Swimming Pools, Political Debates, and Concerts. This German Hideaway Has It All

You might not expect, should you find yourself in a peaceful German valley at the foothills of the Alps, to lie on warmed Jurassic Stone while receiving a traditional Turkish hammam, your body bathed in a cloud of bubbles, magic hands exfoliating and massaging you into a state deep bliss. It sure was a surprise to me.

Last month, I attended ILTM, the annual luxury travel conference in Cannes — a weeklong sprint of breakfast presentations, back-to-back press conferences, one-on-one meetings, and a marathon of Champagne-soaked cocktail parties. I know it sounds like a South of France boondoggle, but the show is as productive professionally as it is fun personally. The travel tribe is loving and chatty, and I learn a lot after midnight at the bar at Le Majestic.

When I was invited with a few journalists on a post-ILTM trip to Schloss Elmau, a secluded resort in the Bavarian Alps, it was an easy yes. The first snow of the year had fallen the day before we arrived, and the blanket of white on the mountains outside my balcony made the scene even more of a fairytale.

Schloss Elmau is a century-old, family-run nature escape, luxury spa and wellness sanctuary, cultural and music hideaway, retreat for families and couples and individuals, culinary experience, and sociopolitical center. That may seem like an unlikely hotel stew, but it all works harmoniously, with experiences divided over two main buildings, The Hideaway, built in 1914, and The Retreat, from 2015.

“Edutainment” is how owner Dietmar Mueller-Elmau describes Elmau’s programming, which ranges from chess workshops and soccer camps for kids to 200+ classical music performances with world-class talents to Davos-like symposiums. The resort hosted the G7 summit twice, and the spirit of global conversation lingers. Dietmar loves nothing more than a lively Socratic debate.

The regular offerings that I experienced are almost staggering in their variety. Ikigai is a two-Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant whose name means “what makes life worth living.” Elmauer Alm is the cozy mountaintop restaurant where I tasted obazda, the Bavarian cheese delicacy best eaten with bretzels. On the wellness front, the resort has six spas, three each for families and adults, as many indoor and outdoor pools of varying temperatures, the aforementioned hammam, a Jivamukti yoga studio, and an outdoor sauna by the creek where I failed to do a cold plunge. The bookstore could rival a Rizzoli or a Daunt’s, and shoppers should avoid the boutique unless they’re prepared to check another bag.

So many moments made this brief stay so special. Reading my novel in the lounge by the fireplace before dinner, as a cute toddler walked past me in a saffron bathrobe, his hair still wet from a swim. Nearly melting during an aufguss in the sauna. Dashing through the woods in a horse-drawn carriage after a trip to the nearby village Mittenwald, where we visited the workshop of Michael Pöllmann, the fourth generation running craftsman at E.M. Pöllmann, master bass instrument makers since 1888. Having drinks after dinner with managing director Lukas Leitz and Hideaway manager Marius Müller and competing in a joke-off with another guest, who turned out to be pianist Igor Levit.

I didn’t make it to the three neighboring UNESCO sites, nor the colorful village of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, nor any of the Caribbean-blue lakes nearby, and I didn’t get to ski. That’s more than enough incentive for a return trip.