Bad Gastein

Sarah Fox - Sales Director "Bad Gastein is a small but mighty ski resort at the end of the Gastein Valley. It has an impressive snow record, good off-piste skiing and unlike many other Austrian resorts, you can relax in one of their world famous thermal spa baths at the end of the day!"

BAD GASTEIN

You will be blown away by the breathtaking beauty during a ski holiday in Bad Gastein. The town itself is built into the rock with Belle Epoque buildings sweeping across the steep flanks of the Gastein Valley gorge, with an impressive series of waterfalls along the way.

Bad Gastein is not your typical Austrian ski resort - being a world-famous grand spa town is draws visitors to its famous natural hot-spring spas and therapeutic climate caverns all year round. The resort offer a good range of on and off-slope attractions for skiers, snowboarders and non-skiers alike. 

Located 100km directly South of Salzburg, Bad Gastein can be reached in 1hr 30 minutes, so perfect for a short break in Austria. All three Gastein Valley resorts are also linked by train, which also presents a viable alternative for reaching other resorts including Zell am See and St Johann im Pongau.

Bad Gastein and the Gastein valley offers diverse skiing across five scenic ski areas with wide, well-groomed pistes, super-quick modern lifts and rarely a queue in sight.

The main Stubnerkogel ski area is located at the top of the gorge, and the gondola from the resort whisks you up to 2,251m, where you can then access the entire ski area.

Steady skiers and snowboarders can cruise west on a series of great red and blue runs, including the longest piste in the Central Eastern Alps (an impressive 11km long!) and then take the gondola back up from Bad Hofgastein.

There are excellent and well-priced restaurants wherever you go in Bad Gastein, so you'll be spoilt for choice with some amazing food on offer.

Our top hotel picks for a ski holiday in Bad Gastein: Hotel Alpenblick.

SKI AREA OVERVIEW

There are five different ski areas available to your legs in Bad Gastein - Bad Gastein itself, Bad Hofgastein, Dorfgastein, Sportgastein and Graukogel, all on one lift pass. Each area offers something different, so you can get great skiing whatever the weather!

The two local areas of Stubnerkogel and Graukogel both offer good, steep red run descents best suited to intermediate-level skiers and snowboarders.

There is also the separate high-altitude Sportgastein ski area at the head of the valley (2,686m summit), plus, in the opposite direction down at the mouth of the valley, the extensive slopes of Dorfgastein, which are linked with those of Grossarl over in the neighbouring valley.

There are nursery areas near the gondola station and at Angertal. But finding good progression slopes is tricky – the mountains here are essentially steep. Because of the fragmented layout, most visitors need to rely on the area's ski bus service to move around between the non-linked ski areas and resort villages.

Ski holidays in Bad Gastein await!