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Te Travel Guide


Go with the flow M


Deep in Austria’s Hohe Tauern Alps, the spa town of Bad Gastein has long been eulogised for the alleged healing power of its mountain waters. Visit today to enjoy them in all their forms. Words: Kerry Walker


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


one by one. As our yoga group launches into asanas, the valley below is bathed in gold. Tere 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 Annette Söhnlein, smiling as radiant as the new day. She’s leading a class at Haus


Hirt, the alpine-chic lodge where I’m staying for the week. Once a refuge for writers like Stefan Zweig and Tomas Mann, the 1920s building was redesigned in 2000, with contemporary art and rooms designed to frame the view. To behold, the mighty 341-metre


mist-cloaked waterfall looks as if God whipped the plug out: the torrent rages through forest and dives over ragged cliffs 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 first and biggest, spreading 717sq miles across the country’s highest peaks and glaciers. Te water rolls down the mountains, through gorges and streams, reaching Bad Gastein in its purest form. Over 3,000 years, this mineral-rich


water has also filtered 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.


Te water made Bad Gastein’s


fortunes, as reflected in its architecture. Chandelier-lit, marble- clad belle époque 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 taking the waters no longer in fashion, the resort slipped into anonymity. But recently, interest in one of Austria’s most unique spa towns has surged. Hotels are again tapping into the waters, from Haus Hirt to the recently revamped Straubinger, with its infinity pool. But this is first and foremost an


Alpine resort, and the mountains tearing across the horizon entice me to head higher. I take the cable-car up to 2,200-metre Stubnerkogel, where hikers proceed like tightrope walkers along a 137-metre-long hanging bridge that rocks in the breeze between the station and a transmission tower. A five-minute walk away, a viewing platform juts out into the void, peering over to glacier-tipped Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak at 3,798 metres. I head off on a four-hour hike to the nearby resort of Sportgastein, up and over scree fields, wildflower- sprinkled pastures and rocky passes. Te 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 mined around this high body of water. Ten — 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


HIKING BY LAKE BOCKHARTSEE, SPORTGASTEIN, SALZBURG/ALAMY


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 seemed to emerge from the caves healthier than when they entered. Bad backs, coughs and colds, rashes and rheumatism — all were rumoured to have lessened. Te secret? Possibly radon, seeping through the rock fissures and cracks in small, quantities, often believed to boost the immune system. Te 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 intensifies. I’m there for an hour, but a minimum two-week treatment plan is needed to reap real benefits, I’m told. Still, I make the most of my stay


COW EATING IN AN ALPINE MEADOW, STUBNERKOGEL, BAD GASTEIN/ALAMY


in Bad Gastein and head to the spa. “I’m going to leave you to relax here,” says Evelyn Ikrath, who manages the hotel. She ushers me into a dimly lit chamber, where a sunken bath is filled with radon-rich thermal water.


“You might feel a little lightheaded when you get out.” Actually, I feel as though I’m drifting


on air. I wrap up in a bathrobe and watch the valley fall into shadow. Opting for mineral-rich mud, I’m then slathered in the stuff, wrapped up cocoon-like and left to float on a waterbed. By the time I leave the spa, the first stars are blinking above. As I push open my balcony door and peer into the night, I can hear the waterfall’s flow. Now, as always in Bad Gastein, everything comes back to water.


Tis article first appeared in the May 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). nationalgeographiccom/travel


HOW TO DO IT


It’s a scenic 1h30m train ride from Salzburg to Bad Gastein. Rooms at Haus Hirt include half board, use of the spa and yoga sessions. The 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. gastein.com


Promotional Content • Saturday 21st March 2026


BAD GASTEIN’S HISTORIC TOWN CENTRE AND GASTEINER ACHE WATERFALL/ALAMY


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