Krimml Waterfalls: 2026 Season, Tickets and How to Visit

The Krimml Waterfalls fall 380 m over three cascades in the Hohe Tauern National Park, and the waterfall path that leads up beside them is open from 1 May to the end of October, with an adult path fee of €9.00 (about $10, £8). Outside that window the path is shut, so a November or February trip to Krimml means looking at the falls from the valley floor and nothing more. This guide covers the 2026 season dates, what a ticket buys, how long the walk takes and how to reach Krimml from the Zillertal.

I first visited Zillertal for an Almabtrieb, the descent of the cows from the summer pastures, and came back to see the Krimml Waterfalls as a guest of the Zillertal Tourism Board. What and how I wrote about the trip was entirely my own call.

When the Krimml Waterfalls are open

The Krimml waterfall path opens on 1 May and stays open to the end of October, which is the season the operator publishes for 2026. The waterfalls themselves run all year, because the Krimmler Ache keeps flowing, but the ÖAV-built path with its bridges and viewing pulpits is only maintained and staffed through the summer half of the year.

Two dates are worth writing down before you plan. The viewing path opens on 1 May, and the Krimml WasserWelten visitor centre runs from 1 May to 27 October 2026, daily 09:00 to 17:00 with last admission at 16:30. From November to April there is no ticket desk, no maintained path and no centre.

The falls sit in Austria‘s Hohe Tauern National Park, 1,856 km² (717 sq mi) of protected mountain spread across Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol. Krimml is the tallest waterfall in Austria. Older guides and a few tourist-board pages still call it the highest in Europe; by single drop, several Norwegian falls are taller, so treat the European claim as a description of scale rather than a ranking.

What a ticket to the Krimml waterfall path costs

A path ticket for the Krimml Waterfalls costs €9.00 (about $10, £8) for adults and €4.50 (about $5, £4) for children aged 6 to 15 in 2026. The fee is a road-use charge, and it pays for the upkeep of the path, the viewing platforms, the public toilets including a disabled WC, and the national park’s conservation and education work.

A combination ticket is the better deal if you want the visitor centre too. The prices published for 2026 are listed below.

The combination ticket is sold at one desk only, the WasserWelten ticket office, and it is the version that covers parking at P4. Several regional cards carry the path fee for you, including the Krimmler Gästekarte, the Nationalpark Sommercard and the SalzburgerLand Card, and the Zell/Kaprun Card knocks €2.00 off the adult price.

Walking the Krimml waterfall trail

The Krimml waterfall trail runs 4 km (2.5 mi) from the valley floor to the top fall, climbing past all three cascades on a paved, regularly maintained path. The lowest fall is 10 to 15 minutes from the car park. The top fall takes about an hour and a quarter of steady uphill walking. The stretch as far as Kürsingerplatz is barrier-free, which makes the first viewpoints workable with a wheelchair or a pushchair.

I only had time for the lower fall on my own visit, and I still count that as worth the ticket, because the bottom cascade is where the water hits hardest. The spray there is strong enough to soak you through. Bring a waterproof layer rather than assuming a fine day means a dry walk.

Good to know before you set off

The three drops are not evenly sized, so the walk keeps changing character. The lower fall throws the most spray, the middle section is the quietest stretch of path, and the top fall opens up the long view back down the valley. Allow half a day if you plan to reach the top and come back down, and more if you want to sit at the platforms.

Breathing therapy at the foot of the falls

The fine spray at the foot of the Krimml Waterfalls is used as a medical therapy, and the programme has clinical research behind it. Researchers at the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg ran a randomised controlled trial on asthmatic children and found that an hour a day at the falls reduced allergic airway inflammation and improved lung function.

The therapy site sits at the foot of the lowest fall, about 15 minutes’ walk in, and the Hohe Tauern Health programme built around it asks participants for a daily hour over 14 to 21 days. You do not have to be on the programme to stand in the spray, but if you are visiting for the air rather than the view, the lowest fall is where to stop.

Krimml WasserWelten, the waterfall centre

The Krimml WasserWelten is an interactive water museum at the start of the waterfall paths, open 1 May to 27 October 2026, daily 09:00 to 17:00. It explains what water does in the mountains, in the body and in the national park, and the outdoor part of it is a garden full of water contraptions built for children that adults queue for anyway.

There is a cafe with a large terrace, and the garden is enclosed enough that you can sit with a drink while children play. The public area has a free toilet and free WiFi, with a donation box rather than a charge.

How to get to the Krimml Waterfalls

Krimml is easiest to reach by car, because the valley’s rail line does not currently run the whole way. The village sits below the Gerlos Pass on the road between Zell am Ziller in the Zillertal and Mittersill in the Salzburg Pinzgau.

Driving over the Gerlos Pass from the Zillertal

The Gerlos Alpenstraße connects the Zillertal to Krimml and is open 365 days a year, which makes it the reliable approach in any season. It is a toll road: a car day ticket costs €13.00 (about $15, £11) in 2026, €12.00 for an electric car, and a motorbike day ticket costs €9.50. An eight-day car ticket is €28.50 if you are basing yourself on one side of the pass and crossing repeatedly.

Car parks near the falls are all subject to charges, and the P4 and P5 tickets can only be validated inside the WasserWelten, so keep the stub. If you are flying into Austria and need wheels for the valley, compare rates through DiscoverCars, which checks more than 900 suppliers in one search. For the flight itself, Trip.com is a quick way to see the Salzburg, Innsbruck and Munich options side by side.

By train and bus

Rail gets you close but not to the door in 2026. The Pinzgauer Lokalbahn was wrecked by the 2021 floods, and the rebuilt line currently runs regular services between Zell am See and Mittersill only, with replacement buses covering Mittersill to Krimml. There is a further works closure between 7 September and 4 October 2026, when even the Zell am See to Fürth-Kaprun trains are replaced by buses. Check the operator’s timetable the week you travel rather than a route planner’s cached version.

Tours in Krimml and the Zillertal

Guided options around the waterfalls and the wider valley change with the season, so the live listings below are more reliable than anything written into a page. Waterfall walks, national park hikes and Zillertal day trips all show up here.

Krimml in winter

Between November and April the waterfall path is closed, and the village turns into a ski base instead. Hochkrimml sits at the far end of the Zillertal Arena, whose lifts run from 4 December 2026 to 11 April 2027 in the 2026-27 season, snow permitting. An adult full-day Zillertal Arena pass is €82.00 (about $95, £71) from 08:00, with cheaper afternoon starts.

So a winter trip to Krimml is a ski trip. If the waterfalls are the reason you are going, book between May and October.

Travel insurance for a hiking trip in Austria

Mountain walking is the part of an Austrian trip most likely to go wrong. Cover matters most on the days you are furthest from a road, because that is where a turned ankle becomes a rescue rather than a short limp back to the car.

Cover that can be bought mid-trip is worth knowing about, and SafetyWing sells flexible plans you can start after you have already left home. They were the first travel insurer to cover COVID, and when I caught it they reimbursed my costs without an argument.

Krimml Waterfalls FAQ

Are the Krimml Waterfalls free? No. The waterfall path carries a €9.00 (about $10, £8) adult fee in 2026, €4.50 for children aged 6 to 15, which funds path maintenance and the national park’s conservation work.

How long does it take to walk to the top of the Krimml Waterfalls? About an hour and a quarter each way. The lowest fall is 10 to 15 minutes from the car park, and the full trail to the top fall is 4 km (2.5 mi).

Can you visit the Krimml Waterfalls in winter? Not on the waterfall path. It opens on 1 May and closes at the end of October, and there is no ticket desk or maintained trail in between.

Are the Krimml Waterfalls the highest in Europe? They are the highest in Austria, at a 380 m (1,247 ft) drop over three cascades. Several Norwegian falls have longer single drops, so the “highest in Europe” label you will meet in older guides describes scale rather than a measured ranking.

Are the Krimml Waterfalls wheelchair accessible? The lower section as far as Kürsingerplatz is barrier-free, so the first viewpoints work with a wheelchair or a pushchair. The climb to the middle and top falls is not.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Five things I would tell anyone heading to Krimml are listed below.

1. Pack a waterproof layer for the lowest fall, not for the weather. The spray at the bottom cascade soaked me on a dry day, and it is the one stretch of path where you cannot step out of range.
2. Buy the combination ticket at the WasserWelten desk. It is the only counter that sells it, it is the only ticket that covers P4 parking, and at €15.90 it costs less than the path and the centre bought separately.
3. Give yourself more than an hour. I only reached the lower fall and had to turn back, and the top fall is a further hour of climbing from there.
4. Check the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn before you plan a rail day. Trains run Zell am See to Mittersill only, Mittersill to Krimml is on replacement buses, and a works closure runs 7 September to 4 October 2026.
5. Look at the calendar before the map if you are travelling out of season. Between November and April the path is closed, while the Gerlos Alpenstraße over the pass stays open 365 days a year, so you can reach Krimml easily and still not be able to walk up beside the falls.

For more of the valley, including the lakeside cafe at Bochra See in Stumm, see our guide to things to do in Zillertal, and for the country as a whole there are 77 fun facts about Austria.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trips to Krimml and the Zillertal, including the Almabtrieb that first brought her to the valley. The team covers Austria for independent travellers, including the tours, the car hire and the travel insurance worth booking for a mountain trip, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.