermal spa is at its quietest. Good value, empty hotels.
July and August. Hiking in the Hohe Tauern, the Stubnerkogel suspension bridge, and the thermal spa with mountain views. The town at its most alive since the 19th century.
September and October. Golden larches, hiking trails still open, the Heilstollen thermal tunnel for the wellness-minded, and the best value of the year.
The Perchtenlaufen — an ancient pagan procession in January, with enormous intimidating masks and considerable noise — is one of the most extraordinary folk traditions in the Austrian Alps. If you are there in January, do not miss it.
One of the most beautiful railway journeys in Austria — direct trains from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to Bad Gastein run several times daily through the Salzach valley and into the mountains. The train arrives at Bad Gastein station, a five-minute walk from the Straubingerplatz. No car needed once you are there.
Salzburg Airport (SZG) has direct flights from London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and other European cities. The train from Salzburg to Bad Gastein is the logical continuation. Alternatively, a hire car gives access to the Hohe Tauern National Park and the surrounding valleys.
Direct or one-change trains from Vienna Hauptbahnhof to Bad Gastein. The route passes through the Salzach valley and is consistently beautiful. Vienna to Bad Gastein is a natural combination — city first, mountains second, or vice versa.
The largest national park in the Alps — 1,800 square kilometres of glaciers, peaks over 3,000 metres, and the Grossglockner (3,798m, the highest mountain in Austria). The Grossglockner High Alpine Road is one of the great scenic drives in Europe.
Mozart’s birthplace, the Festung Hohensalzburg, the Altstadt, and a music festival in summer that is among the finest in the world. Worth two or three nights at either end of a Bad Gastein trip — the train connection makes it simple.
A lakeside town at the foot of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier — swimming in the Zeller See in summer, skiing on the Kaprun glacier year-round, and a handsome historic centre on the lake shore. Less fashionable than it was; well worth a night.
The next town down the Gastein Valley — lower altitude, broader and warmer, with the main valley spa complex and a more traditional Austrian resort atmosphere. Often combined with Bad Gastein on the Gastein ski area lift pass.
The Habsburg capital of Tyrol — the Golden Roof, the Imperial Court Church with the bronze figures of the Habsburgs, and a ski jump that hangs above the city. Two hours west of Salzburg; a natural extension for those with more time.
The lake village that inspired a thousand tourist photographs — and genuinely beautiful despite the crowds. Salt mines used since the Bronze Age, a charnel house with decorated skulls, and a lake that is the colour of the thermal water at Bad Gastein.