What is Eriro?
Eriro is an all-inclusive mountain retreat (bookable with both SLH and Mr. & Mrs. Smith) in the alpine meadows of picturesque Ehrwald, 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 by request for a €75 per-night surcharge, 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).
- Numerous standard bikes and two electric mountain bikes.
- Guided experiences (e.g., sunrise hikes, etc.).
- Mountain kit (e.g., raincoats, binoculars, hiking backpacks, hiking shoes, hiking sticks, warm winter jackets, gloves, snowshoes, etc.).
- Free pottery and wood-crafting classes, plus free international shipping (to your home) for the products you make during the class.
Award Booking Eriro with Hilton Points
Booking Eriro with cash runs ($1500-2200 USD per night), but you can book it 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 to check rooms. Aero (link).
Once you find 5 nights of availability (link), booking with Hilton points (200K per night) is fairly simple, and the 5th night is free when booked entirely with points. When you pay with points, the property adds no city taxes or additional fees during your stay. Tipping is neither customary nor expected in this alpine retreat.
How to Reach Eriro
Eriro sits at an elevation of 1,550 meters and is accessible via the Ehrwalder Almbahn cable car station (Maps) or by 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-minute to 1-hour drive from Innsbruck (INN) and 2-3 hours from Munich (MUC) airport, depending on traffic. Eriro is 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 from Munich Airport in a rental car after our stay at the wonderful Andaz Prague (review). We hit some traffic delays and arrived at the train station around 5.50 pm. Since the gondola operates from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, the hotel director (Henning) came down to the station and picked us up. The beautiful, scenic drive took less than 15 minutes to reach Eriro.
Eriro Location
Eriro is the only property there after you get off the gondola, with a modest exterior frame that matches a typical alpine retreat. However, the building’s interior architecture 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
As soon as you enter the lobby, you will be greeted by unique architecture and interior design (see images & 4K video below).
Our Suite
Our suite is a large, open-concept room with lots of wood, two large windows with curtains, and a large patio with breathtaking mountain views.
The toilet and bathroom are separate, with powerful exhausts, which I liked. We took 2-3 showers a day after hikes and sauna bathing and never had any issues with mirror fog. The shower water may abruptly stop for a minute and then return to normal, which seems normal in the Alps.
Does Eriro have air conditioning?
No. However, there is a nice breeze throughout the property, and the rooms are well ventilated as long as you keep the patio door open. Upon request, the hotel will provide either a small tabletop fan/heater or a larger fan, along with a retractable extension power box (see images below).
Fitness Center & Yoga Room
The fitness center has a treadmill and a weight rack, and a separate yoga room is located on the 3rd floor.
Eriro Wellness Center
A large wellness center is located on the minus 1 level of the Eriro and is 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 Alpine chalet is built from spruce sourced from local forests, reclaimed wood, local stone, and sheep’s wool-furnished
Eriro Restaurant & Meals
- Breakfast is served from 8 am to 11 am, lunch from 11 am to 4 pm, and dinner from 6 pm to 11 pm.
- All meals are prepared in Tyrolean cuisine. Breakfast and dinner are served in multiple courses.
- Guests staying in and enjoying the wellness facilities can have a light lunch.
- Afternoon tea and all-day snacks are served in the central room of the lodge.
- Apart from some breakfast dishes (e.g., eggs any style), no dishes were repeated, including bread and butter. We have never seen bread and butter made with such a wide variety of ingredients.
- Epiro has no dress code for dinner, so 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). We’re both very picky eaters, so readers can trust our judgment.
- Dishes were served elegantly, and portions were large; we requested half portions for my wife (see images below).
Breakfast
A farm-style breakfast is served each morning with seasonal specials and multiple courses.
À la carte: Soft Drinks & Desserts
As expected, you can order several dishes from Eriro’s menu.
Lunch
Lunch is mostly packed (ham & cheese sandwich), but if you are on the property, some light vegetarian 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), and the chef fulfilled them.
Dinner
Dinner comes in 3-4 courses, and the whole process takes around 1 hr 30 min. The chef comes to the table and explains the ingredients of each dish being served.
Alcoholic beverages
We only drank white wine during our stay, and every glass they served with the main course was delicious.
Wi-Fi Speed
I was a bit worried about Wi-Fi availability at this mountain retreat, as they encourage you to disconnect from technology and engage with nature. However, they provide Wi-Fi log-on information (a hidden network) upon request, and it is available not only in the room but also in the main lobby. As demonstrated by the image below, the Wi-Fi speeds are fantastic.
Nearby Hikes
Eriro guests can enjoy congestion-free hiking/biking by going before/after the gondola operating hours (8 am to 5 pm).
For guests going on hikes, the hotel provides a backpack, a tissue pack, water, fruit, and snacks (delicious cookies) for free (see image below).
AllTrails lists several hikes in the Ehrwald region (link), but the one below is the most popular.
Seebensee Lake Hike
This moderate hike (6.46 miles round trip from Eriro) took us 3-4 hours (AllTrails) to complete (see image below). A second lake (Drachensee) sits higher up and can be visited on the same hike.
Hochfeldern Alm hike
Pottery Workshop
My wife enjoyed the pottery workshop, and we received the items at our home in the US after 3 months.
Is Eriro worth staying for 5 nights?
- If you enjoy nature, no other all-inclusive, exclusive alpine resort 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 our stay at Eriro because of its unmatched location, interior design, meal quality, and customer service.
- During our stay, the staff kindly washed and dried a pair of my wife’s clothes free of charge.
- For three days of our 5-night stay, we were the only guests, and the chef made our lunch dishes to order (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 flew by, with no boredom, thanks to 3-4 hour daily hikes, 1-2 hour wellness center visits, and pottery & woodworking classes. I don’t recommend overseas visitors staying at Eriro for less than 3 nights because the weather in the Alps is unpredictable, and clouds & fog can swallow the entire mountain range.
- I can only imagine how awful a winter stay at Eriro would be, given its exclusive skiing location.
- Eriro pampers you with everything you can think of, and even what you forgot to bring 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 by staying at their properties or buying them when they are on sale. You may have an uncapped free night certificate from Hilton Aspire that you can use to book a night here.
However, if you don’t have Hilton points, burning 100K Amex points (= 200K 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. Eriro now has a large heated outdoor pool, which I would love to experience during a winter trip next time.
What can be improved at Eriro?
No hotel in the world is perfect, but Eriro comes pretty close for the reasons I mentioned in the review.
My recommendations:
- Invest in a powerful tower fan/heater that can be placed in every suite.
- Add a towel warmer in the bathroom to dry towels faster and reuse them, helping reduce water usage.
- Place a yoga mat in each suite for stretching on the patio.
- Improve the fitness equipment so guests can use it on bad-weather days.
Conclusion
Eriro is a secluded wellness lodge in Austria known for its sustainability initiatives, including a zero-waste approach, all-local suppliers for food and materials, and nature-respecting activities. We were fortunate to use our Amex/Hilton points to book a 5-night stay at Eriro. The accommodation, dining, and customer service here are seductive, and we would come back in a heartbeat instead of going to the Maldives or Bora-Bora.