Bad Gastein

Bad Gastein

Once known as the Monte Carlo of the Alps, Bad Gastein today is very faded, packed with belle-epoque buildings in various states of abandonment, tucked in a narrow, vertical valley around a major waterfall.

We were attracted by the spa heritage – predating the Romans, and with a 16th-century golden era as a wellness refuge, attracting emperors, empresses, and the rich and famous from all corners of Europe. Though the area held onto its reputation until the start of the 20th century, it eventually fell out of fashion. There are a lot of articles about the investment over the last 20 years – unfortunately, it feels like there’s another 5-10 years needed to shake off the ghost town feel. We did read they are restricting new construction in favor of renovation, which very much seems like the right move. The crowd leans very Russian (all of the hotel & restaurant staff we encountered defaulted to Russian over German, typically).

If you visit – choose a self-contained hotel, as there’s not a lot of reason to spend time in restaurants or other places in town (there just aren’t many). We stayed at *Badeschloss Hotel and wouldn’t really recommend it. It was remodeled in tiled institutional “spa style” at some unfortunate point in the past, likely when they put in the awful 16-story tower. Our room, in the historic part, was comfortable, if dark. The spa, in the tower, is oddly laid out, with a large sauna, and a fairly cold outdoor rooftop pool – perhaps more fun in the summer. The food was actually pretty good – not the breakfast, but the dinner options were tasty.

The typical recommended spots are Haus Hirt, Hotel Miramonte, and the Cōmodo. We liked the look of Villa Solitude, above the equally appealing looking Lutter & Wegner restaurant. Das Regina is also popular, but looked to be a fairly marginal step up from our hotel. Straubinger Grand Hotel Bad Gastein was renovated fairly recently and while not perfect, looks to have a nice spa/pool, and the bar area is charming (same owners as the Badeschloss). The area is not crowded (our visit was Christmas time 2024), and you’ll likely have lots of options to choose from.

Things to do? We didn’t ski – coverage was low (it’s low elevation), but there are 4 ski areas in the vicinity to explore. It took about 90 minutes to thoroughly walk around the town. There’s a small and cute little museum showcasing the history of the town, the **Gasteiner Museum, made especially charming by the older gentleman who took time to walk us around, using his surprisingly good college French.

Food

We had a lovely lunch up above the town at **Almgasthof Windischgrätz – great views, charmingly decorated, good Austria classics, excellent service. They appear to be still building out their website, but I think they have guest rooms as well.
**MEX bar & taqueria was better than we expected – stick with the basics (nachos, quesadillas) and it passes a decent Tex-Mex.