Recommending Ellmau

I’m writing this post to recommend Ellmau as as a summer holiday destination if you like the outdoors and an active holiday.

If you like to go places to sit by the pool getting skin cancer while drinking sangria and listening to a shrieking hen party from Grimsby shredding “Angels” at a nearby karaoke shack, then this is not the holiday destination for you. It’s much livelier in the winter when it is hugely busy as it is a massive ski resort, but in the summer Ellmau is stunningly beautiful, fairly quiet and offers a variety of activities if you are fond of hiking, climbing or mountain biking.

It is a pleasant family holiday too, but the weather is not Costa Del Sol, so you can’t be guaranteed el scorchio. There are plenty of activities in the rain for kids, and when it’s sunny you can take them to the Kaiserbad, a water slide/swimming pool/playground/ kids paradise. There’s also other excellent swimming pools, outdoor swimming areas and alternative activities if you can get them into hiking. It’s quiet in the evenings and devoid of Elvis impersonators or karaoke bars. I better add that the winter sees Ellmau quite differently and it becomes a bit of a apres ski party town, although it remains family focused (how the exotic dance bar fits into this picture I’m not sure, but never mind).

Getting to Ellmau

Ellmau is in the Austrian Tirol, close to Salzburg and not too far from Munich. Those are the two airports you are best placed to fly to. If you are getting there by train, travel to Kufstein, Wörgl or Kitzbühl.

We stay at a house in Wimm area of the Town, which is across the road from the town centre and five minutes walk from the Kaiserbad. There are three apartments in the house, each one is exceptionally well appointed and very reasonably priced in both winter and summer, prices being a bit lower in the summer as it is the low season. Contact Maria Haas for further details. She speaks excellent English as do most people in the area, so don’t worry if you don’t speak German.

The mountains around there are stunning, and offer a wealth or mountain-based recreation. We stick to walking up mountains and biking.

We hired bikes from Intersport Winkler. You can also get bike from Friedl Fuchs (yes that’s with a C)  at the opposite end of the town. Both had the same price at e65. Bikes weren’t bad at all, but next time I want to take my own.

There are cable cars along the mountains and a funicular railway on the Hartkaiser that can help you to cheat and get up in the mountains without all of the uphill pedaling. Once you get into the mountains there are some brilliant mountain biking opportunities.

Our major outing took us from Wimm, walking to Sheffau, walking up to Brandstadl, across the “Panorama Weg”, down the Hartkaiser and then back home. It was tough, really steep on the climb up the and then miles to get down. I think we might have overdone it slightly.

An event of note on that expedition was being attacked by four pugs who chased and then wheezed at us for a short section of the climb. I think they wanted to stay for the duration but I told them to go home in German, and they dutifully turned around and did as they were told.

In terms of cycling Ellmau to Söll is a really nice ride. There’s a section where you go through the forest, but otherwise the road is quite smooth. There isn’t much of note in Söll, but bee enthusiasts can stop off at Bee world and check out the honey and bees. I’ve not been there, but it looks very informative and exciting from the outside .

A very pleasant ride was from Ellmau to the Hintersteiner See (Lake) which is behind Scheffau. It’s an easy ride to Sheffau and then… very, very, very steep. You go through the village (which is steep) and then you can either go through forests or on a nicely surfaced road (again, very steep. I think you’ll recognise a theme developing here). You’ll need a mountain bike for the forest road. Again, it’s nice and steep and it was a hot day. The end reward made it worth it. The lake is gorgeous, crystal clear and surrounded by mountains. It is as Maria says, “Sau Kalt”, which you could translate into English as “sodding freezing” and the swim was incredibly refreshing.

I wish we had the bikes for longer, but it rained for a few days and they were pretty expensive. As I say, next time I’ll take my own.

Oh and here’s a ride I was proud of. From Wimm up to where the Riesen restaurant once was. It was tough and I nearly passed out at the end. I raced against my husband, who ran. He won! On a road bike this would be a different story. Here’s the route from an mountain opposite, so you can see it is nice and steep.

Here’s me enjoying a cold one in Munich. Mmmmmm beer. This was taken a couple of years ago on an earlier visit.