Zillertal Arena

Q: Zell am Ziller, Gerlos or Königsleiten — which base?

Zell if you want a town with shops, cheaper rooms and the train; you pay for it with a low, shady base and a gondola ride to start. Gerlos is the all-round choice: village atmosphere, slopes on the doorstep and the middle of the area. Königsleiten is the one to pick for snow, quiet and ski-in ski-out — and for nothing else, because there is nothing else there.

Zillertal, TyrolSee it on the map

Foto: Eiswind · CC BY-SA 3.0

Region

Zillertal, Tyrol

Country

Austria

Local time

Europe/Vienna

Currency

EUR

The Zillertal Arena is the largest of the Zillertal's ski areas, a chain of lifts and pistes running east from Zell am Ziller over the Gerlos pass to Gerlos, Königsleiten and Wald-Krimml on the Salzburg side. It counts around 150 km of piste between 580 m and about 2,500 m, and skiing from one end to the other and back is a full day for a decent intermediate.

Each base has a different character. Zell am Ziller is a real market town in the valley floor, low and busy, with a gondola up to the Rosenalm where the skiing starts. Gerlos is a friendly, mid-sized village at 1,250 m spread along the pass road, popular with Dutch families. Königsleiten is a small, purpose-built cluster of hotels at 1,600 m, the highest and quietest base with the most reliable snow.

The pistes are mostly red, long and rolling, with some long steep pitches on the Gerlos side and a handful of blacks, and there are enough mountain huts to make a slow day of it. It is a place for families and intermediates rather than experts, and like the rest of the valley it is on the Zillertal Superskipass.

Last reviewed 13 September 2026

Best suited to

Families
Intermediates
Beginners

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Where lessons start

Beginners are best based in Gerlos or Königsleiten, where there are nursery slopes at village level and the gentle pistes above are close by. In Zell am Ziller the learning area is up at the Rosenalm, at the top of the gondola, and the long valley run home is a red that is beyond most first-weekers — so plan to ride the gondola down. For intermediates the appeal is mileage: a week is enough to ski the whole Arena and dip into the rest of the valley on the same pass.

Resort areas

Zell am Ziller
Gerlos

Getting there

For Zell am Ziller, the Zillertalbahn from Jenbach — on the main Innsbruck–Salzburg line — takes about 45 minutes. Gerlos and Königsleiten are another 20–40 minutes up the pass road by bus or car. By road, Innsbruck airport is about an hour to Zell, Munich and Salzburg around two hours. The Gerlos pass road stays open all winter but is a mountain road, and Königsleiten in particular is a long way from anywhere once the last bus has gone.

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Qualifications required in Austria

Teaching skiing or snowboarding for payment in Austria is a regulated profession: an instructor must hold the Skilehrer qualification. Instructors listed as certified on Alpine Pal have either sent theirs to us for review or are vouched for by the ski school that invited them.

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Zillertal Arena: common questions

Zell am Ziller, Gerlos or Königsleiten — which base?

Zell if you want a town with shops, cheaper rooms and the train; you pay for it with a low, shady base and a gondola ride to start. Gerlos is the all-round choice: village atmosphere, slopes on the doorstep and the middle of the area. Königsleiten is the one to pick for snow, quiet and ski-in ski-out — and for nothing else, because there is nothing else there.