Aktiv- & Gesundheitsresort das GXUND - Thermeneintritt inklusive

The location is great and the apartment me rented was well designed, clean, and spacious

The breakfast in the dining hall is very basic (in the Xund restaurant it’s much better)

The GXUND hotel (pronounced like gsund, or “healthy” in German) is truly amazing. It is the main hotel connected to the Alpine Therme - a very large network of pools and saunas in the center of town. There is a direct underground connection from the hotel to the Alpine Therme. The Alpine Therme has indoor and outdoor pools for adults and kids, including waterslides and saunas. For Americans, who may be reading this, it is hard to compare this layout with anything in the States. The town of Bad Hofgestein is charming and upscale, somewhat similar to Breckenridge or Vail. The integration of a hotel and pool/waterpark complex is more similar to family resorts, but with a more age diverse clientele, many older adults, and much less chaos and commercialization. We stayed in a family suite, which was large and beautiful. The location is right in the middle of town, and across the street from bakeries and a grocery. Guests receive a bathrobe and slippers, and a wrist band that allows entry into the pool area. There is a very nice restaurant in the pool area that only takes funds that are preloaded onto the wristband. This all presents a very relaxing vacation, because you can eat food in your room, or wear your bathrobe to the pool and eat your meals at the pool restaurant, or venture into town to explore the many cute places nearby. The hotel is also connected to the tourism office for the town, which runs guided hikes and other excursions for low cost or sometimes free. There is a beautiful playground within walking distance, a gondola also within walking distance, and the gondola takes you to the top of a mountain, which has a spectacular restaurant (Hirsch & Maus) and an eye-popping children’s play area, with modern, imaginative play equipment overlooking the mountains, and short and long hikes as well.

The wristband system would be nice to have more integrated with the hotel. Payment in the Alpine Therme restaurant uses the wristband from the hotel, but the hotel does not have the capability to link the wristband to your credit card, nor do they have the ability to preload funds onto the wristband. You need to plan ahead to stop by the pool check-in desk before getting your food at the restaurant. This is very different from American hotels, which typically allow you to pay with credit card anywhere, and allow you to charge things to your hotel if you have a wristband or similar.

the location is marvellous, everything is close by (shops, restaurants, Alpentherme, bus terminal); the room was spacious and comfortable; there were enough free-of-charge parking places; I can't even begin to explain how godsend the free entrance to Alpentherme is (from the hotel, in a provided bathrobe and provided slippers); with the provided Mobiliteit ticket, buses in the whole Gasteinertal (and beyond) are free of charge, and they are frequent; the hikes in and above the valley are something

just small things: the windows closed automatically in case of rain but they didn't reopen automatically after the rain, therefore someone had to get up from bed after a nightly rain to open them; the kitchen was adequate but not great, it could be improved (better stove, better knives); I would welcome a package deal that would include also the cableways in Gasteinertal (but maybe it's just me)

Access to the AlpenTherme from the hotel. Able to use the Therme on checkout day until 3pm. Was able to check in early and store bags. Convenient location 5 min walk from Schlossalmbahn ski lift and bus station. Near to supermarket and bakery. Apartment comes with towels, dressing gowns, hair dryer, shampoo (no conditioner), kitchenette, tea + coffee making facilities (minus any tea or coffee). Staff were friendly and helpful.

**WARNING ** There's an added cleaning charge not advertised. Don't believe the Booking.com price - there's a hidden charge of 51 Euros added to the (non-refundable) booking. This gets added only after you've clicked to pay so when you see the confirmation tab you've got a totally different price to what was quoted! Kitchen could've had better facilities there were no complimentary sachets of tea/coffee/little milks, salt/pepper etc. It would've been nice to have Spa slippers provided along with the towels and dressing gowns - bring your own flip flops. For the price would've expected more complimentary kitchen and bathroom amenities.