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# Health psychologist Carina Neumann offers holidays without a schedule at Bergdorf Prechtlgut
- URL: https://www.eingecheckt.de/en/bergdorf-prechtlgut-carina-neumann-holidays-without-a-schedule/
- Published: 2026-11-03T21:15:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T21:15:41.000Z
- Description: Carina Neumann is a host and a health psychologist. At Bergdorf Prechtlgut, guests decide how to spend their day.
- Author: Michael Külbel
- Tags: Guest Experience, #en, #magazin_en, #pair_bergdorf_prechtlgut, #format_interview

Key points 
- Bergdorf Prechtlgut in Wagrain, in Austria’s Salzburger Land, has eight chalets, each with its own alpine spa and open fireplace. Its hosts are Carina Neumann and Manuel Aster.
- Carina Neumann is a health psychologist. She offers guests mindfulness training, forest bathing and one-to-one conversations.
- There are no fixed schedules. Guests plan their own day, and breakfast is laid out in the chalet.
- The name comes from the Prechtlfeld, a field where farmers once processed the harvest together.

**A businesswoman in a bathrobe, memories of the past and a holiday without a timetable: at Bergdorf Prechtlgut in Wagrain, host Carina Neumann follows a particular idea of rest. Her experience as a health psychologist plays a decisive part in it.**

The woman was perfectly styled when she arrived at Bergdorf Prechtlgut. A businesswoman through and through, host Carina Neumann recalls: correct, precise, with very little lightness. Three days later the same woman walked into the restaurant with tousled hair and in her bathrobe to get herself an Aperol. Only once she was there did she notice that she was not styled. She ended up laughing together with the hosts. “That just shows you what relaxation looks like,” she said.

For Carina Neumann, the encounter is a fond memory and also an example of what she wants to achieve with her concept. Together with Manuel Aster, the health psychologist runs Bergdorf Prechtlgut in Wagrain in Austria’s Salzburger Land, which opened in 2018\. Eight private chalets, each with its own alpine spa and open fireplace, are meant to let guests shape their holiday as independently of fixed routines as possible. The motto is “Holidays like in the old days – with today’s luxury”.¹

![Several wooden chalets with balconies and flower boxes on a hillside, surrounded by trees and shrubs](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/eb/d1eb58be-ccd0-43e1-b101-0e16365e0b9f/content/images/2026/11/prechtlgut-aussenaufnahme.jpg)

The eight chalets of Bergdorf Prechtlgut stand in Wagrain in Austria’s Salzburger Land. Photo: Bergdorf Prechtlgut

What may sound like a classic promise of upmarket wellness hospitality has a very personal background for Neumann. It is about memories, about the value of free time and about why even people who deliberately take a break sometimes have to learn all over again how to unwind.

## A few days off are not yet rest

Booking a holiday is a long way from leaving everyday life behind. The laptop comes along, the smartphone is always within reach, and even supposedly free time is often filled with activities. Neumann notices that some of her guests don’t really know what to do with their free hours at the start of their stay. Work may be on hold, but the habit of being constantly busy and reachable remains.

“From my work as a health psychologist, I know that rest does not happen automatically just because you have a few days off,” Neumann explains. What matters far more, she says, is whether people get the chance to really focus on their own needs. For the host, that means prescribing as little as possible. Not everyone wants breakfast at eight, a hike during the day and a visit to the spa in the afternoon. Sometimes the most pleasant holiday day is simply one without any plan at all.

This conviction shapes how things work at the Prechtlgut. Breakfast is laid out in the guests’ own chalet, and meals can be enjoyed in the Prechtlstadl restaurant or in private. Instead of a shared spa where guests have to fit in with others, every chalet has its own alpine spa. Those who wish can spend the day with a book by the fire, enjoy a massage or explore the mountains around Wagrain.

![Private spa area with reclaimed wood walls, stone floor, a freestanding bathtub and a cushioned lounger with fur cushions](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/eb/d1eb58be-ccd0-43e1-b101-0e16365e0b9f/content/images/2026/11/prechtlgut-almspa.jpg)

Every chalet has its own alpine spa. Photo: Bergdorf Prechtlgut

The decision lies with the guests. That is the real core of the concept: it is not the hotel that sets the rhythm of a stay, but the person on holiday there.

## A grandmother’s bench and an old grain field

That Neumann does not derive her idea of rest from psychology alone becomes particularly clear when she talks about the past. She remembers shared lunches with good conversation, cosy film evenings on the sofa and simply looking out at nature from her grandmother’s bench in front of the house.

These are unspectacular memories. That is precisely why they say a lot about the philosophy of the chalet village. “For me, the old days means enjoying the moment and simply living life, without the speed that drives all of us along,” is how Neumann describes her idea of holidays from times gone by.

Even the name carries a piece of that past. The chalet village was built on the so-called Prechtlfeld, a former grain field where farmers once processed their harvest together. Neumann and Aster found the idea of togetherness so fitting that they wanted to preserve it in the name of their business.

The two did not become hosts by chance. Manuel Aster had already worked in winter hospitality for many years, while Carina Neumann gained experience in a hotel during her studies. Both discovered their enthusiasm for working with guests along the way. When they decided to build the Prechtlgut, however, they deliberately wanted to go their own way: more personal, more family-like and more focused on individual needs.

The result is an interesting combination. While the memories of the past are mainly about community and time spent together, today’s Prechtlgut also places great emphasis on privacy. Guests can decide for themselves when they want company and when they would rather keep to themselves. Today’s luxury is meant to make possible what Neumann particularly values about the past: time without constant obligations.

## Mindfulness in the chalet and in the forest

Neumann’s professional background shows not only in how the holiday concept is designed. Guests can also join her for mindfulness training and forest bathing. In doing so, she steps outside her classic role as a host, so to speak.

Her mindfulness sessions are not about guests’ personal issues but about a relaxation technique, she explains. Participants learn to perceive themselves and their surroundings consciously, without judging what they experience or wanting to change it. The exercises usually take place in the chalet, and outdoors when the weather is fine. They last between half an hour and an hour and a half when the session goes into the forest.

Neumann is convinced that nature in particular can help people gain distance from hectic everyday life. She speaks of lives shaped by news, appointments and constant availability. The calm of the forest, natural materials and surroundings without constant distraction are meant to help people pay more attention to their own needs again.

![Natural swimming pond with a stone shore in front of a wooden chalet, with wooded mountain slopes and an alpine meadow behind](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/eb/d1eb58be-ccd0-43e1-b101-0e16365e0b9f/content/images/2026/11/prechtlgut-naturbadeteich.jpg)

The natural swimming pond at Bergdorf Prechtlgut. Photo: Bergdorf Prechtlgut

She has an interesting take on what wellness actually means. While hotels compete for guests with ever larger pool landscapes, unusual treatments and extensive activity programmes, Neumann puts something much simpler at the centre: “I think the true luxury today is time.”

That does not mean facilities and comfort are of secondary importance at the Prechtlgut. The private spa areas, the in-chalet service and the food are very much part of the concept. Above all, they are meant to take as many everyday obligations off guests’ hands as possible.

## The freedom not to experience anything special

Perhaps it is precisely this combination of comfort and self-determination that makes the approach interesting for other hoteliers. A holiday is often defined by the number of things on offer. More activities, more treatments, more options are supposed to make a stay more attractive. Neumann places the emphasis elsewhere. In her view, a successful day does not have to contain as much as possible; above all, it has to suit the person spending it.

She gives very simple examples herself: drinking a coffee in the sun in the morning without already going through the diary. Enjoying a sauna session without having to consider anyone else. Or getting up and coming to a breakfast table that has already been laid. Small moments that easily get lost in everyday life and suddenly matter again on holiday.

![A wooden table laid in a chalet parlour with bread rolls, cold cuts, cheese, fruit, orange juice and coffee cups in front of a window with an orchid](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/eb/d1eb58be-ccd0-43e1-b101-0e16365e0b9f/content/images/2026/11/prechtlgut-fruehstueck-im-chalet.jpg)

Breakfast is laid out in the chalet. Photo: Bergdorf Prechtlgut

The freedom to shape the day yourself does not necessarily mean spending it alone. Personal encounters also play an important part for the host, with guests as well as with staff. Alongside quality time, personality and individuality are the three key words of her philosophy.

That Neumann herself is not removed from the pressures of everyday life makes her story all the more relatable. Together with Manuel Aster, she also runs Aster’s Mountainclub alongside the Prechtlgut, a venue used for weddings and corporate events, among other things.

So how does someone whose job is to give other people rest and lovely experiences find calm? Neumann mentions meditation, reading and conversations with her partner. But encounters with guests and staff are part of it too. Hospitality may be a stressful profession, she says, but it also gives back a great many lovely moments that stay in your memory.

The story of the businesswoman in the bathrobe is one of them.

Sources

This article draws on a written interview and the press material on Bergdorf Prechtlgut. 

1. [uschi liebl pr (2026) ](https://liebl-pr.de/pressroom/bergdorf-prechtlgut/?ref=eingecheckt.de)  
*Pressebereich Bergdorf Prechtlgut (Bergdorf Prechtlgut press room)*  
Press releases and press photos, October 2026\. Eight chalet units in Wagrain, private alpine spa, open fireplace, the motto “Holidays like in the old days – with today’s luxury”. Original publication in German.

**Original editorial source:**Written interview with Carina Neumann, host of Bergdorf Prechtlgut and health psychologist, October and November 2026\. Answers and quotations translated from German by the eingecheckt® editorial team.