GOLF TRAVEL DIARIES: SALZBURGERLAND, AUSTRIA

When I think of Austria, I think of the mountains. The beautiful alps, with snow covered peaks that reach far up into the clouds.

I’ve heard of people going there to ski in the winter. And of how beautiful it is and what a perfect destination it is for winter activities in the snow. 

I’ve never really heard anyone speak about Austria as a golf destination though. Which is part of what made me so curious about what Austria has to offer, golf wise. So we set off on a three night golf trip to the region of SalzburgerLand, in the very western part of Austria, bordering Germany.

Saturday 7.50 am

After an early morning (03.30 am) wake up call I sat sipping my iced coffee by our gate at Copenhagen airport.

We boarded the first flight of the day to Salzburg and up in the sky I tried to imagine what we’d be met by once we got there. Nature. Mountains. Wildlife. A peaceful atmosphere.. Just a few of the pictures I painted in my head of what a few days in SalzburgerLand would look like. What they would feel like.

Saturday 11.00 am

We’re driving from the small Salzburg airport, north, towards Bad Gastein. Our first stop on the trip.

The drive to Bad Gastein kind of introduced us to what would come to be a familiar view for the next few days. Tall, wooden dressed mountains - everywhere. 

With no time to spare when we got to the hotel (SalzburgerLand Hof in central Bad Gastein), we went straight to change into our golffits and drove the ten minutes down to Golf Gastein.

My first thought was that it was a cute little course. Nothing insane in terms of club house and facilities but the surroundings and the atmosphere were something else from the moment we got out of the car.

After a quick lunch we made it out on the course for our first round of golf (ever) in Austria.

The round was a hot one. And a beautiful one. 

Playing golf in between the mountains in 30 degrees (Celsius to clarify, so there’s no confusion about what I consider hot lol) and sun was a special experience. During my 25 years of playing golf I’ve only played in the mountains once, maybe twice, before.

That’s why this first round at Golf Gastein felt so special. The whole place just felt extremely charming and I loved the vibes out there.

The layout was honestly quite tricky. Not every single hole was tricky, obviously, but quite a few of the holes had some type of challenge in the form of a tight fairway lined with trees, a water hazard across the fairway, or a sharp dogleg.

It was a fun challenge trying to navigate our way through the course for the first time. And also taking in the views for the first time. Wherever I turned my head there were mountains. And more mountains. In every single direction. Absolutely magical.

My few favorite holes were the ones on the back (holes 13-15 specifically) where I just felt closer to the mountains.

One of the coolest experiences was also walking up on the 14th tee box. It’s located right next to the gorgeous river that flows through Bad Gastein, which brings cold air all the way onto the tee box. So as you walk up there, the air suddenly feels cold and wet at the same time. So odd, so cool and so refreshing on a 30 degree day.

Here is my favorite video from that first round, that I really think encapsulates what it feels like to play golf in between the mountains, surrounded by nature.

Sunday 8.00 am

Another early wakeup call to get out and experience what Bad Gastein has to offer. After spending a few moments taking in the mesmerizing (!!) view from our balcony, we made our way to Golf Gastein.

I love an early morning round. And it was no different here.

Playing Golf Gastein for the second time, I almost felt like I could take it all in even better. The nature, the views. Everything. And I knew the course, so that definitely helped me master some of the trickier holes a bit better, strategy wise.

Sunday 3.40 pm

Usually our golf trips are jam packed with golf - from morning until night. But this time we actually had some time over to discover something more than new fairways.

So after our last round (sadly) at Bad Gastein, we walked up the road from our hotel up to the thermal baths at Felsentherme. Apart from being an extremely relaxing moment after two days of golf in the heat, it was such a cool experience getting to actually swim in the thermal baths. 

The water in the baths comes from the Hohe Tauern mountain range of the Alps and is enriched with different valuable minerals after many years (I think I read around 3000 years) of running through the deep rock layers. 

The water in the thermal baths is often called ‘’liquid gold’’ because of this. And even as I’m writing this it feels pretty sick to think that I’ve actually swam in that water.

Monday 9.50 am

When the alarm went off Monday morning, it was time to pack up our bags and say bye bye to Bad Gastein.

We then made the 1.5 hour drive northwest to Zell am See and our hotel Tirolerhof in the heart of downtown. Once again we were impatient to discover the golf in the area and drove the 10 minutes to Golf Club Zell am See.

Monday 2.30 pm

Golf Club Zell am See has two courses; Kitzsteinhorn and Schmittenhöhe, and we decided to play Kitzsteinhorn first.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t really with us, which was quite disappointing after two days of absolute perfection in terms of heat and sunshine. But we weren’t going to let that ruin our day.

So despite the absolute downpour, we made it out to the first tee and took on Kitzsteinhorn.

In many ways, I found the course similar to Bad Gastein. Not so much in layout but more in terms of the atmosphere and proximity to nature. The course wasn’t as undulated as Bad Gastein but it was also located much closer to the mountains.

Due to the rain and clouds, the mountains were covered during most of our round. But any time the clouds cleared up and the mountain tops peeked out in between, you really got a feel for exactly how close they were. And that was cool, for sure.

The main upside (there’s always a positive to everything) with the bad weather was that we had the course to ourselves. I literally didn’t spot another soul there for 3 hours straight. Just me, Coco and the mountain vibes.

To be completely honest - even though I did enjoy the round, I think I would’ve enjoyed it much more if the better was better. The rain and clouds definitely made it more difficult to take in the whole atmosphere and the gorgeous mountain views.

But I guess that just means we’ll have to come back and play it again another time. To get the full experience.

Monday 7.30 pm

For some reason, it seems like this whole thermal bath thing made an impact on us. Because after the incredibly cold and wet round of golf, we decided to check out the spa area at hotel Tirolerhof. And I’m happy we did because a relaxing moment of jacuzzi to heat back up was a genius choice.

Tuesday 8.50 am

Our second, and last day, in Zell am See brought us back to Golf Club Zell am See for more golf. Having already checked the Kitzsteinhorn off our list; it was time to take on Schmittenhöhe.

The weather honestly started out pretty much like the day before: rain, clouds and more rain.

Luckily, the weather got exponentially better as the day and our round went on and we actually got to finish the last few holes with the sun peeking through the mountain tops. Nobody could’ve been happier than me at that moment, I swear.

Here is my favorite video we made at Golf Club Zell am See, that was filmed during the second day there.

The course was charming and fun to play. A few of the holes were more challenging than what I found the Kitzsteinhorn course to be. Especially coming down the stretch the second day I felt like the holes were a bit trickier and required more strategic club choices.

Overall, I actually found both courses quite similar. Obviously the holes didn’t look exactly the same but the layout and landscape felt similar. Both courses were quite flat and the main obstacles I’d say were trees (lots of trees) and bunkers, with the occasional water hazard.

Four days and three nights in SalzburgerLand truly flew by. But I’m so happy we maximized the time and got four rounds of golf, plus other experiences out of it.

I’m not lying when I say that I’m a mountain golf girly now.

This trip really opened my eyes for exploring golf in areas that might not be traditionally viewed, or hyped, as golf destinations. Golfing in the mountains was peaceful, calm and freeing. I enjoyed it so much.

We finished the trip with a 2h drive back to SalzburgerLand and got to see the last of the gorgeous Alps on our way there.

Thank you SalzburgerLand for a trip of its own kind.

If you want to watch our summary video of the trip, you can find it here