JANUARY 2020
My family goes skiing in the Lermoos in Austria area once a year, I haven’t joined them in years, but this year I took the opportunity to go skiing with them for a few days. Usually I go skiing with friends, to a destination with good apres-ski, but Lermoos is a quiet town so it definitely makes for a different holiday. When we arrived there was a lot of fresh snow, so the town looked like a true fairytale, which made for a great location for wandering around. From Lermoos you can also visit several other ski areas and I loved that we also took the cable car to the beautiful Zugspitz Glacier, which is actually located in Germany. In the winter you can ski on the glacier, but this is also a great summer destination.
Practical information
My family usually stays in hotel Bergland in the center of Lermoos. The rooms and restaurant look a little bit outdated, but the facilities of the hotel are great. They have an extensive breakfast buffet, a cheese platter in the afternoon, a three-course dinner in the evening and a nice spa area. Most of the rooms have a large balcony and I loved the snowy views from our balcony so much, I couldn’t stop taking pictures… Hotel Bergland is located next to the skiing slopes of Lermoos and the Jux Bar and the Lamme Ent, where you can find something that looks like apres-ski.
Lermoos is part of the Tiroler Zugspitz Arena. If you buy a ticket for the Zugspitz Arena you can ski on the slopes of Lermoos, Ehrwald, Berwang, Biberbier and the Zugspitz Glacier. I bought a skipass for € 138 for three days, this is cheaper than more famous ski areas. You have to know that the ski area is very spread out, so you need a car or a ride with the skibus to be able to access all the slopes.
Lermoos and Ehrwald both have a train station, I decided to go back a little earlier than my family and took the train from Lermoos to Munchen and transferred trains in Munchen to get to Dusseldorf. This journey took me 8,5 hours and cost me € 73. If you are willing to spend a little more, you can take a faster train. I think traveling by train is so relaxing, besides it being one of the most sustainable ways to travel. I worked on this blog in the train and enjoyed the snowy views along the way.
Zugspitz Glacier
Luckily I was able to convince my family to visit the Zugspitz Glacier, I had been here before but that was in a time that I didn’t appreciate the snowy views as much as I do now. To get to the Zugspitz Glacier you have to take a pretty long cable car, in which you had to stand with a lot of people, which was slightly uncomfortable. The first cable cars brings you to a beautiful viewpoint of the area, from this viewpoint you can see most of the villages in the area as well as the gorgeous Eibsee. From this viewpoint you have to take an elevator and another cable car to get to the slopes on the glacier, so you need to factor in about 45 minutes to get to the slopes from the Austrian side. It took us much longer, because I brought my camera, so I loved taking some pictures along the way. You can also go to the Zugspitz Glacier from the German side (Garmisch-Partenkirchen).
I was super happy that I brought my DSLR because when you get to the glacier, you also have many good photo opportunities, such as a little church and a viewing platform hanging above the ski area. The skiing at the Zugspitz Glacier was also really good, as the snow was amazing in January. The Zugspitz Glacier is located at 2.600m.
Even if you don’t ski, it is also fun to visit the Zugspitz Glacier. Even in the middle of winter I saw many visitors on hiking shoes, apparently it is also nice to visit the Zugspitz Glacier in summer as you can do many activities in summer as well (like sleighing and hiking). The South of Germany and Austria are getting more and more popular in summer, and some of the hotels are also fully booked in summer-time.
Skiing in Ehrwald
The Tiroler Zugspitz Arena isn’t located very high, except for the Zugspitz Glacier. This means that you never know how much snow you are going to get. When we visited in January, there had just been several days of snow, but still not enough to open all the slopes and the toboggan run. We decided to go skiing at the Ehrwalder Alm because this is where the conditions were best. The slopes of Ehrwald are definitely sufficient to be able to entertain yourselves for two days, there is an okay variety in slopes, but if you like a high level of difficulty there isn’t too much to do. In January Ehrwald is mainly visited by families and people 55+, I was one of the only millennials on the slopes.
The first day that we went to Ehrwald, the surroundings were absolutely angelic. All the trees were fully covered in snow and it looked like a true fairytale. I may not have gone to the apes-ski, but I absolutely enjoyed myself in the company of my family, getting all the nostalgic feelings as it reminded me of my childhood days, also skiing in this area. Lermoos and Ehrwald are good areas to visit if you like it quiet, the benefit of that is that you often have the slopes to yourself and there were no queues at the chairlifts (at least when you go outside of high season).
Other things in the area
On my fourth full day I visited the lovely town Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the beautiful nature area Partnachklamm, I will write a separate blogpost about this experience, as I definitely recommend going here! Lermoos is also really close to the Highline 179 in Reutte, which is a suspension bridge in the alps that you can cross by foot, read about my experience on the Highline 179 here. Lermoos is also located closely to the beautiful Eibsee, the colorful town Füssen and to the famous Neuschwanstein castle. By taking the bus you can be in Innsbruck in 1,5 hours, so you can definitely do some sightseeing while in this area.
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