Schloss Elmau Luxury Spa Retreat & Cultural Hideaway

I can't say enough nice things about this vacation. The property is beautiful with a backdrop of the Alps; The numerous restaurants and eating options were all fantastic; Our room was perfect; Walks on the trails were spectacular; and the staff, the staff were always smiling and happy to answer any question or accommodate any request. The jazz concert celebrating Christmas music was wonderful and added to the magic of the entire experience. The pools, saunas and yoga were wonderful and perfectly matched to the experience. I have a few more places on my bucket list but I really hope to return here one day to enjoy the wonderful experience (and the elephants, you'll understand when you go!). Many thanks to all of the staff who did so many nice things to make this experience so memorable.

We stayed as a three generation family in February and all enjoyed an excellent holiday. The staff were very responsive to our requests, especially the sports concierge team who arranged our skiing and other activities and dealt well with all our changes of plan. A great strength of the hotel is that there are always good alternatives for what to do whatever the weather or inclinations of the group (for example, we had a surprisingly enjoyable excursion on e-MTBs with studded tyres). The children in the party very much liked playing with sledges just outside the hotel, as well as the family spas and kids club. The cultural programme, comfortable bedrooms, good food, and the beautiful setting all added to our enjoyment of the week.

What a gorgeous hotel, located right next to the German Alps. We got lucky and they were covered in snow, which we could admire from the many outdoor infinity pools at the hotel. The spa was also fabulous, and I had the BEST MASSAGE OF MY LIFE from Michaela. My parents also tried the Hamman and the hot stone massages and raved about both experiences. They have so many options to choose from; you could get a new treatment every day for a week and never get bored (although you might be broke by the end). I also adored the candied almonds and chocolate they left for us in the rooms. One thing that also pleasantly surprised me was how little crowds there were. More often than not, we had entire pools to ourselves, or shared with at most 1-2 other couples. It made the entire experience feel very serene. I also was very impressed by the fact that this hotel hosted the G7 conference twice, and even displayed pictures of Merkel and Obama having a discussion on the hotel grounds! My one complaint was the sleep quality. The rooms were HOT, even after leaving the windows wide open in the middle of December. The pillows also ******. Okay, I lied. Two complaints. While the food was very good at both restaurants we tried (Ikigai and Tutto Mundo), the service was painfully slow. Our dinners were 4 hours and 3 hours respectively. And, the waitress at Ikigai was a little rude, although the service in general at this resort was top-notch. For anyone looking to relax for a few days with gorgeous views from pools you get entirely to yourself, look no further!

Schloss Elmar is just incredible. The nature, the views, the rooms, and the service. Just unreal. We stayed in the Retreat in a suite with our children. It was huge and so comfortable. The views were amazing and we couldn't wait to wake up every morning to go explore the area. Heaven on Earth

This resort is great for relaxation, a true gem! Great location! Very kind service and a stunning castle with a beautiful library, bar, book shop ... only the SPA has too much patina and could need some love (renovation). We definetely will be back.

Our trip to the Schloss did not start out well. We had reservations to stay at the Retreat and the day before we arrived, we found out that we would not have any access the Hideaway for the length of our stay(there was a group that had rented it out) and that we should have been informed of that when we booked. I was not happy as it's advertised as stay at one property and enjoy both. Phillip & Lukas (managers) went out of their way to make the best of the situation by upgrading our room and making dinner & lunch reservations for us off property. Fabienne & Phillipp from the front desk/concierge staff were also very helpful andfriendly. All in all it was a lovely stay and my husband and i agreed that mistakes get made and it's how a company handles the mistakes that really mean something and they owned their mistake and tried their best to make our experience positive. pros: lovely setting, great spa ("secret sauna by the river!), BMW loaner cars (the most gorgeous cars ever), bike rentals, sun loungers by the river, great bathrobes cons: the staff is young and although accommodating they could be a little more polished and let things fall through the cracks at times, the breakfast was good but not extensive (although I did appreciate the champagne) the restaurant situation is a little confusing - they advertise that there are three restaurants in the Retreat but it's really just three rooms that all serve the same menu and since we couldn't got to the other resort, that was very limited- I'm guessing it would be better if we could have used both resorts. The dinner were good but expensive in my opinion for what we got and I would say that the food was the lowpoint for us of an otherwise world class resort.