Ski holidays in Ellmau, Austria

Ellmau is one of the most family-friendly villages in SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, and has become internationally known as the filming location for the popular TV series Der Bergdoktor. The village sits at 820 metres above sea level at the foot of the majestic Wilder Kaiser massif, and offers direct access to 275 km of pistes via the Hartkaiserbahn gondola.

SkiWelt is one of the world's largest interconnected ski areas, and the Ellmau side is the most family-friendly part of the system. The Hartkaiser area offers wide, sunny slopes with fantastic views of the dramatic rock faces of Wilder Kaiser. The beginner area at Hartkaiser is among the best in Tyrol, with gentle slopes and a professional ski school.

The village of Ellmau itself has a charming and relaxed atmosphere, with traditional Tyrolean guesthouses and family-friendly hotels. There are no noisy après-ski bars here, but instead cosy cafés, restaurants serving local food, and a genuinely welcoming feel. This makes Ellmau a top choice for families with children who want a calm and enjoyable ski holiday.

From Ellmau, you can easily reach the other SkiWelt villages via the lift system. A popular route goes via Zinsberg and Eiberg to Söll, or on towards Brixen and Westendorf. The full round trip takes a whole day and offers a great journey through varied terrain.

5 tips about Ellmau

1. Beginners head for Hartkaiser The area around Hartkaiser, reached directly from the village by the Hartkaiserbahn gondola, is considered one of the best beginner areas in Tyrol, with gentle green and blue runs.
2. Ski the whole SkiWelt circuit Take a full day's tour via Zinsberg and Eiberg to Söll, then on towards Brixen and Westendorf. With 275 km of pistes and 81 lifts in the network, you'll get plenty of variety before you're back in Ellmau.
3. A relaxed atmosphere for families Ellmau has no rowdy après-ski bars and focuses instead on cosy cafés and traditional Tyrolean guesthouses, which makes the village a safe bet for families with children.
4. A challenge towards Going If you fancy a bit more speed, there are red runs down towards Going, a good complement to the family-friendly pistes at Hartkaiser.
5. Book outside the school holidays As Ellmau is one of SkiWelt's most popular family resorts, the weeks around the February half-term and Easter holidays fill up quickly. Travel a week or so outside the holidays for quieter slopes and better prices on accommodation.

Pistes and lifts in Ellmau

Ellmau gives access to the whole of SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, with 275 km of pistes and 81 lifts. The Ellmau sector (Hartkaiser) is particularly family-friendly, with wide green and blue runs. The red descents towards Going offer more of a challenge. The entire SkiWelt can be explored via the interconnected lift system, from Ellmau via Söll and Brixen to Westendorf.

Piste map for Ellmau

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Snow reliability in Ellmau

Ellmau sits at 820 metres, while the ski area reaches up to 1,892 metres, a fairly modest altitude for an Alpine ski area. The resort is therefore not considered snow-sure, and snow cover can vary, particularly on the lower sections of the village's pistes during mild spells.

The big advantage is having the whole of SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental on your doorstep, with its 275 km of pistes, making it possible to seek out higher and more shaded parts of the network if conditions on Ellmau's own runs aren't at their best.

Best time to travel to Ellmau

January and February offer the best snow conditions. The February half-term weeks are popular with families. March can bring lovely sunny days, though piste conditions vary in the lower parts of the system.

Will there be lift queues in Ellmau?

Ellmau is part of SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental, and the lift system there carries 146,520 people an hour across 81 lifts. 36 of the 81 lifts are gondolas or high-speed chairlifts and 22 are drag lifts, which take longer to get through when it is busy. The fastest lifts carry up to 4,570 people an hour, for example Eibergbahn. That is roughly the same capacity per kilometre of piste as an average resort on this site, so queues only build when it is really busy. The queue you actually notice is almost always down in the valley between eight and half past nine. If you are on the lift before eight you avoid it.

When is Ellmau busiest?

How busy the slopes get is not decided by the English half term but by when the local families and the neighbouring countries are on holiday. These are the weeks that fill Ellmau in the 2026/2027 season.

• Austria: The Semesterferien are taken one week at a time, state by state, during the first three weeks of February.
  1 to 6 February: Vienna and Lower Austria
  8 to 13 February: Burgenland and Carinthia
  15 to 20 February: Tyrol, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Styria and Vorarlberg
• Germany: Germans are the largest foreign group in the Alps and their winter holidays are spread across early February.
  1 to 6 February: Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia
  8 to 12 February: Bavaria and Saarland
  8 to 19 February: Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• England: The English February half term is 15 to 19 February 2027 for most councils, with a few areas breaking up a week earlier. The Easter holidays run from 26 March to 9 April.
  8 to 12 February: half term in a few council areas, for example Hull
  15 to 19 February: half term in most of England, including London, the Midlands and the North
  26 March to 9 April: Easter holidays for most English schools
• Easter holidays: Easter 2027 is early, on 28 March. Austria and Germany take their holidays around the weekend, while the French holidays fall after Easter, in April.
  20 to 29 March: the whole of Austria, all states at the same time
  22 March to 3 April: most German states, including Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia
  3 April to 3 May: the French zones, which fall after Easter 2027 and only affect the highest resorts
• Long weekends: Long weekends fill the slopes with day visitors from the nearest cities, even when no schools are on holiday.
  26 December to 3 January: Christmas and New Year, the most expensive period of the year
  6 January: Epiphany, a public holiday in Austria, Italy and parts of Switzerland
  27 to 29 March: the Easter weekend. Easter Monday is a public holiday across the Alps, but Good Friday is a working day in Austria, Italy and France
  1 to 2 May: May Day, a public holiday across the Alps

If you want quieter pistes and lower prices, the weeks in mid-January and late March are clearly the best. Neither the Germans nor the Austrians are on holiday then.

Snow right now. There is no snow cover in the valley or at the top right now. The figures are modelled by Open-Meteo, not measured by the lift company, and were fetched 15 October 2026 at 20:24.

The lift pass included. The stay comes with the SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser - Brixental lift pass, which covers 275 km of piste. The pass is worth around €414.

How to get to Ellmau

Last-minute deals in Ellmau

Last-minute offers, that is late dates the operator still wants to fill, appear from January onwards. Once the season is under way we will show them here on this page.

Ellmau is suitable for

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Frequently asked questions about Ellmau