There are places that need no explanation. You simply arrive, look out the window as Val Pusteria narrows between the peaks, and realize that something is about to change—not outside, but within. Hotel Hubertus in Valdaora is one of these places. And for summer 2026, it presents a silent, profound metamorphosis, much like the landscape that embraces it.
When luxury learns to be silent
Nine pools. Nine saunas. Seven thousand square meters of wellness area suspended between the Rieserferner Group and the Sesto Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The numbers of Hotel Hubertus could tell a story on their own. But it would be the wrong story—or at least, an incomplete one.
Because what the Gasser family—Daniela, Markus, Helga, and Christian—has built here over time cannot be measured in square meters. It is measured by a certain quality of air, in that precise moment when you immerse yourself in the panoramic Sky Pool—25 meters long, suspended 12 meters above the ground, with a glass bottom and water at 33°C—and the boundary between the body and the sky ceases to make sense.
What’s new for summer 2026: a silent metamorphosis
The renewal the hotel brings this season is not a restyling. It is something more precise: a refinement. Like when a great wine returns to the cellar not because it has flaws, but because it can become even more itself.
The first encounter with the hotel takes on a new face: a new entrance and a completely redesigned lobby welcome guests with warm materials and essential lines, turning arrival into an explicit invitation to slow down. Above, suspended between light and the horizon, is the new Panorama Bar Lounge—signature drinks, boundless windows, and conversations that find their natural rhythm. It is the kind of bar where you sit down for a drink and find yourself gazing at the stars.
The new sauna area: heat as architecture
The heart of the renovation beats in the wellness area. The historic cabin and the mountain-hut sauna make way for a new dimension of well-being, more scenic and immersive. The panoramic Event Sauna at 82°C hosts daily Aufguss steam rituals that transform heat into a collective rite. The wood, laid in a Hungarian herringbone pattern, frames these moments with almost artisanal precision. Next to it, the bio-sauna at 55°C offers a gentler heat, suitable for those who wish to ease slowly into relaxation, while the new steam bath at 45°C adds beneficial peelings that leave the skin feeling clean even the next day. A new meditation room completes the picture.
To all this is added a detail that says much about the care with which the hotel is managed: all rooms, including the Corones category, have been equipped with full air conditioning. A small detail, perhaps. But it is in the details that one recognizes an obsession with comfort.
The Sky Spa Heaven & Hell: where architecture becomes well-being
There are architectural works that you look at. And then there is the Sky Spa Heaven & Hell, designed by studio NOA in Bolzano, which you experience. Supported by an impressive steel structure, it rises above the hotel as a sharp mark on the landscape. The “heavenly” level hosts two panoramic whirlpools in a rarefied quiet. The “hellish” level introduces a different rhythm, with saunas, a whirlpool, a cold room, and an ice shower—a calibrated interplay of sensory contrasts that awakens something ancient in the body. The panoramic Sky Pool is the pinnacle of this experience: every swim becomes a gesture suspended in the void, silent and precise.
In the kitchen, the peaks reach the plate
Chef Antonio Triscari works with the same logic the hotel applies to well-being: fresh regional ingredients, local suppliers, salmon trout and cheeses from Alta Pusteria as protagonists, with a Mediterranean touch that enriches rather than betrays. The dining rooms, with their enormous windows overlooking Val Pusteria, transform every meal into something that also belongs to the landscape. The excellently stocked cellar holds a few rarities for those who know how to look.
Summer outside the hotel: the Dolomites as a gym and museum
Valdaora is one of the most generous gateways to the South Tyrolean Dolomites. Trails branch out from the hotel into Europe’s largest nordic walking park—over 275 kilometers of paths between Falzes, Brunico, Valdaora, and Rasun. Every week, 15 guided hikes take guests to high altitudes, including sunrise on the peaks with director Christian Gasser and trails following the traces of the First World War. For those who prefer cycling, the Val Pusteria Cycle Path reaches San Candido and, if desired, Lienz in Austria. For those who want to try golf in a unique Alpine setting, the hotel guarantees exclusive and free access to the nearby Riscone course, of which it is a Premium Partner.
Summer 2026 also brings a calendar of events on Plan de Corones not to be missed: Kronplatz by Night on several dates—including the evocative Sacred Heart Night edition on June 14—the Sounds of the Peaks festival with traditional music at 2,275 meters, the Kronplatz King Marathon on July 11, and the South Tyrol Speck Festival on September 26 and 27. The lifts remain open from May 16 to November 8, 2026.
How to get there
Hotel Hubertus reopens on May 14, 2026. By car from Milan, it can be reached in about four hours, following the A22 to Bressanone and then the SS49 of Val Pusteria to Valdaora. The final destination is Via Furcia 5, in Sorafurcia.
