The Gastein Valley is rightly one of the most famous valleys in Austria. Because it has a lot to offer: On the one hand, there are the sophisticated and famous towns of Dorfgastein, Bad Hofgastein and Bad Gastein, lively places where the healing power of the thermal baths has been used since the Middle Ages. High above the villages, the mountains become higher and higher the further you hike towards the head of the valley, and swing up to glacier-covered three-thousand-metre peaks. But there is also the quiet side of the Gastein Valley. On the alpine pastures high above the valley floor and just below the peaks. Alpine pastures that are managed, but can still only be reached on foot or by mountain bike and have retained their originality. On which nature and animals determine the rhythm and not humans - and which therefore offer a very special degree of relaxation from everyday life.
It is precisely in this quiet alpine landscape that you immerse yourself in the first 3 days of the Gastein Trail. The stage described here takes you from Dorfgastein with its lively village life on beautiful hiking trails through forests up to the alpine pasture regions just below the peaks. A long stage with many metres of altitude uphill, but for this very reason it takes you far away from everyday life. And the overnight stay on the Heinreichalm is a real highlight, the view of the striking Bernkogel a uniqueness!
