My boyfriend and I booked the Hotel Alexandra for a short break over New Year (29th Dec 2010 - 4th Jan 2011) as a group of coupled were spending some time with a friend and his Bavarian wife.

This hotel is about a 15euro cab (with tip) from the Bad Tolz train station - you could walk it but you would have to be extremely fit and with all my luggage, I didnt fancy it!

The hotel from the outside looks extremely traditional. From the entrance to the hallway, it is very traditionally decorated and extremely clean. Monica and Walter were so friendly upon arrival and their English was extremely good as I am ashamed to say I had only mastered please, thank you, can i have etc. Walter took us up to the room and it was very lovely. It had a little balcony but to be honest it was a little too chilly when I went to take advantage of it! We had booked a double but like most of Europe this consisted of two singles pushed together - this was no issue for us and perfectly comfortable. This is no slick minimalist 5* hotel but for a cozy, family run 3* hotel we were pleasantly surprised!

The one highlight for us was the breakfast - it is a buffet style breakfast but is the best quality one I have ever seen, You get limitless tea/coffee (everytime your cup is almost empty they top you up!) and all the laid out items from toast/rolls with spreads/peanut butter/Nutella, cheese and hams, 6 different types of cereal as well as 2 types of museli and 3 different type of yogurt with 6 different stewed fruits to choose from to acccompany it. They also will boil you an egg, which they always wrote Guten Tag! with a smily face on it! These little touches were brilliant.

One thing that isnt mentioned when you book is that you get free bus passes for the length of your stay. These were extremely useful for us as the cab fare to Lenggries (where our friend were) is 20 euros and we could get a bus from about 5 minutes away. Monica kingdly provided a map, showed me where everything was and wrote down the bus times. I would advise you get bus times as they arent very frequent. This bus trip was extremely scenic and quite lovely to do even once. If you need a cab, they will call you one which is quite helpful as it was so cold we didnt fancy walking into town to the taxi rank.

We used the Brauneck for skiing (30 euro cab or use the bus, get off at the Hotel Alpenrose and walk straight up the hill about 10 mins) which was breathtaking! I am a novice and my boyfriend is quite proficent so I had ski schooling (25 euros for morning or afternoon) and hired all my ski equipment for 25 euros which is extremely cheap in my partners experience! One thing I will say is to take your own drinks from local supermarkets as the bottles of water and fizzy drinks ranged between 4 and 6 euros - a bit steep in my opinion! The nudel soup (chicken broth with cut up spaghetti) is a delicious warmer for 2 euros. There are many different levels of slopes - I stuck to the low level ones and my boyfriend and his friends went up much higher! The restaurant just below the slope may not look like much during the day but is fabulous in the evening.

Bad Tolz itself was extremely pretty and there was lots to do from cafes and restaurants to pretty walks and once you have the map, you will manage to get around quite easily. There are plenty of places to eat and drink so ask for a recommendation or simply do what we did, walk past places in the day and check the menu.

Monica and Walter was so helpful throughout our stay that we genuinely felt sad to leave as they made us feel so welcome!

In July I stayed at the Hotel Alexandra. It was totally delightful. The owners, Walter and Monika Olschewsky, were very helpful--Walter even showed me where to put the gas in my rental car! There is beautiful artwork throughout the hotel. The room and breakfast were everything you could hope for in Bavaria.