Lets continue with the second part of my little road trip to Austria. If you haven’t read the first part yet you can click here.
After leaving Leogang we drove west for about 45 minutes before we arrived at our next location: Ellmau in the region Wilder Kaiser. I had driven through this part a couple of times before but never had the change to explore it so I was super excited to see a different part of Austria.
On our way to Ellmau with the Mazda CX-5:
Where we stayed
We stayed at Tirol Lodge |gifted stay| which is newly build in 2018 and has the perfect location right beneath the slopes with two lifts going to the Skiwelt Wilder Kaiser skiresort right in front of the door. It consists of a couple of Lodges all with their own entrance and ski lockers in the basement. In the center you find the hang our place “Lieblingsplatzl” where you can have breakfast and some snacks throughout the day.
Also in the center you have the outdoor pool which was one of my fav places to hang out after being active all day. Oh and there is a rooftop sauna with an awesome view of the mountains!
What we did
Llama Trekking
Before we arrived in Ellmau we booked a Llama trekking which is only a 15 minute drive from the Lodge. We arrived at the Koglhof farm up on a hill overlooking Ellmau and I couldn’t be more excited! After everyone arrived we got to pick out a llama and bond with them for a bit. Then it was time for an hour long walk which they very much enjoy and so did I! The llama’s know they can eat fresh grass during the walks so they are very happy to come on a walk with you. The llama’s are so chill and calm and they make for the perfect walk companion. I really enjoyed myself and if you’re in the area you should definitely check them out and see if they have any walks planned while you’re there. Also afterwards when we brought them back we could check out the llama babies they had and they were the cutest!! Definitely the highlight of the visit to Ellmau.
Snowboarding/Skiing
As I said before when you stay at Tirol Lodge you have the ski lifts right in front of the door as well as a slope that comes right down to the lodge. I took the gondola up most days to the Skiwelt area where you have 284 kilometers of slopes to explore in 9 villages. Save to say this will take you a while to see it all! When we were there it was warm and sunny with almost empty slopes. It felt a bit like spring with the warm air blowing in my face and I felt super lucky to have to place almost to myself!
Hintersteinersee
This was one of our last days in Ellmau and most of the snow had by this time gone in the valley. We decided to do a walk around Hintersteinersee. The water looked so blue and clear and I could only imagine what it would have looked like would there have still been snow surrounding it. But even without the snow it was still nice. We even found some alpaca’s grazing on a hill which was quite surprising to see. I mean I’m used to seeing cows or sheep so this was a nice change haha!
Christmas event
On our last evening we were gifted tickets by our lodge to the Christmas market on top of the mountain: Ellmi’s zauberhaften bergadvent. The gondola takes you up to the mountain and there right next to the slopes is a small christmas event which looked amazing and so cozy. I forgot to bring my tripod to take good photos. Because it was so dark they were all blurry and you can’t see the amazing light display in the woods. Let’s just say that there was lots of Glühwein and great food 😉
After that our time had come to go home and leave the beautiful mountains behind us. It was such an incredible week and of course I’m already planning a trip back soon!
Big thanks to the companies below for making this part of the trip possible:
Tirol Lodge
Koglhof Llama Trekking
Mazda Nederland
