Schloss Elmau

Program

Start with the calendar, not the room

In the Elmau valley, 3,280 feet up in the Bavarian Alps between the Zugspitze and the Karwendel, Schloss Elmau holds up to 150 concerts a year in its own hall, a habit it says it has kept for more than a century. Open the program calendar before you open the booking page.

This winter, Igor Levit closes his year as artist in residence on December 4 and 5: eight events in 2026, seven recitals and a political debate. Jacob Collier plays on January 8 and 9. The 72nd Chamber Music Festival runs from January 9 to 15, 2027, and is devoted to Beethoven.

For 2027 the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja is artist in residence. She plays Debussy and Fauré on Saturday, February 27, and Morton Feldman’s “For John Cage” on August 7, while the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth is in its summer season.

Every package rate includes what the house calls a cultural contribution toward the concert program. Festival weeks are sold as Top Packages, which cannot be refunded, so commit to the date before you commit to the room.

Prelude

The last miles are a toll road

Take the train. From Munich it is about an hour and a half to Klais, with a change at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and a train every hour. Give the hotel your time and a car meets you at Klais for the last fifteen minutes. From Munich Airport, the house’s own car takes about two hours and costs €410 for up to six. If you spend the night before in Munich, Tantris is the table; it opens Wednesday to Saturday.

By car it is 62 miles from Munich. At the chapel in Klais you turn onto a toll road for the final 3.7 miles. There is no helicopter pad: the valley is a nature reserve.

Rooms are ready from 4:30 p.m. Nobody checks in or out on a Saturday, so plan a Sunday-to-Friday week, or a long weekend that starts on a Thursday or a Friday.

First half

A hall that never stopped

The hall is long and plain, with timber arches overhead and tall arched windows on both sides. Rows of red seats run the length of it. Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel and Benjamin Britten have played here, and Bavarian radio and ARTE have recorded and broadcast what happens on that stage.

In 1957, a conductor back from exile in London and the Amadeus Quartet started a chamber music week here, where Jewish and German musicians shared a stage for the first time after the Holocaust. It has run every year since. Today a trust run by the founder of the Verbier Festival brings young players to the same stage.

Intermission

Jazz by the fire, books next door

After the concert, cross to the Al Camino Bar. A pianist plays jazz by the open fire every evening. The walls are red, the chairs low, and two landscape paintings hang over the room.

The house keeps its own bookstore, stocked, it says, for four generations, and a library called the Silentium, with a terrace of its own.

For dinner, book Ikigai, which holds two Michelin stars, the house says. Christoph Rainer has cooked here since 2017, French and Japanese, Wednesday to Saturday from 7 p.m. It takes breaks: it is closed from December 2 to 19, 2026, which covers Levit’s weekend. On those nights, eat at the Summit, the adults-only restaurant at the Retreat.

At Schloss Elmau the elevator stops at the fourth floor. The rooms to ask for begin on the sixth.

Second half

Up the tower stairs

There are two hotels here, about 500 feet apart. The Hideaway is the old house, rebuilt after a fire in 2005, with 100 rooms and a green-roofed tower. The Retreat, opened in 2015 on a hilltop to the west, has 47 suites and housed the leaders of the G7 in 2015 and 2022. Guests of either may use both.

Ask for a Double Room Deluxe Tower in the Hideaway. It sits on what the house calls the sixth, seventh or eighth floor of the tower, about 320 square feet, with windows to the east, south and west, and the view carries into the stone bathroom. The elevator ends at the fourth floor, and room service does not climb the rest. On the list of October 30, 2026, it costs €710 a night for two.

The way in is a 237-square-foot double facing east, at €575 for two. Both prices include breakfast, the minibar and the spas, for a Sunday-to-Friday stay in the quietest season. If you want space more than a view from the bath, the Retreat’s Summit Suite has 1,356 square feet and views east, south and west, from €2,460.

Encore

Swim on the roof at seven

The pools open at 7 a.m. Go up to the roof of the Badehaus, the adults-only spa, where an infinity lap pool 82 feet long is kept at 86 to 90°F. In winter, steam rises off the water and the tower stands in the snow behind you. From December to the end of April, the house says, there is skiing on the Zugspitze glacier, Germany’s highest mountain.

Check-out is at 11:30 a.m. If your room is needed, the house keeps your bags so the spa stays yours until the train.