Ellmauhof Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

Good points – Warm and friendly small hotel. Excellent and helpful staff from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave (apart from the barman who can be a bit unpredictable). Great facilities for kids (although the crèche is a bit small) including a working farm next to hotel. Nice sauna/relaxation area. Great views over Hinterglemm from valley facing rooms. Ski in and out on a short blue piste situated next to the hotel. Superb food for such a hotel and nice, cosy eating area. ‘After ski snacks’ from 3:30 to 5PM which was usually a hot dish followed by lovely cakes! We tended to ski all day without lunch and come back with the kids and eat around 4PM. Good ski and boot room in the hotel with a tractor ‘train’ to take the kids (and parents) to the nursery area.
Bad points – At time of writing (21/1/2008) the hotel still allows smoking in the reception/bar area. As this is the area where you eat snacks and socialise it becomes pretty unpleasant at times if cigarette smoke bothers you. Perhaps more importantly, there is a children’s play area at the same location where the kids would always gather when the adults were in the bar. Because the hotel is only small there is nowhere else to sit during the day or later at night after the restaurant closes.
Temperature of the shower in our room could change suddenly to scalding hot or very cold. Not great for children.
No swimming pool or Jacuzzi for adults (there is a small spa bath at extra cost but only big enough for one really). The kid’s pool is great for children to splash about but not deep enough for even them to swim in.
If you want to go into the village you probably need a taxi as the walk back is up a long(ish) steep hill (but the views make up for it in my opinion).
Overall I would recommend this hotel to families with young children as long as the smoking doesn’t bother you.
Saalbach/Hinterglemm lives up to its name as a great ski area. We never got bored with the runs and there were many we didn’t have time to do. The best open runs are at the other side of the valley which entails a short walk across the village centre to the gondola serving that area. Not such a big deal unless you are tired and your ski boots are hurting!
TIPS – avoid the red run on the mountain directly behind the hotel unless you are a confident intermediary as its long, steep and (at this time) covered in moguls. If you’re staying in this hotel the best slopes for getting your ski feet on are on the Zwolferkergol. The gondola for this area is beyond the nursery slopes but on the hotel side of the valley.
‘Snow and Fun’ ski kindergarten. – This is the main (and possibly only) ski kindergarten in hinterglemm with two main enclosed areas at the bottom of the nursery slopes. It looks very good and they do a good job of warming the kids up with songs and dancing in the morning. Furthermore you can pay 12 euros extra per day and they look after the children at lunchtime and feed them in a nearby hotel. However, my daughter is 4 years old and this was her second ski trip. I was told that she would be skiing 2-3 hours per day. This did not happen. The only way to really progress her skiing was to take her out of the snow and fun play area ourselves in the afternoon, take her on the button lifts and down the nursery slopes. Obviously some kids are not ready for that – but our daughter was skiing blues at the end of last year’s trip to Katschberg and we felt that she was taking a step back in the Snow and fun school.