Little Legs, Wanderful World

I am in no way being compensated for this review. I simply loved my time here and want to share that with all the other exhausted Moms out there.

I fear that Kinderhotel Waldhof has seriously spoiled us for all kinderhotels ever. To begin, it is a 4S (4 star Superior) kinderhotel located in Großarl, way up in the Alps about an hour south of Salzburg.

On our month long December trip, we planned for 8 days stay over Christmas itself. In a word, it was magical – and not just because it finally started snowing on Christmas eve! ❄️

1. Overall Impressions
2. The Hotel & Rooms
3. The Food
4. Play Time!
5. Wellness
6. Tips & Hints
7. Verdict: Is this the best kinderhotel ever?

Overall Impressions

We loved just about every single minute we spent at Kinderhotel Waldhof. From the lovely view from our dinner table to the panorama windows by the pool to the cutest bathrobe ever supplied for my son we were in heaven. In the winter, the Großarl valley is one of the most gorgeous, picturesque sites you can imagine and visiting it while staying nice and toasty warm in Kinderhotel Waldhof was an absolute dream come true.

The Hotel & Rooms

Kinderhotel Waldhof has a number of different styles of rooms. There are single rooms (double rooms) and 2-, 3-, 4- room suites. We stayed in 2-room suite Fasan with heated flooring in the bathroom, a large bathroom with combined tub and shower, separate toilet, attached kids’ bedroom with two small beds, a small sofa and table, a large closet, and a lovely little balcony with the best panoramic view ever of Großarl and the Alps. We often laid awake at night looking at the snowy mountains and dreaming of moving to this little village.

At 40 m² room it felt big enough for our needs (a little cramped with the Christmas tree, but a willing sacrifice for Christmas joy🎄), had enough closet space (and we used the kids’ room to store our luggage since kiddo sleeps in our bed), and was kindly cleaned every morning while we were at breakfast. We absolutely would stay in this room again!

The Food

I was truly not prepared for the food at all. This was my first time anywhere all inclusive and also my first time at a kinderhotel. To be honest, I had expected to have unlimited chicken nuggets, fries, and cereal every day and that “all inclusive” basically meant that food around the clock. I cannot tell you how happy I was that I was wrong!

On your first night, you receive a welcome glass of Prosecco for the adults and a mocktail for the kiddos. I think it was pineapple juice, orange juice, and maybe grenadine. My son loved it! The little fancy ribbon stick was a lovely little festive touch.

For breakfast and lunch, you are assigned a table that you will have for the entirety of your stay (unless you ask to move which we did so we could watch the skiers across the mountain). It’s nice because you have consistency and you don’t have to fight for a table at mealtimes. Lunch, however, is wherever you’d like to sit since in winter most people are off skiing and in summer the hikers are at the alms.

At all meal times, there was a children’s buffet with some of those children’s “classics,” but homemade with natural ingredients. Children are also welcome to order off the adult menu (and there is a kids’ version of the adult dinner menu) which we did once or twice. The children’s buffet, though, was so good my husband and I ate some food from it at quite a few meal times!

The “all inclusive” piece at Waldhof means that you have three meals and an afternoon snack/cake break. There are apples, oranges, and sometimes other fruits always available in the main dining room and also in the spa area. Their soft drink bar (water, soda, orange juice, apple juice, lemonade, orange lemonade, currant juice, iced tea, elderberry juice) is available 24/7 from the main dining room as is the coffee, tea, and hot cocoa. My husband had a great morning routine – while I showered and got the kiddo up in the morning, he would head downstairs to get a coffee and bring us back hot cocoas to drink while we finished getting ready. What a lovely start to the morning!

Breakfast:
For the morning buffet this meant plain scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs with ham, sausages, crispy bacon, kids’ sized pancakes, fruit salad (watch out for the cranberries), yogurt, hard rolls (not my favorite as they really were hard), and cereal. There was also a donut wall (think: wedding reception Pinterest photos with donuts on a peg board) and an adult à la carte menu which had things like omelettes (note: you may want to ask for no runny eggs as that is the default), crèpes, avocado toast, and french toast with fruits (my favorite!).

Light lunch (buffet + small à la carte menu):
Lunch is a pretty light affair. The children’s buffet usually had some sort of meat (chicken, pork slices, etc.), pasta with two different sauces, and a vegetable mix. The à la carte menu would have a list of 3-4 starters and 2-3 mains, one of which was always vegetarian. We were so stuffed most of the time that we ate very lightly at lunch either from the children’s buffet or a small fish dish. Honestly, it was usually just fruit for the adults followed by a little nap. 😅

Afternoon snacks and cakes:
To be completely honest, this was the only part of our stay where I was less than impressed – and if this is where I’m not impressed they’re doing so many things right! The cakes they served weren’t my favorite in terms of flavor, but also in terms of texture. Since they needed to be stored in the fridge/freezer, they had dried out a bit by the time afternoon snack rolled around. There was ice cream, though, available starting at lunch until dinner so you could choose something from the freezer like a popsicle or a Cornetto which was a nice treat!

Dinner:
Dinner was a 5 course affair for the adults and an incredible children’s buffet. There was always pasta with two different sauces, a vegetable medley, steamed broccoli/cauliflower, cheeses, fruits, some type of meat (chicken nuggets did appear, but also mini steaks, pork, and fish fingers), a potato (fries, roasted, etc.), various cheeses and fruits, and a made to order pizza station (the smell was so good we absolutely had pizza more than once with our meals!).

The buffet was also part of the adult menu with a variety of soups and a large salad bar. The menu listed a variety of starters and then 4 main dishes to choose from – usually a fish was included and there was always a vegetarian option. The dessert list usually offered two or three fancy choices. There was also a children’s à la carte dinner menu available which had smaller portions of the adult main dishes or entirely different dishes altogether with a child friendly dessert. Not going to lie, I chose the child’s dessert more than once!

Specialty meals:
Steak dinner
Once a week on Saturdays, Waldhof hosts a barbecue steak dinner with 10 different kids of grilled meats. If you can’t go for a full week, make sure you stay there Saturday night! This was the best. steak. I’ve. ever. eaten. Let me say that again – I drooled over this steak, I went back for thirds, I was in protein heaven! It was cooked right in front of you in the dining room buffet area by the very personable (and hilarious) chefs. There was venison (which I’ve had in the US before and didn’t like, but at Waldhof I had seconds), T-bone steak, rib eye steak, flank stank, rib steak, sea scallops, pork belly, lamb, and turkey. Of course there were also yummy baked potatoes, cheesy scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob, buttery breadsticks, and the amazing salad bar. Utterly delicious!

Christmas Eve Dinner
In Austria and many other parts of Central Europe, Christmas Eve is the big day. We had lovely little touches throughout the day and dinner was no different. The Family Prommegger owns the hotel and all were hosting the day’s events. Mr. Prommegger himself had a station where he poured wine or beer (for free) for all the guests’ dinner while children received a mocktail. At the child’s place setting was a present! The hotel graciously gave each child a Wurzl cookie cutter and an apron. Christmas dinner was so lovely!

Overall, the food was absolutely amazing, though we did start to grow tired of it after a few days. Although of very high quality, it was very rich and heavy. We were also a little tired of seeing all the different ways food could be made into “foam” for our dinner. 😅 Thankfully the children’s buffet had so many healthy offerings that offset some of that heavy adult food. We especially ate from there during lunches.

Play Time!

One of the main reasons I wanted to stay at a kinderhotel was so that I didn’t have to plan all the activities – and I came to the right place!

Programming:
Every morning we discovered a program/daily menu of activities on our breakfast table. The front page showed the weather, the second page listed all the family activities (llama walk, guided snow hike, afternoon hours of the moving carpet for little skiers/tobogganers, the availability of the photo booth in the lobby, etc.), and the last pages listed the activities scheduled in the kids and teen clubs for the day. I was a little disappointed in that there wasn’t a lot of family activities each day – usually just one in the afternoon and maybe one in the evening (a visit from mascot Wurtzl or the photo booth in the lobby). I had hoped there would be more guided activities on offer during the day like cookie baking or guided snowshoe walks, but it seems most everyone was skiing during the day so activities might not be well attended. (There are kinderhotels that advertise such activities, so I am looking to try that next time.)

Indoor Play:
Kinderhotel Waldhof has so many offerings both indoors and outdoors. They have a two story play/climbing structure completely with slides and ball pit. They have a little kids play room with a pretend kitchen and baby toys, a small “sports hall” with huge foam pads/blocks. There is a games room with a trampoline, foosball table, ping pong, and a four person videogame table. Next to that is a ninja course and ValoJump which is a gigantic blow up trampoline type pad that you jump on. It’s connected to a computer and records/registers your movements so you end up jumping “in” a game. You can even email yourself the videos! My boys loved this. My husband about broke his ankle on the ninja course and still jumped on the ValoJump even though it was painful! When we asked my kiddo what he wanted to do in the afternoons, “The jumping game!” was usually the enthusiastic response. Since we’re not (yet) a skiing family, we took full advantage of all the fun spaces in the hotel to play.

Outdoor Play:
Directly outside the dining rooms is an adorable fire engine playground and across the street is a larger playground. There is a petting zoo and a riding arena, though we didn’t visit those because we didn’t know they were there! (A map of the property would really help here.) There are ski lessons available for the littlest children on their little hill right next door, ski lessons for older children and adults on the mountains, a free ski bus that takes you to the lifts across town, and plenty of snowy activities. We are not (yet!) a skiing family, but boy do we love to toboggan!

Snow Play:
The tobogganing! There is a small hill next to the hotel that is used for ski lessons with the littlest ones in the mornings. In the afternoons, the toboggan shed is opened and you are free to grab one and sled down to your heart’s content! The hill to the right of the magic carpet was *just* steep enough for the 4 year old to go down by himself and the hill to the left was icy and steep enough to only go down with a parent as we very nearly barreled right into the banner showing the edge of the hill! We had so much fun (or should I say “snow much fun?”) that we were out there for hours most evenings. It should also be mentioned that Waldhof has a snow cannon in case there isn’t enough snow, which was the situation leading up to Christmas Eve.

There is a true tobogganing run in Großarl not too far from the hotel, but I didn’t know about it in time to get us over there to try it. It’s a couple miles long, I believe, and definitely what I will plan for next time!

Kids Club
One the biggest reasons families choose to stay in kinderhotels is the included Kids Club (babysitting). My kiddo would never go to one his own, so I can’t speak to the quality of care since we didn’t use it. But I do know they have a wonderful programme as we saw the activities planned each day.

Wellness

💦Swimming:
The pool area was probably our favorite and most used area of the hotel building itself. The water was colder than we anticipated, so keep that in mind. (Kiddo was shivering at one point while we were swimming.) In the photo it’s difficult to see because I took it at night, but those are panoramic windows with views of the mountains. My son and I spent so much time playing around and watching the skiers come down! We also utilized the little alcove lounges next to the pool to store our bath bag, even playing a game of Uno during a little break.

There is also a children’s swimming area with a wading pool and a large slide going into a pool about waist high on me (I’m about 6 feet tall). There is a small kids’ sauna right next to the pools as well. We didn’t spend much time in this area because my kiddo wasn’t interested in the slide and I found the smell to be really strong…a bit like chlorine and diapers. 😅 A small(ish) outdoor pool is open year round, but smelled so strongly of chlorine I only did a quick dip for a photo and then hightailed it back inside. There is also a lovely whirpool (hot tub) just outside the main swimming pool.

Okay, let me be real with you all. The trio slide was the most fun that my husband and I had inside the hotel the entire time we were there. I’ve never felt more like a kid! We went down that thing for thirty minutes straight. The yellow slide had a huge drop, the red was a straight shot (and you flew down it), and the blue was a wavy/bumpy ride. We laughed so hard and just had the best time; thankfully no one else was around when we opted to try our luck! 🤣

💆🏽‍♀️Massage and Beauty:
The massage and beauty treatment area is a bit small, but beautifully done. There was some miscommunication when I set up my treatments. The scrub, peel, and wrap was supposed to be for my feet, but the masseuse handed me a little packet and told me to disrobe completely and put on this “slip.” Y’all, I wore a paper thong and nothing else and was so confused why I had to do this for a foot peel! 🤣 Reception had booked me for a full body scrub, peel, and wrap! So I was scrubbed down, wrapped up like a burrito, and washed/massaged after. I had set up the same thing for my husband for his spa day the next day and refused to tell him what he’s in for except that it wasn’t about his feet! I was so disappointed that he wasn’t made to wear a thong. The scrub, peel, and wrap ended up being lovely; and I felt so nice and clean after and my skin was positively glowing. I then had a facial and a hot stone massage. The facial was great, but I wouldn’t recommend the hot stone. It was good, but not great, and my husband agreed. Next time I would just do a regular massage.

Kiddo and I did the “Pretty Like Mommy” package – his choice – and it started out with another mocktail. Then I had a back massage, kiddo had a facial massage which he still raves about, and then we both had our nails painted. It was so much fun! We’re already planning on doing it again soon.

🧖🏽‍♀️Spas:
There are a number of saunas, including an adults only one where clothing is required to be off, but we only took advantage of the family sauna. There is a “snow lounge” which is exactly as it sounds – a room filled with snow. Unfortunately the kids in the family that was using the sauna next to ours were having a snowball fight in the common area so the floors were absolutely soaked and very slippery. (I cleaned it up.) There is a little lounge area with fruit, iced drinking water, teas, and extra towels available between the saunas and the pool area.

Tips & Hints

• Before booking, look at the offers/packages. You might find a 4 = 3 deal where you stay 4 nights for the price of 3 or special weeks where kids stay free or for single parents traveling with kids.
• At Kinderhotel Waldhof, you have to enquire for a price rather than book online. I can’t stress this enough – enquire before booking with every single hotel. It’s a non-binding enquiry and you can often find a)cheaper rates and b)availability on dates that the online booking calendar says are sold out.
• You will need to hire a taxi from train stations Sankt Johann im Pongau which is a jaw dropping drive and costs about 50€. There were a number waiting outside the train station with large vans to accommodate ski equipment and the driver had plenty of car seats!
• On the first day, get acquainted with the hotel and its offerings. There isn’t a map, so you’ll just need to explore!
• Everyone receives a bath bag in their room: extra towels, flip flops, and a bathrobe in a mesh bag. It’s great for hauling things to/from the pools and saunas.
• 💁🏽‍♀️Plus size perspective: bring your own bathrobe. They did not have one that fit me, but I am in love with my bathrobe from home so that wasn’t too big of a deal.
• If you want to swim with less people, you can find that pretty easily in the winter mornings while everyone is on the slopes or in the evening after dinner. We loved having a quiet swim before bed!
• Ask for the wellness menu (massages and treatments) via email and book your spa day in advance to ensure that you get the date and time that you want.
• What if you don’t speak German? Not to worry, most people spoke some English. While there were some miscommunications between us and the staff, everyone was kind and patient, and we muddled through just fine.
• They have a variety of mattresses and advertise that if you don’t like the level of hard or soft mattress that you have in your room, you can let reception know and they’ll bring you a harder or softer mattress. We didn’t take advantage of that, but were impressed that it was even on offer!
• Kinderhotel Waldhof provides so many things for kids so you don’t have to pack all of it – a stool for kiddos in the bathroom so they can reach the sink, free buggy/stroller hire (you literally walk into a room, pick one out, and off you go), swim toys and water wings, and so much more. Check their website before you go to see what you can leave at home!
• You will receive the Salzburger Mobility Card with your stay meaning that all travel within the state of Salzburg on public transport is free. This includes trains! (I still recommend you purchase a seat reservation separately, though.)

Verdict: Is this the best kinderhotel ever?

The honest answer: I don’t know yet, but I imagine it’s going to be really hard to beat!

We absolutely loved our stay. 8 days at Christmas gave us a chance to experience everything the hotel had to offer, get acquainted with the layout, be totally pampered, and enjoy the festive atmosphere for Christmas. (See this post for our Christmas experiences at Kinderhotel Waldhof.)

Would we stay here again? ABSOLUTELY. We’d like to do a kinderhotel at Christmas again in 2026 and returning here is a very real possibility. It is pricey, though, so if you’re thinking of coming on a budget be sure to check out their offers and packages to see if you can find a week where there is an offer going on. I looked into staying here this summer and the price was quite high for only three nights even for just one adult and one child under age 5, so this will be our very special ‘save up for’ place. If you have the chance to stay here, I highly recommend it!

As a reminder, this is my honest review. I did not receive any compensation for our stay or this review. I’m not an influencer who was invited to stay here; I’m just a mom who wants to help other parents enjoy their holidays with their kids!