Need to know
Rooms
62 suites.
Check–Out
11am, but flexible, subject to availability and a €110 fee for each guest. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates usually include a hearty breakfast of granola; foraged fruits, nuts and seeds; cheeses and meats; bread and local honeys; smoked salmon and trout and more.
Also
On arrival you’ll get a quite literal taste of what to expect as you’re handed a hot towel and a drink made of crystal-clear water from the hotel’s spring mixed with stone-pine syrup. Don’t miss the hotel’s daily kaffee and kuchen, when you’ll find Sachertorte, red-velvet cake, strudel, cheesecake and more under the glass cloches in the lounge.
At the hotel
Spa; saunas; two boutiques; lounge; fire-pit-warmed terraces; store for ski equipment; free-to-hire backpacks, walking sticks and snowshoes; e-bikes to hire; free WiFi. In rooms: TV, minibar with free drinks, Nespresso coffee machine, desk, bathrobe and slippers, free WiFi; suites and up have a seating area and view-blessed furnished balcony; Tower Suites have a traditional tiled stove; and the Penthouse has its own private heated pool, sauna, dining area and bar with a wine fridge.
Our favourite rooms
The Penthouse Suite is undeniably the headline act here, with its privileged top-of-the-tower position (hello, Unesco-protected panoramas), private heated pool and spruce-wood sauna, and personal bar where you can muddle up a couple of stone-pine-infused gin and tonics, to enjoy on either your upper or lower terrace before falling asleep to a sparkling mobile of stars laid out across the window wall in your bedroom. But, the hotel’s clever design ensures that even the humblest rooms have a dreamy view and catch the sun. A lot of work went into the hotel’s good looks: take the bathrooms, for example, where Dolomites stone mixed with pigments made using earth from the area is sealed in beeswax to naturally protect it, and the wood lining the walls was made using storm-felled trees.
Poolside
The large, lap-length pool (open 7am to 9pm) is on the lower level of the spa and a glazed wall lets the Dolomites show you their range from discrete day-beds. Its filled with natural spring water that leaves you with glowy, mineral-enriched skin. Plus, it’s swim-in, swim-out through a glazed door – when the peaks are icy and there’s a frosty nip in the air, the curlicues of steam rising from the water make an alfresco dip seem all the more inviting.
Spa
At 1,800 metres above sea level, you’re on a high by default here, but Forestis’ destination spa can get you even giddier. If you’ve never considered your spirit tree before, now’s the time to start, as many treatments tap into the frequencies and healing properties of local mountain and stone pines, spruce and larch. For example, the pagan-esque forest-tree-circle ceremony, where music mimicking the trees’ acoustics plays as you’re cleansed, scrubbed and lacquered with nutrient-rich serums, before being gently worked over with wooden wands and smooth stones. Alternatively, soak up nature’s goodness with a forest-salt bath or a spruce body scrub. The spa spreads over two levels in one of the towers, both glass-fronted to ensure soothing views. On the lower level is the boutique and private consultation room and up the hotel’s statement staircase – shaped like a spiral fossil found in the mountains – are the treatment rooms (only open to guests with a booking). There’s also a 24-hour gym with top-of-the-range equipment and practices which throwback to the ancient Celtic tribes who roamed the surroundings and apparently invested heavily in self-care; say their version of yoga, called ‘wyda’ and druid-inspired guided meditation. There’s also seven – yes, count them – saunas to steam away in; the shy should note that one is ‘clothing optional’. For a different sort of au naturel, take your bending and stretching or spell of self-reflection under the forest canopy or by a babbling stream.
Packing tips
Leave your vices and bring gear for hiking, stretching and swimming, plus an open mind. And, maybe bring a flask to fill from the tap: what pours out is pure spring water (with an impressive 6.6 PH level, chemistry fans), so you might want some for the road to boost that mineral-rich glow.
Also
Most suites are well set up for wheelchair users.
Pet‐friendly
Dogs are welcome for €30 a night and the hotel will supply a bed, bowl and baggies (and food for an extra charge). There’s one pet in each room and they’re not allowed in the spa or pool area, but there is a special restaurant section for them. See more pet-friendly hotels in South Tyrol.
Children
Leave little ones at the foot of the mountains – or with a trusted sitter – this holistic high-altitude stay is for over-14s only.
Sustainability efforts
Forestis has a very harmonious relationship with its surroundings: they duly recycle, laundry is done onsite to reduce their carbon footprint, wood pellets are used as a sustainable heating source, all water is supplied by a pure-as-can-be artesian spring and all food is sourced and foraged locally where possible or brought in from no further than Italy’s borders. The kitchen is zero-waste too, (to the point where they’ve designed their own wooden boxes for deliveries). And, in making the new towers that rise above the original sanatorium, local architect Armin Sader achieved carbon-neutral construction by using all-natural materials from the surrounding area and riffing on the trad Tyrolean style. For every tree felled in the build, two saplings were replanted. And the hotel’s regrowth efforts didn’t stop there: each room has a ‘no housekeeping’ button too – for each day you press it, the hotel will plant a tree to reward you.
