Bio-Hotel Stanglwirt - Peter Burwash International

Golf Courses: There is a training center, driving range, and putting at pitching green just steps from the entrance to the hotel. The nearest golf course is 2 km away in Ellmau with another 11 within an hour’s drive.

Spa: Built partly into the hillside, the spa at the Bio-Hotel seduces guests not so much for its treatments as its design and amenities. Lounge chairs in a sunroom at the uppermost level—a level shared by most of the treatment rooms—look out through floor-to-ceiling windows on that mountainscape of the Wilder Kaisers. To reach that aerie, you climb stairs cut into simulated stone the same gray color as the mountains. Water splashes down the rocky slope in full view of a large rimless hot tub the shape of a mountain pool. Lying there you can gaze at the Wilder Kaisers perfectly framed in the windows of that sunroom above or at an aquarium filled with neon-colored tropical fish and two marauding sharks. Behind the cascading water as if in a cave are a series of saunas—one in translucent stone and called the “Crystal Sauna”—and salt grotto, all of them clothing optional. Leave that area and you follow a set of stairs to an indoor pool, bordered by what seems to be an extension of that rock face and cascading water in the room above with windows on a large grassy inner courtyard of the hotel containing lounge chairs and a kids’ tree house. A tunnel from the indoor pool leads directly into a small outdoor pool, both filled with crystal-clear water. Finally, there is a separate lap pool in one corner of the courtyard. All of this is accessible to guests whether or not they book spa treatments.

Fitness Center: The hotel also has a Fitness Garden, a 5,400-square-foot (500m²) arena adjacent to the indoor courts. It has been furnished with TechnoGym cardio and exercise stations and a Kinesis circuit training system. Personal trainers are also available and many of the hotel activities now operate out of this new Fitness garden. It borders a wellness area for adults with a saltwater pool, a lap pool with integrated Omega timing devices, more relaxation areas, a large marble steam room, two more saunas, a waterfall grotto, and a swimming lake.

Summer: Hiking and Mountain Biking. Hiking trails begin almost at the doorstep of the hotel and head up—and if you choose, over—the Wilder Kaiser mountains. Some are easy. Those at higher elevation can be difficult, as you climb hand-over-hand up rocky paths or along very steep slopes where you’re smart to hang onto the cable attached to the rock on the upper side as a handhold. Scattered throughout are mountain huts providing refreshments and even overnight lodging. A map and suggested routes are available from the concierge desk and there are regular guided hikes during late spring, summer, and fall. Meanwhile, for bicyclists there are both paved bike lanes all along the valley floor and paved and gravel forest roads in the mountains themselves. Bikes can be rented right at the hotel and like hiking there are guided outings available in season.

Winter: Nordic and Alpine Skiing. There is the first of a series of lifts as close as Going, less than a mile away, and the Kitzbühel and its fabled Hahnenkamm downhill racecourse are only 15 minutes away by taxi.

Stanglwirt has Lipizzaner horses and a riding school, complete with a small outdoor equestrian ring.

Children's programs: At 9:30 each morning, kids as young as age 3 can meet at the “Kinderstube” in the hotel or the Children’s Farm behind or for a full day of activities, including lunch, hay games, pony rides, petting zoo, and more supervised by the hotel’s nannies until 5 p.m. (and evenings during holidays). Families, meanwhile, gather in a Children’s’ Water World, with a 400-foot-long waterslide, multiple shallow pools, bigscreen TV showing kids’ favorites, and napping and play areas.

Dining: Packages include breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is a vast buffet of cheeses (some Stanglwirt’s own), deli meats, fish like smoked salmon or mixed seafood, their own yogurt, fresh fruit from raspberries and blackberries to watermelon and pineapple, breads, and a made-to-order omelet bar. Dinner varies from night to night but is typically a sumptuous five-course affair with a different theme each evening: Italian one night, Tyrolean Mountains another, the chef’s creations a third. They usually begin with a buffet of salads, fruits, vegetables and cheeses before giving you a choice of entrées, one of which is always vegetarian. There is also a free afternoon snack of coffee, tea, and pastry, served in the library.