Seven fascinating resorts around Bolzano where you can indulge in vices and virtues, including underground salt lakes, salt caves, private spas and high-altitude hammams.
Perhapsa monograph issue of Travel & SPA would not be enough to fully describe the enchantment of South Tyrol. Ancient land, small but at the same time huge in suggestion. There is everything here: history, culture, traditions, nature–and for every taste: from hiking to climbing, rafting to horseback riding, Nordic walking to mountain biking. The imposing mountains of South Tyrol draw a territory as if it were a tree; from its trunk spread several branches, valleys different from each other but with one soul.
Adler SPA: the World of Water in Val Gardena
The most famous is undoubtedly Val Gardena, cradle of Ladin culture, and boasting some of the most beautiful via ferrata routes in the entire Dolomites, also called “the Pale Mountains,” rightly a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ortisei, with its pastel-colored houses, flower-filled balconies and typical costumes, is its gem; in its center
Adler SPA Resort Dolomites
since 1810 has been a five-star hotel set in a large private park. 3,500 square meters of the so-called “Water World,” with indoor and outdoor pools, whirlpools, an underground salt lake, salt caves with inhalation sauna and a panoramic biosauna.
Instead, 34 rooms are dedicated to treatments, from hay baths in wooden vats to exclusive massages, passing through wraps, beauty and therapeutic treatments, as well as thalassotherapy and body-styling.
Aurina Valley between fairy tales, castles and Hammam
More reserved and far from mass tourism, by virtue of the particular morphology that makes it a closed basin, the Aurina Valley is instead rich in ancient mines that testify to its past of toil and labor, but also in fortified manors, such as Tures Castle, which looks like something out of a storybook.
Excursions to the Vittorio Veneto refuge, which is over 3,000 meters above sea level, and to the three Riva waterfalls are not to be missed: a spectacular 42-meter drop of crystal-clear water. Here, at the
Alpin & SPA Resort Schwarzenstein
, 5,000 square meters await those who wish to regenerate inside and out.
Indoor and outdoor pools, personalized rejuvenating and relaxing treatments, whirlpools, salt steam and herbal cistern saunas, steam caves, special silver quartzite massages, hammams, body treatments… These are just a few, the proposals of the in-house SPA, which also presents a specific cosmetic line for all needs.
Futuristic architecture and innovative design of ecological footprint: this is the concept of
Amonti & Lunaris Wellnessresort
, also in the Aurina Valley, designed and built from stone, wood and glass.
The various treatments at its SPA, which is common to both facilities, are all natural-based and with ingredients of regional origin; the choice ranges from different wellness therapies, from detox at bodyforming up to the one called Vitalis, massages (apple and rosehip, celendula and chamomile, grapeseed and sea buckthorn) energizing, vitalizing, relaxing, and Ayurvedic, via peels and wraps. Several pools and saunas, including an aromatic effluent pool, and an infrared steam bath.
Kobido, 7 pools and private spa
Aldo Adige, however, means not only apples, wine and yogurt, but also world-famous speck. And San Candido, in the upper Pusteria Valley, politically divided between two states, Italy and Austria, and “home” to the legendary Tre Cime di Lavaredo, is home to what is probably its most important production company.
San Candido, however, is not only this: in addition to the Collegiate Church, which is considered the most important Romanesque monument in South Tyrol, in its city center it finds its location
Post Hotel
, with its modern design combined with the historic charm of a 100-year-old building.
Its in-house spa, in addition to the most classic and comprehensive treatments, offers mountain pine wraps, with balsamic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties; a special Cirmolo massage, relaxing for the muscles, with benefits for the respiratory tract and immune system; hay and juniper peeling; and the exclusive and ancient Japanese Kobido treatment, which improves hydration, elasticity and skin tone.
From the Pustertal valley to the Casies valley, a small, quiet basin nearby, the step is pleasant and short; in the Casies valley, which bears the same name as the valley, the
Hotel Quelle Nature SPA Resort
is a true 5-star wellness world.
There are 7 heated swimming pools, a bio bathing lake, and several therapies for body and mind, such as the hay bath and mare’s milk bath, as well as 10 saunas (one of them with a water mill), whirlpools, salt grotto, the Kneipp path and a Private SPA Suite For couple’s treatments.
The thermal baths of Moso
Not far away, perhaps wrongly considered a minor basin compared to its far more emblazoned neighbors, and under the imposing gaze of the Sexten Dolomites, the Fiscalina Valley represents one of the main access points to the Three Peaks Nature Park; here, harmoniously blended into the surrounding natural environment, Bad Moos Dolomites SPA Resort is completely clad in wood with large larch beams.
In the Termesana SPA, the ancient tradition of thermal bathing in Moos revives thanks to the presence of a sulfur spring, which bubbles up at the foot of the Croda Rossa, rich in mineral salts, fluoride, magnesium, calcium and sulfur.
There is also the Sulfurea Relaxation Grotto, with heated water beds where you can relax between treatments and saunas, and the Sulfurea Kneipp Path, for massaging the feet, stimulating circulation, and exercising the muscles of the limbs. Finally, to cool the body after the sauna, one can soak in the water pool, also sulfur, at 6°.
SPA Arboris, wellness in the woods
The ideal route ends in the Eisack Valley, which stretches from the source of the river that gives it its name to the mouth of the Etsch; a basin as ancient (Brixen is its historical, artistic, cultural and administrative capital and has well over 1,000 years of history) as it is green. And green is the star of
My Arbor
, a special and striking resort nestled in the woods and meadows of Plose, Bressanone’s iconic mountain: it is built partly as a “pile dwelling,” and is a mix of tradition, innovation and technology with a dynamic design inserted perfectly into its surroundings.
In the Arboris SPA outdoor and indoor pools, saunas with different thematic casts, and exclusive treatments with trees as protagonists (larch, stone pine, spruce, and mountain pine) represent the wellness idea of My Arbor, along with yoga and pilates. Nature, history, culture and much more: South Tyrol is well-being in its broadest sense.
Cover photo: Alpin & SPA Resort Schwarzenstein (Kottersteger)
