We were staying for a week at a timeshare in Zell am See, but wanted to get away for one night to hike and and visit the famous mineral baths in Bad Gastein. After much searching on the internet, we finally found Villa Solitude, located next door to the Casino in the center of Bad Gastein, and a five minute walk to the falls. Villa Solitude is an older historic building with a handful of charming rooms.

We were escorted to a beautiful bedroom on the first floor (which is the floor above the ground floor in Europe), with a large sitting area full of period furniture, a huge, modern bath complete with bathrobes, and a small but perfectly adequate balcony to sit out on with a glass of wine overlooking the gorge. We had travelled for a month throughout the Tirol up to that point, staying a few days at an inn in each village we visited, but this was by far the nicest room and setting we encountered. We had a minor problem with the water in the bath, but it was repaired immediately, even though they were in the middle of preparing for the evening's dinner.

We had dinner at the Villa, and the weather cooperated enough so we could sit out on the long balcony overlooking the town and the gorge. The food was excellent and reasonably priced. Breakfast was included, served out on the restaurant balcony as well and was the best we had at any inn on our trip.

We visited the FelsemTherme baths, which was very clean and very nice, though we couldn't find a hot pool of water anywhere. The pools were all warm enough, but after a day of hiking on the mountain, we really wanted a good hot soaking. Nevertheless, we managed to cook out some of the muscle kinks in the steam room.

We would definitely return to Bad Gastein and stay at Villa Solitude. It might be a little harder to find on the internet, but it is well worth the effort!

This Ski resort is completely different to all the others, it is not prettily alpine as are most of the others around, but it had a curious quality all of its own, Villa Solitude echoed this feeling. The hotel is more of a converted family home, and we were put in a suite on the ground floor, consisting of a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom, plenty of room! The bathroom had been recently refurbished. The suite was very comfortable

We had a delightful breakfast, the best we had on our entire trip through Europe, everything was beautifully presented, from individual fruit salads, fruit juices,butter,jams,bowls of yogurt, hams cheeses and salamis and croissants and rolls. and delicious coffee a veritable feast!

Stayed for a long weekend at Villa Solitude.

Got there after 11pm on the Friday night. A very nice chap showed us to our room, pointed out the waterfall visible from the room balcony and then invited us back down to the bar for something to eat or drink.
Nothing felt like it was going to be too much trouble.
The bar restaurant area is really cosy and quirky with wine bottles in racks adorning the walls.
A lovely bowl of soup and a glass of wine and off to bed.

The room was large with high ceilings, a great view and big bathroom. OK it's a little "tired" but it all adds to the character. If you like your hotel rooms like little boxes this is not the place for you.

If you like carved wood ceilings and wooden paneled walls, rugs on wooden floors and old windows then Villa Solitude fits the bill.

The other point of note is how nice and quiet the Hotel was at night. I suspect this
Breakfast was cold meats, cheeses, rolls croissants cereal etc. I'm sure if you wanted something else you only need ask.

Bad Gastein is well located for skiing. Bad Gastein, Hof Gastein or Dorf Gastein are great areas (Dorf was our favourite), although a car has to be recommended for getting to the skiing as the trudge on foot in ski boots from Villa Solitude to the lift at Bad Gastein is a bit too much to start and finish the day. There are buses, but we did not sample them.

The food was great, service attentive and enthusiastic and the selection of wine impressive. Anything from Euro 20 up to Euro 2400 a bottle if I recall. We had some really lovely Austrian reds at about Euro 40-50.

To cap the great experience, they even offered us a late checkout for the last day which was lovely as we had a late evening flight and planned to ski all day. Back to the room, shower, quick snooze, pay bill and off to the airport at 6pm. Sure they had the room free and it didn;t cost them anything, but you do not get this kind of consideration in many places I've been.

Great ambience, friendly staff. Recommended

When I went to Villa Solitude to see some friends last week while staying in Bad Gastein, the welcome we got was shocking and rude. I asked to see the family concerned, the first person we spoke to did not know who they were, and the second asked in a very abrupt fashion "Why did we want to see them", I replied "because we were friends" and I was told they were having a massage. iasked to leave a message and they reluctantly gave me a pen. Fine - but we did not need to be treated like second class [--], and this second man was the only person in my 6 visits to Austria who was rude. What a shame! One arrogant idiot could have ruined my holiday!