Hotel Elephant

“Authenticity: hotels as they should be”

This is hotels as they should be: very comfortable (in our case the new rooms we were on the top floor), 500 years of history, no heavy-handed corporate global branding (though did I detect and elephant reference or two?), the continual oversight from the family owners, location a short walk from e… more

This is hotels as they should be: very comfortable (in our case the new rooms we were on the top floor), 500 years of history, no heavy-handed corporate global branding (though did I detect and elephant reference or two?), the continual oversight from the family owners, location a short walk from everything in the beautiful historic town of Brixen, private park and rose garden with swimming pool. And an excellent atmospheric restaurant in which we ate on one evening.

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“Awesome Hotel w/Michelin Star Restaurant”

I absolutely LOVED this hotel! It is one of the most unique places I have ever stayed. There is a whole true story about how the hotel got its name. Suffice it to say that an elephant passed through town in the 1500s. The entire hotel is decorated with elephants. We stayed three nights. The s… more

I absolutely LOVED this hotel! It is one of the most unique places I have ever stayed. There is a whole true story about how the hotel got its name. Suffice it to say that an elephant passed through town in the 1500s. The entire hotel is decorated with elephants. We stayed three nights. The staff was terrific and the included breakfast was very good. While my room was a little small, I did love it. The bed and pillows were very comfortable. The hotel has a Michelin star restaurant that was absolutely incredible, but I plan to make separate review on that. The location was excellent just a block or two from the main square, a nice grocery store, and lots of ATMs. I would love to come back sometime and stay again. Favorite hotel of this trip so far.

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“Gorgeous building, plain room”

The public areas of the building are exquisite, full of centuries-old furnishings and works of art! My room was small and plain, but perfectly adequate for a solo traveler. It was a bit warm and stuffy, and I couldn't figure out any way to modify the temperature, but I'd always rather be too warm t… more

The public areas of the building are exquisite, full of centuries-old furnishings and works of art! My room was small and plain, but perfectly adequate for a solo traveler. It was a bit warm and stuffy, and I couldn't figure out any way to modify the temperature, but I'd always rather be too warm than too cold. I thought it would be nice to open the window and take in the view and a bit of air, but I couldn't figure out how to do that either! The panels were shut by one obvious lock, but after that was opened, they were still fastened at the bottom some by other mechanism that I couldn't access or perceive, so I concluded that maybe the window wasn't supposed to be opened? I might have put more effort into figuring out how to change the temperature or open the window, but I was only there for one night, so it wasn't a big deal. A funny thing happened when I was checking in. I gave the woman at the desk my passport and she handed me the key, and then we both stood there looking expectantly at one another. After a moment of mutual confusion she indicated that I was all set, and I pointed out, "You still have my passport." She indicated that they would give it back to me the next day, when I checked out. "I can't let you have my passport!" I protested in alarm, thinking about how many other borders I needed to cross in the next couple weeks, together with my propensity to forget things. I suppose that the expectation of keeping guest's passports during their stay is a sign of how old-fashioned this place is, but it's not something I would still expect to happen these days outside of a human trafficking situation! Luckily she was willing acommodate me and take a picture of my passport info—like, you know, literally every other hotel does these days—so it just turned into an amusing incident and not a source of major anxiety. Overall it was a pleasant stay for one night, and worth it just to enjoy the interiors of the beautiful historic building.

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“World unique hotel history, needs a bit of polishing again”

For a long time I had wanted to experience the unique history of the Elephant Hotel, to get into the amazing story of Suliman the elephant, travelling from Portugal to Vienna, mostly overland, in the 16th century. I was not dissappointed. Great sense of place, with plenty of wall paintings and carp… more

For a long time I had wanted to experience the unique history of the Elephant Hotel, to get into the amazing story of Suliman the elephant, travelling from Portugal to Vienna, mostly overland, in the 16th century. I was not dissappointed. Great sense of place, with plenty of wall paintings and carpets, to feel part of that story. The public areas are in need of a polishing, some new furniture could be helpful. Beautiful garden. Good parking. Easy to reach from the Brenner Highway.

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