Solarbad

Solarbad Gastein is a seasonal open-air bathing complex at Solarbadstrasse 24 in Dorfgastein, in the Gastein valley of Salzburg province, Austria. It presents itself as the family bath in the sunniest part of the valley and is marketed through the Gastein regional tourism organisation, which also sells it as part of a combined summer pass with the Fulseck and Panorama cable cars and as one component of the Berge und Thermen Card. The site is compact: a single bathing enclosure with four pools, two slides, extensive lawns, a small indoor lying area, a sauna and wellness block and the Hoamat Liab restaurant on a terrace above the water.

The four basins are each held at a stated temperature. The warm-water pool runs at 32 degrees, the movement pool at 29, the children's pool at 28 and the sports pool at 26, the last intended for swimmers wanting to cover lengths. Two slides serve the family area, an ordinary water slide and a larger one the site plan labels a giant water slide, alongside a children's play tower, a slackline and separate play and lying meadows. A beach volleyball court hosts an annual tournament. The sauna and wellness block, open only Thursday to Sunday from 15:00 to 20:00, holds a bio sauna, a Finnish sauna and a steam bath.

The bath is not a thermal establishment despite its setting. Nothing on the operator's site uses the words Thermalwasser, Heilwasser, Sole, Quelle or Mineralwasser in connection with its own water; the pools are conventionally heated, as the name Solarbad indicates, and the two named thermal baths of the valley, Alpentherme Gastein and Felsentherme, appear on the site only as separate venues included on the Berge und Thermen Card. This makes Solarbad a summer leisure bath in a spa region rather than a spa bath itself, a distinction worth keeping clear in a thermal-bath catalogue.

Operation is short and weather-dependent. The 2026 season runs from 14 May to 13 September, with the bathing area open daily from 12:00 to 20:00 in the shoulder periods of 14 May to 19 June and 31 August to 13 September, and from 10:00 to 20:00 through the main season of 20 June to 30 August. The operator states plainly that there is no bathing operation on rainy days. Tickets are sold as day cards, evening cards valid from 17:00, six-visit blocks and season cards, at reduced rates for holders of the Gastein Card; the restaurant keeps longer hours than the bath and closes on Mondays outside July and August.