Saturday 3rd May 2025 • Promotional Content Welcome


Searching for your next travel fi x? We’ve got you covered with this selection of inspiring content taken from National Geographic Traveller (UK).


Packed full of breathtaking photography and authentic stories, it gives you the lowdown on the best places to visit and the essential kit to take with you.


Buy the latest issue in store and discover exclusive subscription off ers at nationalgeographic.com/ travel


Stubnerkogel, Bad Gastein IMAGE: ALAMY


T e Travel Guide 3


Go with the fl ow Inside


Austria Discover the healing powers of the Alps’ water Page 3


Granada Explore the city steeped in art and culture Page 4


Hastings How to spend a weekend in the East Sussex port town Page 6


Deep in Austria’s Hohe Tauern Alps, the spa town of Bad Gastein has long been eulogised for the healing power of its mountain waters. Words: Kerry Walker


Waterfall of the Gasteiner Ache, Bad Gastein IMAGE: ALAMY


one by one. As our yoga group launches into asanas, the valley below is bathed in gold. T ere can be few lovelier spots to practise sun salutations than here, on a platform high in the forest of Bad Gastein, with a ringside seat of the mountains and within earshot of the town’s waterfall. “It’s a magical place,” says yoga teacher Annette Söhnlein, smiling as radiantly as the new day. She’s leading a class at Haus


M


The Travel Guide is distributed with The Guardian on behalf of APL Media Limited. The following content is provided by advertisers, and while every care is taken in ensuring the content complies with the Advertising Standards Authority and the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code), the publishers assume no responsibility in the effect rising therefrom, and readers are advised to seek professional advice before acting on any information. Neither APL Media nor The Guardian accept any liability for views expressed, pictures used or claims made by advertisers.


Hirt, the Alpine-chic lodge where I’m staying for the week. Once a refuge for writers like Stefan Zweig and T omas Mann, the 1920s building was redesigned in 2000, with contemporary art and rooms designed to frame the view. “Here in the embrace of tall trees, every breath is fi lled with mountain air,” says Annette. “Our senses are awakened by the mountains and vast sky, and the sound of the nearby waterfall.” T e 1,119ft-high, mist-cloaked


Read more at living360.uk @living360uk


APL Media Limited, Highgate Studios, 53-79 Highgate Road, London NW5 1TL aplmedia.co.uk T: 020 7253 9909 E: sales@aplmedia.co.uk


waterfall is as if God whipped the plug out: the torrent rages through forest and dives over ragged cliff s into three turquoise pools as it plunges into town, splitting it in two. Its source is ice melt from Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria’s fi rst and biggest, spreading 717sq miles across the country’s highest peaks and glaciers. T e water rolls down the mountains, through gorges and streams, reaching Bad Gastein in its purest form.


orning light creeps over central Austria’s Hohe Tauern Alps, spotlighting summits


Over 3,000 years, this mineral-rich


water has also fi ltered through rock. Five million litres of it bubble to the surface every day at 17 thermal springs, at temperatures between 44C and 47C. Romans, emperors, aristocrats, artists — all dunked in these waters over the centuries seeking a cure for their ailments. T e water made Bad Gastein’s


fortunes, as refl ected in its architecture. Chandelier-lit, marble- clad belle epoque villas cling to the town’s sheer, wooded rock faces, like a miniature Vienna transposed onto the wildest of Alpine backdrops. For a while, with the waters no longer in fashion, the resort slipped into anonymity. But recently, interest in this unique spa town has surged. Hotels are again tapping into the waters, from Haus Hirt to the recently revamped Straubinger, with its rooftop infi nity pool, and T e Comodo, a mid-century mountain retreat. T e mountains on the horizon


entice me to head higher. I take the cable car up to 7,220ft Stubnerkogel, where hikers proceed on a 450ft-long hanging bridge that rocks in the breeze. A fi ve-minute walk away, a viewing platform juts out into the void, peering over to glacier-tipped Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak at 12,460ft. I head off on a four-hour hike to the nearby resort of Sportgastein, up and over scree fi elds, wildfl ower pastures and rocky passes. T e water is ice cold at Bockhartsee,


an ink-blue lake cradled by mountains along the way, but I brave a quick, heart-stopping dip. Gold was once


Lake Bockhartsee, Sportgastein, Salzburg IMAGE: ALAMY


mined around this high body of water. T en — legend has it — a dragon covered it in ice and the treasures sank, forever gone. But there was gold elsewhere.


A couple of miles up the valley from Bad Gastein, Radhausberg mountain in the village of Böckstein was the El Dorado of the Alps to medieval miners. By the 17th century, the practice ceased, the ore veins depleted. But the caves were reopened in the 1940s in the hope of discovering rich gold deposits. Instead, something curious


happened: miners emerged from the caves considerably healthier than when they entered. Bad backs, coughs and colds, rashes and rheumatism — all are said to have magically disappeared. T e secret? Radon, seeping through the rock fi ssures and cracks in small, safe quantities, widely believed to boost the immune system. T e mines are now the Gasteiner


Heilstollen health centre. On a visit, I get my blood pressure checked, strip to my bathing suit, pop on a bathrobe and board a little yellow train chugging to a chamber deep in the bowels of the mountain. I’m allotted a lounger and sit in silence with strangers as the hammam-like heat of around 40C gradually intensifi es. I’m there for an hour, but a minimum two-week treatment plan is needed to reap real benefi ts, I’m told. Still, I make the most of my stay in


Bad Gastein and, back at Haus Hirt, head to the spa. “I’m going to leave you to relax here,” says Evelyn Ikrath,


who grew up in the resort and now manages the hotel with architect husband Ike. She ushers me into a dimly lit chamber, where a sunken bath is fi lled with radon-rich thermal water. “You might feel a little light- headed when you get out,” she warns. Actually, I feel as though I’m


drifting on air, with a pleasant heat that penetrates to my core. I wrap up in a bathrobe and watch the valley fall into shadow. Opting for a pack of mineral-rich mud, I’m then slathered in the stuff , wrapped up cocoon-like and left to fl oat on a water bed. By the time I leave the spa to dress


for dinner, the fi rst stars are blinking in the sky. I can no longer see the waterfall, but as I push my balcony door open and peer out into the night, I can hear it. Now, as always in Bad Gastein, everything comes back to water. And what special water it is.


How to do it: It’s a scenic 1h30m train ride from Salzburg to Bad Gastein; renovations to this line should fi nish in July 2025. Doubles at Haus Hirt, from £203, include meals, use of the spa and yoga sessions. T e Gastein Card gives free use of local buses, free guided half- and full-day hikes, and substantial discounts at local thermal baths and Gasteiner Heilstollen — it’s available to all guests staying in Bad Gastein. oebb.at haus-hirt.com gastein.com


First published in the May 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). Read the feature in full at nationalgeographic.com/travel


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48