Hotel Kristall Review: The Rooftop Pool Is Worth It, Christmas Dinner Is Not
Hotel Kristall review: adults only spa hotel near Seefeld with a rooftop infinity pool, a naked spa and a Christmas dinner that let it down. Worth £1,188?
The rooftop infinity pool in the snow and a free upgrade to a suite are the reasons to book Hotel Kristall. The Christmas Eve tasting menu and a massage nobody explained are the reasons it does not score higher. Score: 7/10.
Quick answer: Hotel Kristall is an adults only spa hotel in Leutasch, about ten minutes from Seefeld, with a heated rooftop infinity pool, a naked spa, big wood panelled rooms, breakfast included and a restaurant that is the weakest part of the stay.
Need to know
- Where: Leutasch, Tyrol, Austria. About ten minutes north of Seefeld by bus or taxi.
- Visited: December 2025, over Christmas.
- Price paid: £1,188 for four nights, two of us sharing, breakfast included.
- Best for: couples and friends who want a spa hotel with mountain views and no children in the pool.
- Book ahead: yes, especially at Christmas. Reception was rammed on 23 December.
- Dog friendly: yes. Daisy came for breakfast and dinner and got more attention than we did.
- Hosted or self funded: self funded.
- Prices correct at time of visit.
Pam and I chose this together
Finding a hotel near Seefeld with what I would call a luxury room was harder than it should have been.
We spent a long evening on booking sites and most of the rooms in the area looked, and I am being kind here, basic. Some looked shocking. Then Hotel Kristall turned up: a proper spa over two levels, a heated infinity pool on the roof with a mountain view, rooms that looked like someone had spent money on them, and the magic words: adults only.
That was the pitch. Here is what actually happened.
Check in at Hotel Kristall on 23 December
We arrived on 23 December with everyone else in Austria.
Reception was packed with people checking in for Christmas, so we waited a while. When we got to the front we were greeted properly, sat down with a welcome glass of prosecco, handed over passports and let them do the paperwork while we drank it. Then we were walked to the room.
Two things I noticed straight away. The staff already knew Daisy was coming, because Pam reviews dog friendly hotels and had told them in advance. And they had upgraded us to a suite.
At Christmas. When the hotel was full. Nobody upgrades you at Christmas.
The suite: two balconies and a bathroom the size of my kitchen
The suite worked like a small apartment, and at 40 square metres it is bigger than some flats I have rented in London.
You walk into a big living room with a balcony. To the left is the bedroom, also with a balcony, so the view runs the full length of the suite: snow on the roofs of the wooden chalets below, then pine trees, then the Karwendel mountains doing their thing. To the right is a huge bathroom with high end finishes, a bath or shower depending on the suite, bathrobes, slippers and a hairdryer, so you can go straight from the spa to the balcony without getting dressed.
The bedroom is the wood and burgundy look you see on the website: pale timber wardrobes either side of the bed, a deep buttoned headboard in dark red that carries on across the ceiling, brass reading lights. On the bed, two Christmas pyjama sets were waiting for us, which I did not expect and did not complain about.
And then the duvets. Two of them. Single ones.
This is how the Austrians and Germans sleep and I think we should adopt it as national policy. You get your own duvet, nobody steals it at 3am, and I would guess it has saved more couples than counselling. Pam and I are not a couple, but I stand by the point.
Breakfast at Hotel Kristall
Breakfast is included in the room rate, it is a full spread, and you will not go hungry.
Cheeses, croissants, more breads than you could work through in four days, and the Austrian specialities alongside the usual. It is a buffet, it is generous, and after a morning walk in the snow it did the job. I did not write down every item and I am not going to pretend I did.
The walk, by the way, is right there. Leutasch has cross country ski trails running through the woods next to the hotel and hiking paths in every direction. It was snowing when we went out and it looked like the inside of a snow globe. Daisy wore her yellow coat.
The Austrian massage nobody warned us about
We booked massages for the afternoon, a 50 minute full body massage at 82 euros each, and were told to wait downstairs in the spa. Then the masseur came out. He was, without exaggeration, the largest man I have ever seen. Austrian, polite, enormous.
I went first. Halfway through I realised I was being washed. Not oiled. Washed. Warm soapy water, then massage, then more soapy water. I lay there with a laugh building and said nothing, because I am British and that is what we do.
When I came out Pam asked how it was. I said fine, but I think he put water on me, and wait until you see him. She thought I was joking.
Twenty minutes later she came out and said: what the hell was that? He covered me in soapy water. Yes, I said. Same. My legs are stinging, she said. Yes, mine too.
We Googled it afterwards. It turns out we had booked a traditional Austrian massage, which is done with soapy water, and nobody at the desk thought to mention it. If you have sensitive skin, or you shaved the night before, the soap stings. Pam had cream in her bag, which saved us both.
It was not a bad massage. It was just not the massage either of us thought we were getting.
Two tips. If you want a Swedish style massage, say so when you book, and ask what the traditional one involves. And if you are not comfortable with a male masseur, say that too. We would have been fine with the answer, we just wanted to be asked.
Is the spa at Hotel Kristall really naked?
Yes. The indoor spa at Hotel Kristall is naked, and there is no soft version of that sentence.
For a British woman and an Irish woman this is not a natural state of affairs. We stood at the door, looked at each other, and went in for a penny, in for a pound. If I am honest, we did it because there was nobody else in there. We had a couple of saunas and sat in the jacuzzi pools and by the end we had stopped thinking about it.
It is worth knowing before you arrive. In Austria this is completely normal, and the local view is that swimwear in a sauna is the unhygienic option, not the other way round. Go with it or skip the saunas, but do not be surprised.
The rooftop infinity pool is why you book Hotel Kristall
Up on the roof is a heated infinity pool with a view in every direction, and it is the best thing about the hotel by a distance.
You sit in hot water in the middle of the snow with the mountains all the way round you, steam coming off the surface, and nothing to do but look. It is one of the reasons we booked in the first place and it delivered. It is also the bit of the spa where you can wear a swimming costume, so if the naked sauna is not for you, this still is.
You may still see a naked person or two up there. Nobody blinks. You will get used to it faster than you think.
Christmas Eve dinner at Hotel Kristall: the four course tasting menu
Austrians celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so on 24 December the hotel ran a special four course tasting menu and reserved us a table.
Every plate looked beautiful. I want to be fair about that. But the flavours did not match the presentation and we came away underwhelmed. Not one course made either of us stop talking, which for us is the test.
It also took three hours. The hotel was full, room service was running at the same time, and the waitress, who was lovely, was clearly stretched. Pam and I got through two bottles of wine while we waited, which we would like to blame entirely on the service and not at all on the fact that it was Christmas Eve and we were on holiday.
I was going to add the menu to this review. I have decided not to, because the food was not good enough to make it useful. You will see it in the photographs.
We had a great night regardless, because you cannot really have a bad night with Pam and two bottles of wine. But it is not something we would go back for, and if you are choosing between dinner in the hotel and dinner out, go out.
Is Hotel Kristall dog friendly?
Very. Daisy was welcome in the restaurant for breakfast and for dinner, which is rarer than it should be, and she got a fuss from staff and guests everywhere she went. The walking straight from the door is ideal for a dog, and Leutasch is quiet enough that a small dog off the lead in the snow is not a drama.
Hotel listings quote a dog charge of around 15 euros per night. Check that on booking, because it was not something we noted on the bill.
Christmas Day in Seefeld, and one regret
On Christmas Day we took the bus into Seefeld, ten minutes down the road, and I will be honest: this is where the regret crept in.
Seefeld at Christmas is the full picture book. A big Christmas market, a little toboggan slope, people walking their skis up the street, the church spire behind the giant lit up SEEFELD letters in the snow. If you had children it would be the best place on earth. We do not, and we still loved it.
We had lunch outside at Gasthof Batzenhäusl on the main strip, in the sun, with the checked tablecloths and the ski crowd. Pam had a mozzarella salad with figs and grapes that was far better than a mozzarella salad has any right to be. I had baked camembert with cranberry sauce, toast and melon, which is the correct Christmas lunch and I will not be taking questions. Coffees after, a walk along the strip as the sun went down, drinks around a fire pit, then nibbles at a bar with a bottle of Whispering Angel because some traditions travel.
We got a taxi back to Leutasch, because I had an early flight on the 26th.
Here is the regret. Hotel Kristall is lovely, but Leutasch is a valley, not a village. If we did it again we might sacrifice the suite and the rooftop infinity pool and stay in Seefeld itself, where you can walk out of the door into the market and the bars. Ten minutes is not far. It was not a problem. But it was ten minutes we noticed.
If you are eating out from the hotel, the family run place round the corner, Restaurant Weidachstube that I have reviewed separately is where to go. We found it by asking ChatGPT on the first night and it was the best meal of the trip.
Service at Hotel Kristall
Warm, Austrian, and stretched. The welcome was proper, the upgrade was generous, the waitress on Christmas Eve was lovely, and Daisy was treated like a returning guest. The two misses were both about information: nobody explained the massage and nobody explained the spa etiquette. Both are a one line fix at check in.
Is Hotel Kristall worth £1,188 for four nights?
Yes, with a caveat. £1,188 for four nights over Christmas, for two people, breakfast included, in a suite with two balconies and a mountain view, with a rooftop infinity pool and a two level spa, is good value. For context, when I checked in September 2026 the same Christmas week was showing from £1,109 for three nights, and early January nights from around £421, so we paid a fair price for the dates. I did not expect the room we got and I am not sure you can rely on it either, so price it on a standard room and treat the upgrade as luck.
What I would not pay for again is the tasting menu, or the 82 euro massage unless I had asked exactly what was in it. Spend that money in Seefeld.
Who Hotel Kristall is perfect for, and who should skip it
Book it if you want a spa hotel with real mountain views, no children in the pool, a dog in tow, and you are relaxed about nudity or willing to become relaxed about it.
Skip it if you want to be in the middle of the Christmas market every evening, if a hotel restaurant is a big part of your holiday, or if the naked spa is a hard no and you would spend the whole stay in the one pool where costumes are allowed.
Final verdict on Hotel Kristall
Worth it. The suite and the rooftop pool carried the stay, the staff were kind, and the location is fine as long as you accept you will be getting the bus. The dinner was a miss and the massage was a story rather than a treatment.
Would I go back? Probably not, and that is no reflection on the hotel. I feel I have done it, and there are other mountains. If you are going for the first time, book it, eat out every night, ask for a Swedish massage by name, and go straight to the roof.
Hotel Kristall FAQ
How far is Hotel Kristall from Seefeld? Hotel Kristall is in Leutasch, about ten minutes north of Seefeld by bus or taxi. We took the bus in on Christmas Day and a taxi back in the evening. It is close enough to spend every day in Seefeld, but far enough that you will not be walking home from the Christmas market.
Is the spa at Hotel Kristall naked? Yes, the indoor spa at Hotel Kristall, including the saunas and jacuzzi pools, is naked, which is standard in Austria. The rooftop infinity pool is the exception and swimming costumes are fine there, though you may still see the odd naked guest. Nobody will comment either way, so go with what you are comfortable with.
Is Hotel Kristall dog friendly? Hotel Kristall welcomed Daisy, a Shih Tzu, in the restaurant for breakfast and dinner as well as in the suite, and the staff made a fuss of her from check in onwards. There are cross country trails and woodland paths straight from the door. Hotel listings quote a dog charge of around 15 euros a night, so confirm when booking.
Is Hotel Kristall adults only? Yes, Hotel Kristall is an adults only hotel, which was a big part of why we chose it over the other hotels around Seefeld. Over Christmas that meant a quiet spa, a calm breakfast room and no children in the rooftop infinity pool. If you are travelling with a family, it is not the one for you.
What is a traditional Austrian massage like at Hotel Kristall? The traditional massage at Hotel Kristall is done with warm soapy water rather than oil, and nobody told us that in advance. It cost 82 euros for 50 minutes and is not unpleasant, but the soap stung our legs afterwards, so bring cream and skip shaving the night before. If you want oil, ask for a Swedish massage by name.
Next read: Restaurant Weidachstube, the family run place round the corner from the hotel and the best meal of the trip, or head to the Seefeld destination hub for everything else we ate and drank.
If you want the honest version of every hotel I pay for, before it goes anywhere else, join The Chic List. I only send it when I have something worth saying.
