Holiday Weather

I was in Bad Hofgastein, not Bad Gastein, and it's a different kettle of fish altogether... You have access to the same skiing areas as in Gastein, but you have a smaller village, with easier access to restaurants etc. On the flip side, there's very little apres ski to talk of, and very few bars. Not that I/we were looking for a party but it would have been nice to have gone out for a couple... I had a drink at the Park Hotel (5*) on my last evening and I was the only one in the bar at 20:30!

The place would have been perfect if you were serious about your skiing and wanted early nights to be fresh the following day. Trouble is, the skiing isn't that good. The valley consists of five disparate areas, of which two are interconnected by means of ski-lifts. To get to any of the other ones, you have to get all the way back to the resort and get on a ski-bus to go to the next area. Very time consuming and annoying indeed. On my last day. I got to Sport Gastein around 9:30 am to be told that the lifts weren't open all the way to the top. This made it virtually pointless to stay, but I went up once before I got on the next ski-bus back to Hofgastein. I didn't stand on my skis again until 12:15!

Having said all that, it's great if you are a beginner->intermediate. If you are good and demand a little fun outside the piste it would only be good if you were lucky enough to have copious amounts of snow fall...

Recommended Places
Alpen therme was good, although a bit 'modern' and charmless.