Alpin - Das Sporthotel

This is a gem of a hotel and we were delighted with our choice! Elisabeth, Stefan, their daughters and lovely dog will give you a very warm welcome. The hotel was fairly quiet when we were there and we barely shared the indoor swimming pool with another guest in our whole stay! (Pool towels and robes are provided, but not the terry slippers listed on the website so take your own pool shoes/sliders etc.) The connecting family rooms were perfect for our needs and spacious. Hot water is a bit slow to come through in the bathrooms so run the taps for a while before you need it. The whole hotel is spotlessly clean. Breakfast is typical continental style, with the bonus of an electric waffle iron, although you can order eggs and bacon. Elisabeth is happy for you to request other items though and will get them in for you. I'd advise getting down for breakfast earlier rather than later to get the best choice of breads etc. There is no facility for other meals or drinks at a bar etc (or at least not in the summer) but it is an easy walk into town for evening meals. The rooms have kettles and mini fridges and there is a coffee machine outside the breakfast room. There is a handy Spar shop a couple of minutes walk away and a gondola right by the hotel with a short walk to a beautiful reservoir at the top. The main bus station is also just a couple of minutes walk away with buses to the Schmittenhohe, Kaprun, Krimml etc. The station is also close by with direct trains to Salzburg and an easy transfer to the airport. It was great to have a car free holiday! One huge bonus of picking this hotel is the provision of a free summer card which gives you free bus travel, free travel on almost all cable cars and free entry into many attractions. It saved us a huge amount of money! We did boat trips on the lake twice, went up the Schmittenhohe, Kitzsteinhorn, to Krimml falls and many other trips! There is so much to do in the area and the Zell am See/Kaprun app is brilliant for information. There are very few negatives but if you are someone who enjoys relaxing in the sunshine, the hotel doesn't really have any outside space. There are a few loungers in a small courtyard but they are in the shade by the afternoon. A mountain view room might have some afternoon sun on the balcony perhaps? Ignore any reviews of Zell am See which make negative comments about visitors from the Middle East! Yes, there are lots of them as Zell am See have marketed themselves to people looking to get away from the summer heat in UAE, Saudi Arabia etc. We had no issues at all and people of all cultures are well catered for in restaurants etc. The main irritation for me was the huge number of wasps around the whole region. You only escape them when you get above about 2000m! It makes eating outside during the day a challenge, although fine in the evening once it gets dark. We loved the hotel, Zell am See and the wider area and I'm sure we will return.