Bad Hofgastein, Austria

Kevmcl from UNITED KINGDOM writes:

Good skiing, low key apres-ski, cheap B&B's, friendly locals, very good ski bus links in valley, lots of blues and reds, few black runs, over 200k piste.
We visited Bad Hofgastein in Feb 07, a very poor year for snow all round.
The valley is split into 4 main regions, two of which are:

Dorfgastien/Grobtarl: Nice, usually quiet, tree lined, quite runs, good restaurants at the side of the slopes, quaint Tirolean village (Grobtarl side has the best snow).

Bad Hofgastein: has no alpine charm, it is a pretty new looking spa/large hotel town with no apres-ski scene worth mentioning. If you are looking for St Anton/Ischgl parties DO NOT VISIT. The skiing is good, it has a very long run of about 8km from top to bottom worth checking out, this is the biggest ski area which is linked to Bad Gastein. There can be long lines of people waiting for the funicular out of town, so sometimes it is better to get the bus to Angertal and join the mountain there.
We stayed in the Haus Wanker Pension (yes that is the right spelling) we were made very welcome by our hosts, the rooms were nice and English is spoken, the best thing was that the rent was only 27 euro p/p night plus taxes, which is half what we have paid in Iscghg or Saalbach for a similar standard of pension. The pension is very central close to the ski bus and Rudi's restaurant, which make very good pizza and is very cheap. The town also has a great Chinese restaurant, and a thermal swimming pool which I was told is well worth checking out, though we did not bring out cossies.

Bad Gastein: We did not visit the town but passed through on the ski bus, it has even less charm than Bad Hofgastein and I am told is quite pricey. We skied the runs above the town and they were average, quite exposed and windy, we quickly used the link to return to the more pleasant pistes above Bad Hofgastein.

Sport Gastein is where the best snow is, it is a small area and you can ski all the runs at least twice in one day, the top of the mountain is 2600m, it is quiet and it is easy to reach with the very frequent and efficient ski bus service. The one restaurant on the slopes is average and a bit pricey. There are a couple of off-piste runs here. The best is no longer patrolled or shown on the piste map. It involves a long isolated run down the valley to the west of the pistes and meets the ski bus at the bottom, ski guides are recommended.

Getting to the Gastein valley is very easy. Rainer Reisen www.rainer-reisen.at run a taxi/bus service every two or three hours from Salzburg airport which must be pre-booked. It only cost 42 euro return per person direct to your hotel a 75 minute trip. They are very well organised. Our plane was 90 mins late and they waited for us. You can also take a train from Salzburg to the valley, though this requires a tram or taxi to the station and a taxi at the Gastein end, I would go for the door to door service.

This was a bad year for snow, but Gastein weathered it well, they have plenty of snow making machines and enough height and terrain to find the good snow.

Overall, well worth checking out. If you are looking for somewhere cheap or quiet or have visited all the big (200+ k's) areas and just want somewhere different. Though if you want to party, go to Saalbach, Ischgl or St Anton. We will be going back!

2007-02-14