From alpine thermal baths to forest spa sanctuaries, Austria's wellness landscape is among the finest in Europe. These five are worth travelling for.
Austria's relationship with wellness is ancient. The Romans built thermal baths here. The Habsburgs took the waters at Bad Ischl. Today, the tradition continues in a landscape that seems designed for restoration — mountains, forests, mineral springs and an unhurried pace of life that is increasingly rare.
We visited five retreats across the country, from the Vorarlberg Alps to the Styrian hills, looking for places that offer something beyond the standard spa menu. What we found were five very different interpretations of what it means to restore yourself.
The first, in the Bregenzerwald, is built almost entirely from local timber. The thermal pool is fed by a spring that emerges from the hillside at 38 degrees. There are no treatments, no programmes — just the water, the forest and the silence.
The second, in Bad Gastein, occupies a Belle Époque hotel that has been carefully restored. The radon thermal galleries beneath the town are unlike anything else in Europe — a treatment that has been prescribed by Austrian doctors for over a century.
The remaining three range from a forest retreat in the Salzkammergut to a contemporary wellness hotel in southern Styria. Each has its own character, its own approach to restoration, its own reason to make the journey.
"Wellness travel is at its best when it connects you to a place — its landscape, its water, its rhythm. These five retreats all do exactly that."
— Elena Voss, AVIVIS Wellness Editor
