Why You Should Visit Zillertal At Easter?
At Easter the weather isn’t too cold, you can still ski, it's cheaper and the mountains aren’t as busy. We love visiting this beautiful area. The green valley is famous for its food and adventure activities. The Ziller River runs through the valley with towering mountains on either side. This is how we recommend you spend your time here.
Click here if you want to read about more Summer Adventures in Zillertal.
Where to stay?
We stayed at one of the most beautiful and sustainable hotels called Zelloon Boutique. It recently opened in July 2021. It is located in the small village of Zell am Ziller. When we arrived the owner sat down with us and helped us plan our itinerary. We enjoyed the outside pool, saunas and relaxation areas. The luxurious and spacious room had a bathtub and the bed was designed by a sleep professor to give you the most optimal sleep. For breakfast we sat down in the lovely dining room and food/drinks were brought to us. The service was exceptional.
Where to eat?
If you’re in Zillertal on the weekend we suggest that you pre book a table. Both of these restaurant recommendations are similarly priced and you should expect to pay around 100€ each for drinks and food. For the quality of the produce and the dining experience it is well worth the price.
Zillertal is known for its quality of meat and dairy products. So we were surprised to find a vegan/vegetarian restaurant. It is located in a small town, 10 minutes drive from Zell am Ziller. They use Permaculture to grow their own food. Every dish was a work of art and the owner/chef came to our table to explain the food. There is the option for a 3, 5 or 7 course menu. If you want a vegan set menu, you need to pre book. You can also go on a tour of the garden between June and October on Fridays between 3-5pm. Pre booking is required and it costs 15€ per person.
From Zell am Ziller we had a short drive up the steep mountain to a beautiful old school house converted into an excellent restaurant called . From here there is a spectacular view of the valley and mountains. It has both a meat and vegetarian set menu. With the choice of 3, 4, 5 or 6 dishes. They blend the traditional old recipes with new methods.
Nature’s Ice Palace
We took 3 cable cars up to Hintertux Glacier and visited Nature’s Ice Palace. Inside the glacier it is a constant temperature of 0 degree so it was good to escape the blizzardous conditions outside. It cost us 40€ each for a return pedestrian pass to Gefrorene Wand. You can also ski at Hintertux Glacier but the pass costs more. The walking tour costs 26€ and includes a short inflatable raft tour along the glacial river and back. The glacial river is about 50 metres long and at the end you can also go ice swimming for 10€ more with a medical certificate. We paid 10€ more for a stand up paddle board experience. The stand up paddle board was massive and ‘unflippable’. We had it to ourselves and had to paddle along a narrow glacier river and back. We were told that the glacier is moving slowly and that in about 30 years it will no longer exist due to the melting permafrost. There are guided tours daily, every hour between 10.30am and 2.30pm without advance reservation.
Krimml Waterfall
From Zell am Ziller we drove 50 minutes to Krimml Waterfall. On the drive here there are viewpoints where you can see all the tiered waterfalls. You have to pass through a toll which costs 10€ per day. We parked the car at the closest car park (number 4) and had a 10-15 minute walk downhill to the waterfall. Normally you have to pay about 5€ for parking but it was free this Easter weekend. The track to the bottom of the waterfall was open but the 8km return hike up to the top was closed. The waterfall was so powerful at this time as the snow was melting. We made the mistake of not taking wet weather gear and got completely soaked when taking photos. Luckily my camera is weather sealed and survived the adventure. To get the best photos we climbed up the rocks to the cliff edge. The waterfall has a total height of 380 metres and is the tallest in Austria.
Where to ski or snowboard?
It was the last weekend of the ski season but there was still enough snow and it wasn’t busy on the mountains. We planned our itinerary with the weather forecast in mind as we wanted to ski on sunny days. It was off season so the ski passes were cheaper. It was so easy to get around with free car parking and free public transport. We bought a Zillertal Arena Pass. With this pass we had a wide choice of mountains we could ski at. You can get multi day tickets for a reduced daily rate but we purchased day passes as it gave us more flexibility and if we decided to stop skiing before 2pm we got some money back.
For the first day we parked the car at Zell am Ziller and took the Rosenalmbahn cable car up. The best skiing was from Übergangsjoch (summit at 2500m) down to Krimmlalm. Before we left the mountain we had drinks and food at Wiesenalm. There is a car park next to this restaurant if you want to skip the cable car and stay on the mountain after the last descending cable car.
For the second day we drove 10 minutes to Kaltenbach and took the Hochzillertal cable car up. We worked our way across the mountain and up to Kristallhütte, the famous restaurant and hotel. We relaxed on the outdoor beds with drinks as we enjoyed the 180 degree panoramic view. The owners of Kristallhütte also have a bar in Ibiza so the house music is similar to what you would expect there. There are 2 impressive pieces of art outside Kristallhütte, a large mirrored cube and a metal spider. We preferred our second day of skiing as the runs had more options for different levels of skiers and the lift system wasn’t as complicated.
