 Poster: A snowHead
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Just thought I'd share my recent experience of this Austrian resort, 12 March - 19 March 2011
Getting there
Salzburg airport, just over one hour away by road. A booked taxi for up to 8 persons can be had from 100 euros upwards, one way. Alternatively http://www.rainer-reisen.at/ do a shared transfer from 35 euros per person, one way. It's also possible to take the train from Salzburg central station to Bad Hofgastein station, cost is 11 euros, but is a stopping service that is no faster than by road. Plus, Bad Hofgastein station is 2km from the resort, so it's either a taxi around 9 euros or a bus for 3.10 euros to finish the journey.
The town
A beautiful Austrian town, but quite spread out over a wide area. A host of restaurants and pubs, a dozen 4* hotels, 2 supermarkets, sport shops, souvenir shops as well as some non-touristy shops. It's not just a ski resort, which unfortunately does mean the main ski station Schlossalmbahn is right at the edge of town, either a short ski bus or 10 minute walk away from most residences. It's more of a family town, so don't expect wild apres-ski clubs and discos. Bad Gastein down the valley is better if you prefer the pub crawls!
The spa
http://www.alpentherme.com/ The largest spa in this valley, it offers something for tired skiers, or even non-skiers. Indoor and outdoor natural heated pools, nude saunas, and a family area with water slides too. Not bad, but there are better spas around.
The main lift
The Schlossalmbahn station at 857m, is situated across a main road on the edge of town. There are some lockers in front where you can leave your skis for 1 euro, or the SkiDepot next door does lockers for boots and skis for 15 euro a week. There was virtually no queue on a Sunday morning to buy passes, which was 203 euros + 3 euro SkiData card for 6 days.
There were very few queues too at the Schlossalmbahn funicular, which takes you up to the Kitstein mid station. From there it's another gondola to the top, or a combination of two slower chairs. Overall, I'd say it takes quite a while to get from your hotel to the top of the mountain!
The slopes
A small variety of blues and reds await you from the top of Schlossalm 2050m.
Most pistes were well groomed in the morning, but towards the end of the day were chopped up and full of moguls.
There's a long run from the top of Hohe Scharte 2300m right down to town, which is nice as it's an unbroken stretch of over 10km, and tends to be less chopped up than the other runs. The run down to town was remarkably kept open with snow cannons, despite everything else under 1200m appearing to have entered summertime already.
Skiing to Angertal is the only way to ski off this side of the mountain, and in mid-March was pretty horrendous. The flat blue run was bare in many places as it had no artificial snow making.
But once you got to Angertal and up the Bad Gastein slopes, things improved considerably. Three lifts took you away from Angertal, and there was the nursery slope there. There were a mixture of wide pistes and tree lined routes
Other resorts
You can take a bus from Bad Hofgastein to either Dorfgastein or Sportgastein. The bus stop is situated across the road from the Schlossalmbahn station.
There are good links now throughout the valley. In older reviews I read that you couldn't get from one resort to another without changing buses, but now it appears you can, for example from Dorfgastein to Bad Gastein on the same bus.
Dorfgastein is more family orientated, with wider easier pistes and definitely more kids around! However, the slopes still got quite chopped up very quickly.
Sportgastein had fewer slopes, and was more challenging, but too crowded compared to Hofgastein or Dorfgastein.
Lessons
Austrians seemed to be the most friendly people, and whilst the instructors were indeed very friendly, the two that my friends used from http://www.schneesportgastein.com/ seemed less concerned about teaching technical skill and drills, but simply getting them to follow them around the mountain, resulting in numerous falls and little learnt. Rather than getting them to bend their knees or shift weight correctly, it was always 'just feel it'. Whether this is the Austrian way of teaching I don't know, but everyone said that the French instructors were more informative.
Food and drink
Very good value compared to the likes of France and Switzerland. A spaghetti bolognase was around 6-7 euros, and at the Schlossalm restaurant, everything was half price after 2.30pm. Which meant a main course for just over 3 euros!! Goulash soup, pancake soup, pasta and wiener schnitzel seemed to be the order of the day
plus lashings of Austrian beer and Jagertee!
All in all, I would recommend this place for a group of intermediates who just like to take it easy. There weren't any difficult slopes, but neither was there much for real beginners. There was scant easily accessible off piste (at least in mid March that didn't end in a grassy field). Easy cruising of the reds and blues were only possible in early morning, as by the afternoon every run was soft and mogully, which I although I didn't mind, it wasn't the experience some of my friends were looking for. Things are cheaper here than in most other resorts, the people are very friendly, and with it being a beautiful town, in my mind this made up for the slight lack in skiing quality.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You did not have great snow but with reasonable snow there is a good amount of skiing - albeit buses are usually needed.
It is easily accessible by rail. I came from Innsbruck and the postbus dropped from station to right outside the hotel.
Mountain restaurants were good.
Hotels were very good for the money. I reckon Bad Hofgastein is a pretty good DIY destination. I would return.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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At least you could ski to the valley, both times I've been, once in January and once at Christmas you've not been able to do that
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Nice review, I left Bad Gastein the day you arrived and having skied in the valley over the past 6 years every winter can tell you that conditions were about the worst I've seen for this time of year. Which would probably explain why Sportgastein was so busy as most people would naturally have headed straight up there.
The 10km H1/H2 run on a good day is a beaut. Often find myself taking the Bad Gastein lift first thing in the morning and then racing down to Angertal and back up to top of Schlossalm to get an early run in there.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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bum, Good report, thanks for posting.
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Latchico, yes, rail links in Austria are very good. There are good links from both Innsbruck and even from Munich. However, I think next time if I were to return I would rent a car; not only for getting between resorts in the valley, but for getting from town to the lift. The car park is even closer to where the ski bus drops you (the other side of the main road)
stevew, yes I was amazed the run to the valley was open, and kept in quite good nick. The run to Dorfgastein valley was kept open too, although this was really bad, sometimes I thought I was water-skiing!
Speedster, I guess it's been bad throughout the Alps this season. Maybe one day I can return to see it in its full snow-covered glory.
Thanks cad99uk. People on this forum have always been very helpful to me in planning my ski trips, and so I hope I can simply return some useful information to the forum to help others planning a similar trip to the Gastein valley.
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| Quote: |
Skiing to Angertal [...] in mid-March was pretty horrendous
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To be honest it was pretty poor in early Feb too, if that's any consolation.
Good report, thanks for writing it!
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bum, great report, thanks. Shame you didn't have better conditions. The town looks really beautiful.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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bum, nice little write up. Like Speedster, I too left just before you arrived. When I left, the conditions were getting very 'spring like' but that seams to have been a recurring theme accross the alps this year. In Feb, a mate of mine from Chamonix wanted to de-camp to the Gastein valley to get some snow.  I was amazed!
I think had the conditions been better like last year, you'd have had a much better time.
Cheers
Kersh
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Great review! Been there twice, April 2007 (took a school party) and April 2010 (took my wife and 2 children) - and love it. The Alpentherme is fantasic; I can't believe there are better spa/pools elsewhere! Nice people, good food, good value and for my daughter excellent instruction from schneesportschool gastein. That long H1/2 run is great fun, especially if you mix in a run down to Angertal and around there, and back up again.
It's worth mentioning the ski bus sevice, which is very good, and included in the lift pass.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm thinking about basing ourselves in Bad Gastein next year, with a car is it possible to really explore the ski amade region from here? I ask as I was offered a cracking deal for 2 weeks stay but worry that a single resort area will get a bit boring but don't want to spend hours every day in the car to get to other places. The other option is to spend a week here then maybe Westendorf of Mayerhofen.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Bad Hofgastein is a very nice town. Good to see some photos of a reviewed resort.
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rggdxb, Th egasteins are right at the end of the SKi Amadé area. So you will be looking a 30min journey to Wagrain and then about an hour to the other end of Amadé (Haus).
If you really want to ski the gasteins and include other Amadé areas, I would think about basing yourself in Wagrain.
If you want to explore the majority of Amadé and leave the Gasteins then Radstadt is pretty central.
Of course you cold also get a Salburger super pass and then do the Gasteins and Kitzsteinhorn/Kaprun, Zell am See and Saalbch Hinterglemm (all about an hour from there...)
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You know it makes sense.
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rggdxb, as flangesax says, the Gasteins are well over on the west side of Ski Amade but I wouldn't let that put you off. There's plenty to keep you entertained in the valley and other areas around to keep you going. This year I went to Hochkonig with Speedster for the day which was great. With St Johann, Wagrain and Flachau not that far away, you'll be fine based in the Gastein valley. In the past, i've been in the Gastein for 2 weeks and not got bored - depends how fast you ski, how often you stop for a beer, etc to decide how quickly you'll want somewhere else.
Let me know if you have any queries and i'll help you out.
Cheers
Kersh
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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we tend to be all day from 8.30 am till 4 ish with a brief stop for lunch then a couple of beers after down in the village, stopping during the day only really happens if it's seriously cold and the wife needs a hot chocolate. This worked in La Tzoumaz this year as the kids ski school ran all day till 4.30pm but it seems Austrian ones (or the ones I've looked at) finish a little earlier. I am looking forward to trying out a different country as France was good, but not great, slopes in Switzerland were good and the accomodation etc as well as the ski school were good but the price of everything was so over the top it made me cringe. How can a bowl of pasta cost CHF22? We stopped in Geneva and took the kids to the cinema and it was CHF425 for the tickets. I have worked out we can easily spend 2 weeks in Austria in a bigger house and still come away better off than 1 week in La Swiss. Bad Gastein looking good at this point, though I am tempted to try a week in Westendorf as well, just to see a different place.
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Poster: A snowHead
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rggdxb, one thing that is quite popular now over 2 weeks is having 1 week in one area and then moving. Tom W did that this season. He was in Schladming for the first week and then moved to Bad Gastein. The advantage is it's the same ski pass, the disadvantage is it's a day moving. In Amade, you can move from one side to the other by train (I think). Thats maybe an option?
Cheers
Kersh
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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rggdxb, Kersh,
yep, it was 9 days of skiing actually, but doable as accommodation for 4-5 nights was easy to find.
Same ski pass. Easy transfer. Only one plane ticket.
Definitely will do it next time if I DIY the trip.
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=73879&highlight=schladming
By paying a bit more and getting Salzburger ski pass you can consider places like Saalbach or Obertauern for example.
Although Schaldming or Flachau/Wagrain/Zauchensee are great as well on Ski Amade ski pass.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Kersh, and we actually did not lost a day for moving. We left the first resort in the evening after full day of skiing.
A bit of a hard day as you have to store the luggage somewhere at the hotel and then take a train still in ski clothes but still worth it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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bum, good report and reasonably reflects how I found Bad Hofgastein though I found the ski school to be quite good for a one on one lesson last year. I think you were pretty unlucky with teh conditions, I went 2 weeks later last year and didn't have anything like the moguls I can see in your photos. The runs to Angertal were much better and Dorf in good shape too. I think given better conditions it really is a great set of resorts / ski area in the Gastein valley and have it on my "will go back" list.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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rggdxb, would agree with Kersh, fairly easy to explore the region from Bad Gastein however if you were more centrally based in Amade (e.g. Wagrain/Flachau) then off course driving time to each area is shorter. in the last few years I've skied pretty much all the areas (although not Planai/Reiteralm yet) from Bad Gastein and I think the furthest I would have driven was to the glacier at Dachstein which was about an hour max. What I find is that if the snow is great then no need to leave the valley at all. Between Sportgastein, Graukogel, Angertal and Dorfgastein/Grossarl you can be occupied for 2 weeks. But if the aim is to see as much of Amade as possible with minimum driving time then probably a week in Gastein and a week in Radstat/Schladming would work well.
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rggdxb - CHF22 for a bowl of pasta in Switzerland sounds right, and is daylight robbery! In Torgon 2 years ago it was £15 for 2 small glasses of wine and lunch for a family of three was usually £60. But CHF425 to go to the cinema - that's £300! What did you watch?!
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Sorry, my bad, was converting to AED where I live in Dubai, was CHF106 and it was Gnomio and Juliette, in French, which the wife and 2 boys loved as they're fluent and I gamely smiled at and had a snooze whilst no-one was watching. I was offered a nice looking place in Flachau but thought the resort itself looked a little small so discounted it, may take another look at it based on the recommendations above, I'm guessing though this makes sense as a central based for the rest of the region rather than an awesome destination all on it's own?
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