Bad Gastein/Hofgastein

A snowHead

Morning everyone,

I'm looking for some advice with regards to the resorts Bad Gastein; Bad Hofgastein and Dorfgastein, in the Hohe Teurn National Park, Austria.

I've read that public transport between these three areas is limited and that to be able to spend a good week snowboarding in all five valleys, you idealy need your own vehicle. Well, I have the following questions:

Which of the three resorts is best placed, for access to all five valleys? I am erring towards Bad Hofgastein, but i'm not sure?
Does anyone know of anyone central database for checking room availability in these resorts, instead of having to drill down into specific hotels all the time?
Does not having your own car make it very difficult, or does it just involve being a little more disciplined/planned, in using the buses?
I notice that there are a lot of red runs. I would classify myself as lower intermediate. Do you think these areas are too advanced for me?

Thanks very much for any help you may be able to give

Pete

A snowHead

Sgt_wilko, is Swindon in some kind of time warp ???

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Hi Sgt_wilko, welcome to snowHeads

Public transport between Bad Gastein, BH and DG is fine, buses run to a timetable and are fairly frequent-ish. Bad Hofgastein would be the best place to stay to visit all three areas - for example to get a bus from Bad Gastein to Dorfgastein you would have to change at Bad Hofgastein. We didn't find we needed a car. The town ski bus in BH can get quite full and although we were always OK, the bus was sometimes too full for stops after us to pickanyone else up. We stayed at the Rauscher Hotel , which I think was a 3 star, family run and fine to stay in.

Dorfgastein is probably the easier of the three areas and has some lovely gentle runs but I don't think you would find runs in the others too difficult.

A nice area to ski in snowHead

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The three largest areas are Bad Gastein Bad Hofgastein and Dorfgastein.

As stated, Bad Hofgastein is centrally positioned for access to the three.

The other two small areas Sportgastein and Graukogel are easiest from Bad Gastein. I never got as far as Sportgastein. After skiing Graukogel, it did not seem worth the trip.

A car is not really necessary though.

As for accommodation, the tourist office is excellent. All available accommodation is shown on an electronic board outside the office in Bad Hofgastein. I would try contacting them directly. I stayed in the Germania, but that was a four star rather than a budget place

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

As others have mentioned Bad Hofgastein is the best for accessing the three biggest areas, which are Schlossalm above Bad HofG itself; the Stubnerkogel above Bad Gastein; and Dorfgastein. The first two are lift-linked via Angertal. The buses are okay but for some reason there is no direct link from Bad Gastein to the Dorf lifts (only to Dorf downtown) which is annoying, so Bad HofG is probably best for general access.

I disagree with cathy, the Schlossalm is definitely the easiest area, so that is where you should start out if you are lower intermediate. You won't get into trouble in Dorfgastein tho, which is probably the most varied terrain. SportGastein is the most remote area, right at the head of the valley, and is a useful relatively snowsure back-up. Some good off-piste there. The Graukogel is the best of the lot for advanced piste skiers/boarders, and is very quiet, but both are quite small and are probably not worth the trek for a low intermediate. Unless the snow is poor, in which case head for SportG. You shouldn't have a problem with the snow unless you are going very early or late season tho. Getting to Graukogel is a real pain by bus, if you are feeling confident and fancy giving it a go, get a cab, they are cheap.

I stayed in Bad Gastein so can't help you on the Bad HofG hotels, sorry!

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Sgt_wilko, I went to Bad HofG last year and I'd say it would be fine for a lower intermediate. None of the red runs were particularly hard and they'd probably be great for boosting your confidence.

However, Bad HofG is pretty quiet once you get off the slopes and if you're interested in any sort of apres ski, Bad G would be a much better option (it's typically Austrian!).

We went to Dorfgastein for a day, the skiing was quite good although I prefered the Bad HofG side. We also spent a day at SportGastein, it was a bit bleak although the snow conditions were probably better than in the main area. In all honesty, it probably wasn't worth the trouble we had getting the bus back though.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Keep the info. coming. I'm going to the same area in January staying in BadHG. When is peak queueing time for the cable in the morning ? Can anyone point me in the direction of any easily found off-piste ? Where are the best bars/mtn huts ? Anything else useful.

After all it is free

Nickski, we only really had to wait for the cable car at BadH for the first few days. After that we just wandered straight on (this was the end of January this year).

If I remember right, the best huts on the BadH side were the Aeroplane which had a disco and the umberella bar at the top of the last run (I can't remember it's name). There wasn't that much action in the town, the only bars I remember being busy were The Picollo, The Sky Bar and The Casino Bar. There was a night club but we never used it. The Silver Bullet in BadG was good though.

I can't help with the off-piste though, sorry.

Mountain access from BadHofG is the funicular, isn't it? The peak Qs are probably the usual ski school shenanigans, I don't know exactly when as I stayed in BadG. There is some reasonable off-piste easily found by taking the fall line straight down the Graukogel, cutting the corners off the red runs. It is not desperately steep or hard but I'm not into (or good enough!) for couloirs. There is supposed to be a good long run from the top of SportGastein down to the valley. We tried finding one of the itineraries marked on the DorfGastein piste map but couldn't work it out at all.
There are loads of decent mountain huts, I liked the Treff at mid-station on the Graukogel, mainly becoz it was quiet. I can't remember the names of any others, but some got very busy. The ones at SportGastein were fairly functional self-service places I think.
Yeah, did the Silver Bullet. You've also got the option of the casino itself in Bad Gastein. Don't forget the thermal baths! Proper mixed naked sauna there. There was a separate female-only sauna but there seemed to be plenty of young ladies happy to mix in with the fellas. Ooo-la-la!

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the ice perv, you're right, my memory is failing me, it's funicular and then cable car (or a slow chairlift) at Bad HofG. The worst of the queue's were at the start of the week at the funicular and to a lesser extent at the cable car. They were pretty tame compared to queue's I've faced elsewhere but we were there are low season.

I wouldn't worry about them, anyway.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

try www.tiscover.at - austria-wide database which has lots of hotels in that area. Good luck finding something suitable.

snow reports

Nickski, I said this about queues on the other thread on Bad Hofgastein:

Hi
We went to BHF last year enjoyed it a lot first week in april we had fresh snow on two days.
Stayed at a great hotel Called the Karnten food was fantastic so was the wellness area in/outdoor thermal pools.
Ski buses were ok but packed. From top of bhg you can ski the BhG1 all the way back to resort about a 14k red run as my 8 year old tell everyone.
If you are going to use the are a lot the season ski pass is 385 euros before 2 of december for the ski amade area(860 km of piste 250 lifts)
Look at www.skiamade.com.
Our lift passes came in 5 days cant wait till 22 of december to use it.

You know it makes sense.

Some good info in this thread!

So BadHofG is on my shortlist for booking a small group holiday this year due to ticking several boxes: it's in Austria, pistes look to be the right standard, noone's been there, spa-ing options.

Now there are 3 things which really give me group booking angst:
a. Hotels...to be researched, and some good tips already.
b. Queues. A bit concerned about the queues cathy mentioned on the funicular & cable car up from BHofG. Cathy, how long is long - can you remember whether it was 10 mins or half an hour, was it morning rush or all day?
c. Easy Runs. On Piste, I'm not too worried about the confident skiiers/boarders who can make their own fun going fast/in the park etc on most terrain. The Schlossalm sounds a pretty easy mountain, is there anything for a 3rd weeker to be worried about, specifically any difficult pistes that are required skiing for access back to the resort?

Thanks!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Hi,

The best way to get accommodation is to use this site- the tourist board site just put in your request and then you will get 12 offers by e-mail

http://www.gastein.com/en-unterkunft-anfrage.shtml

The peak time in Austria are Christmas,new Year, and most of Feb- particular 10th to 24th.

The bath is Bad Hofgastein is our local baths and we go there quite often. We are used to the naked sauna's now

Embarassed

- but it did take a while to get rid of the British reserve!!! wink

For other info about the area

http://www.gastein.com/

We live further down in the Ski-Amade area but have not skiied there yet still exploring our area.

Nigel

A snowHead

Sgt_wilko, the public transport was ok over New Year when we visited in 2005/6. Some of the buses got crowded at peak times so it can be a bit of a scrum but I didn't feel we needed a car. In terms of lift queues, we found that they were late starters and providing we got there around 9am, we didn't have to queue. One day we got there at 10-10.30 and had to queue for 30-40mins.

We skiied the BG and BHG area and went over to Dorfgastein, which I highly recommend. We had a ton of snow the week we went which softened up the reds and the few blacks so that may have made them easier for us, but I can't imagine you would have any problems with the reds except for a few parts of the very long red run (No.1) over at BHG, which were a bit steep, plus it's a real thigh burner!

We stayed in BG in the Salzburger Hof. It's a really nice hotel near the gondola, ski bus stop and the thermal baths. If you stay in BG, stay in the top of town so you avoid the walk up the hill each morning. There were a few good bars, but overall it was more civilised apres ski compared to other Austrian resorts I've been to. The architecture is very elegant and the waterfall is pretty impressive - steaming!

BG is great for couples with the casino, smart bars and hotels and BHG looked more family orientated.

The only thing with BHG was it looked like a 10 minute walk from the centre of town to the funicular. There was a hotel right next to the funicular though. Sorry, but I can't remember the name.

I tried booking directly with the Salzburger Hof for next year but they were tied into tour ops. There was a hotel next door that is supposed to be good - The Gisela.

I forgot to add that time wise, it took us about 25 mins to get from BG to Dorfgastein.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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the ice perv, oops, well spotted!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Talking of (ice)perving opportunites, there is a lap-dancing place in BadG. Don't ask me for directions or a name tho, my mates went without me! Evil or Very Mad

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

djfletcher, Yes, I was in the very establishment you refer to.

To me it IS just a glorified swimming pool, though I note there was no Olympic pool with lane discipline for serious swimming.

OK, you slide down the tube a couple of times and sit in the sauna for a while - but four hours of that is not for me. I could also get most of that back at the hotel for free.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

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From memory (which is never 100% correct!) I think the Graukogel is on a "branch line" off the main bus route(s). From my accomodation in Bad Gastein I found it easier to walk, but BadG is very steep and not everywhere is that convenient. In comparison getting to Sportgastein and BadHofG is a doddle. They really ought to have a circular bus route that just links the lifts stations of each area. It can't be that hard to organise, surely?

snow reports

I have to agree, they do seam to have a slightly unorthodox bus system which would work much better in if the buses ran in circular routes used by other resorts. They’d definitely benefit since the Gasteinertal has 5 areas and only 2 are linked by lifts.

I'm quite interested in any improvements they make to the ski area and bus system as my girlfriend and I bought an apartment in the summer that's within walking distance of the Graukogel lift. My query about the buses to the Graukogel lift was more about how will I get home after a day on the slopes.

On another note, I know that plans are being put in place by the local council to cut a new ski piste through the trees from the Stubnerkogelbahn's middle station down into Bad Gastein. There are a few hotels who've said they'd move into Bad Gastein if the council made a new piste so skiers can avoid skiing down the current run which is more like a bobsleigh track at times. I think there's a compensation battle going on with the local landowner who's more concerned about her sheep walking around a piste in the summer rather than the benefit to skiers and local area in general?! rolling eyes

It's amazing what you can find out when you talk to the locals in the bars! Very Happy

Cheers

You know it makes sense.

[quote="the ice perv"]

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Bad Gastein/Hofgastein

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