Bad Gastein

Bad Gastein is a spa town in the Gastein Valley in the Salzburg region, built on steep slopes around a waterfall that plunges through its very centre. Belle époque hotels stand on the cliffs one above another — it is this dramatic vertical arrangement that earned the town its nickname, the Alpine Manhattan. Thermal water from the Gastein springs is the reason the town exists and remains its defining identity: visitors bathe in thermal pools hewn into the rock, and the valley is also home to a former mine where radon therapy is offered. Above the town, a cable car leads to the summit of Stubnerkogel, while the valley extends further to Sportgastein and the Hohe Tauern National Park. The town is entirely vertical — movement between levels means staircases and steep climbs.