Feel the glow: under the mountain into a radon spa in Austria

01.11.2023 - 14:37 / theguardian.com

The Austrian Alps are known for their visually dramatic walking trails. But equally alluring are the sumptuous spa-hotels where hikers can relax aching limbs in a maze of saunas and steam rooms, all scented with eucalyptus. And no spa is more labyrinthine than the radioactive caves I found myself (naked) in in Bad Gastein.

This elegant spa town was built on a rocky perch beside a spectacular waterfall in the declining years of the Austro-Hungarian empire: in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, belle époque hotels were tapping the radon-rich thermal waters to offer curative stays to bourgeois visitors.

As taking the waters fell out of fashion, many of these gems were boarded up, despite Bad Gastein being a buzzing ski destination in winter. The town could have copied many other ski resorts, particularly those in Switzerland, and allowed new buildings to be knocked up all over the mountainside. Instead, in its post-lockdown redevelopment, it has made sure all “new” hotels are in conversions of existing buildings. Even the Comodo, which advertises itself as a new design hotel, is a converted sanatorium. And 1 September saw the opening of the Grand Hotel Straubinger, whose solid, round arches ooze Habsburg grandeur. Three more hotels soon followed.

Bad Gastein is served by regular direct trains from Salzburg and Vienna. Though close to the town, the station is 100 metres above most of it, so the resort is building the Vertical Link, a tunnel with moving walkways to allow pedestrians to avoid climbing steep, narrow streets.

At the end of another tunnel is the most extraordinary “wellness” centre. The Gasteiner Heilstollen promises to rid visitors of any niggling aches and pains by nuking them in its radon-rich caves. If that sounds alarming, there are many radon-rich parts of the UK, notably Wales and the West Country.The management says a visit is safe, as it involves a very low exposure to radon; about a tenth of the radiation of an X-ray. Less well-evidenced are the claims of health benefits, although many Austrian visitors get a trip here on their health insurance. This nation of wellness fans takes spas very seriously.

On arriving at the Gasteiner Heilstollen, my husband and I first had an appointment with a doctor. I had wanted to ask him whether the caves might help my eczema – skin complaints and joint pain being among the ailments for which workers in this old silver mine noticed unexpected improvements. However, my husband, who works for the NHS, insisted on interrogating him about the somewhat shaky evidence base, throwing our doctor on the defensive, so we were soon out of time.

We were nonetheless cleared for treatment, seemingly because of our OK blood pressure readings, and sat in