What is Eriro?
Eriro is an everything-included mountain retreat (can be booked with both SLH and Mr & Mrs Smith) located in the alpine meadows of picturesque Ehrwald in Austria, near the Bavarian border.
- Eriro opened in August 2024 after extensive remodeling.
- The property has 9 rooms, 2 restaurants, 3 meditative pools, 2 saunas and a spa in the wellness area.
- Eriro welcomes dogs on request with a surcharge of €75 per night, which includes a bed, blanket, bowl, and treats.
- Guest Laundry services are not included but offered for a fee (€39 per load).
- All guests must be aged 14 or over. The only way to overcome this restriction is to book several rooms together and arrange for a private group stay.
What services are included at Eriro?
The rates at Eriro include the following:
- All meals and drinks (excluding some spirits).
- Covered gondola station parking.
- Private shuttle service from the car park.
- Cable-car tickets and ski passes (depending on season).
- Several standard bikes and two electric mountain bikes.
- Guided experiences (e.g., sunrise hikes, etc.,).
- Mountain kit (e.g., rain coats, binoculars, hiking backpacks, hiking shoes, hiking sticks, warm winter jackets, gloves, snowshoes, etc.,).
- Free pottery and wood crafting classes and free international shipping (to your home) of the products you made during the class.
Award Booking Eriro with Hilton Points
Booking Eriro using cash runs between ($1500-2200 USD per night), but can be booked with Hilton points if you are flexible with your travel dates. This is one of the few times Hilton points are more valuable than Hyatt, which charges 162.5K points per night (link) to book the same property.
We stayed 5-nights at Eriro and the best way to find 5-night standard suite availability is by looking on rooms.aero (link).
Once you find 5-nights of availability (link), booking with Hilton points (150-200K per night) is fairly simple, and the 5th night is free when booked entirely with points. Some people have had luck with mixing a Hilton free night certificate with a points booking and still getting a 5th night free after calling Hilton customer service, so it is worth a shot. When you pay with points, there are zero city taxes and additional fees added by the property during your stay. Tipping is neither customary nor expected in this alpine retreat.
How to Reach Eriro
Eriro is at an elevation of 1,550 metres and can be reached by Ehrwalder Almbahn cable car station (Maps) or by driving a private hotel vehicle.
Customer cars must remain parked at the train station and parking is free in a designated covered spot. I noticed several EV chargers in the same parking lot.
The train station is a 45 min-1 hour drive from Innsbruck (INN) and 2-3 hours from Munich (MUC) airport depending on traffic. Eriro will be a perfect stopover for any Dolomites trip starting at Innsbruck airport.
Our drive from MUC to Eriro
The hotel management stayed in contact with us throughout the day via WhatsApp. We drove in a rental car from Munich airport after completing our stay at the wonderful Andaz Prague (review). There were some traffic delays and we arrived at the train station around 5.50pm. Since the operating hours for the gondola are between 8.30AM and 5.30 PM, the hotel director (Henning) came in a private vehicle down to the station and picked us up. It took less than 15 minutes of a beautiful scenic drive to arrive at Eriro.
Eriro Location
Eriro is the only property there after you get off the gondola, with a modest-looking exterior frame to match a typical alpine retreat. However, the architecture inside of the building is beautiful (see below). We met the staff members immediately (Director Henning, Sabrina, Sonja, Max, Sandra and Martin) who helped us with everyday needs.
Eriro Lobby & Check-in
The moment you enter the lobby you will be greeted with very unique architecture and interior decoration (see images & 4K video below).
Our Suite
Our suite is a large single room with an open concept, lots of wood, two large windows with curtains that open to a large patio and breathtaking mountain views.
Both the toilet and bathroom are separate with powerful exhausts, which I liked. We were taking 2-3 showers a day after the hikes and sauna bathing and never had any issues with mirror fog. The water in the shower may abruptly stop for a minute and return back to normal, which seems to be a normal thing in the alps.
Does Eriro have air conditioning?
No. However, there is a nice breeze on the entire property and the rooms are well ventilated as long as you keep the patio door open. Upon request, the hotel will provide you either with a small table top fan/heater or a larger fan along with a retractable extension power box (see images below).
Fitness Center & Yoga Room
There is a simple treadmill and a weight rack in the fitness center and there is a separate yoga class room located on the 3rd floor.
Eriro Wellness Center
A large wellness center is located in the minus 1 level of the Eriro, which is very well designed (see images and 4K video below).
Dry Saunas
There is a dry sauna with less heat which my wife used during our stay.
I enjoyed the hotter 2nd sauna (90°C or 194°F) in the wellness center (see images below).
Infrared emitting easy chairs
This room has a unique hay smell with two cozy infrared leather skin chairs (see image below).
Eriro Sustainability
Eriro’s traditional Alpine chalet is constructed out of spruce sourced from the local forests, reclaimed wood, local stone and sheep’s wool furnished interiors.
Eriro Restaurant & Meals
- Breakfast is served between 8am and 10am; lunch is from 11am to 4pm, and dinner is between 7pm and 10pm.
- Eriro uses all-local suppliers for food and materials prepared in a Tyrolean cuisine. Breakfast and dinner are served in multiple courses.
- A light lunch is served for guests who are staying in and enjoying the wellness facilities.
- Afternoon tea and all-day snacks are served in the central room of the lodge.
- Other than some breakfast dishes (e.g., eggs any style), there was no repetition of dishes including bread and butter. We have never seen bread and butter made with so many varieties of ingredients.
- There is no dress code when eating dinner at Eriro and you can dress casually.
- During our stay, we never tasted a dish that was less than amazing, prepared by the two sous chefs ( Axel and Matteo). Both of us are very picky eaters and readers should trust our judgment.
- Dishes were served very elegantly and portions were large and we requested for half-portions for my wife (see images below).
Breakfast
A farm-style breakfast is served each morning with seasonal specials and multiple courses.
A la carte Soft Drinks & Desserts
As expected, you can order several dishes a la carte when you are at Eriro.
Lunch
Lunch is mostly packed (ham & cheese sandwich), but if you are inside the property some vegetarian light dishes are served. You can always order ham/cheese and egg based items for lunch. We were able to make some special requests (chicken salad and pizza) which were fulfilled by the chef.
Dinner
Dinner comes in 3-4 courses and the whole process takes around 1hr 30min. Chef comes to the table and explains all the ingredients of each dish that is being served.
Alcoholic beverages
We only drank white wine during our stay and every single one they served to match the main course was very tasty.
Wi-Fi Speed
I was a bit scared about the availability of Wi-Fi in this mountain retreat as they encourage you to disconnect from technology and engage with nature. However, they do provide Wi-Fi log-on information (a hidden network) upon request and it is available not only in the rooms, but in the main lobby as well. As you can see from the image below, the Wi-Fi speeds are fantastic.
Nearby Hikes
Eriro guests must make use of the opportunity to enjoy congestion-free hiking/biking by going before/after the gondola operating hours (8AM to 5PM).
For guests going on hikes, a backpack packed with a tissue pack, water, fruits and snacks (delicious cookies) is provided for free (see image below).
AllTrails has several hikes listed for the Ehrwald region (link), but the hike listed below is the most popular one.
Seebensee Lake Hike
This moderate hike (6.46 miles roundtrip from Eriro) took us 3-4 hours (AllTrails) to complete (see image below). There is a second lake (Drachensee) at a higher level, which can be visited during the same hiking trip.
Hochfeldern alm hike
Pottery Workshop
My wife enjoyed the pottery workshop and we will get the items shipped for free in about 4-6 weeks.
Is Eriro worth staying for 5 nights?
- If you enjoy nature, there is no other all-inclusive exclusive alpine resort that can be booked with points at the same caliber as Eriro.
- The only other place where we experienced such stellar customer service was at the Grand Hotel Victoria (review), which is not all-inclusive.
- We enjoyed every minute of staying at Eriro due to their unmatched location, interior design, taste of meals and customer service.
- During our stay, the staff was kind enough to wash/dry a pair of my wife’s clothes free of charge.
- For three days of our 5-night stay, we were the only guests here and the chef made us our choice of lunch dishes (e.g., chicken salad and pizza).
- We were also fortunate to have 4 days of sunshine with zero clouds which is a blessing in the alps.
- Our 5 day stay passed quickly without any boredom from 3-4 hour daily hikes, 1-2 hour wellness center visits and pottery & wood working classes. I don’t recommend overseas visitors staying at Eriro for less than 3 nights due to the unpredictable weather in the alps and clouds & fog can swallow the entire mountain range.
- I can only imagine how awesome the winter stay at Eriro would be considering the exclusive location for skiing.
- Eriro pampers you with everything you can think of and forgot to bring with you in your carry-on or suitcase.
- Eriro sets a new high bar for all-inclusive properties, and it feels like staying with your sous chef mom, catering to your every need when you are home for the holidays.
Should I waste all my Amex/Hilton points to book 5 nights at this property?
Hilton points are easy to accumulate if you stay at their properties or buy them when they are on sale. You may have an uncapped free night certificate from Hilton Aspire that can be used to book a night here.
However, if you have no Hilton points, burning 75K Amex points (= 150K Hilton without any promotions) per night at Eriro is no doubt expensive, but it is worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Eriro reminds me of Hotel Llao Llao in Bariloche, Argentina (review), but all-inclusive without the crowds.
Since 75K Amex points also gets you a nice one-way business class flight to Europe (worth a lot more), you have to be deep into the miles & points game (link) with a large stash of points currency to burn on hotel stays.
What can be improved at Eriro?
No hotel in the world is perfect, but Eriro comes pretty close to it due to all the reasons I mentioned in the review.
My only recommendations to the hotel are:
- Invest in a powerful tower fan/heater that can be placed in all the suites.
- Place a towel warmer in the bathroom to dry towels faster and reuse them to help decrease water usage (Eriro provides plenty of towels at the wellness center).
- Place a yoga mat in each suite that can be used to do stretches on the patio (can be requested).
- Improve the fitness equipment so guests can use it during days with bad weather.
Conclusion
Eriro is a secluded wellness Austrian lodge which is known for its sustainability initiatives, which include its zero-waste attitude, all-local suppliers for food and materials, and nature-respecting activities. We felt fortunate to be able to use our Amex/Hilton points to book a 5-night stay at Eriro,. The accommodation, dining and customer service experience here is seductive, and we would come back here in a heartbeat instead of going to the Maldives or Bora-Bora.