In the Noughties, if I stayed in a hotel’s annexe I felt slighted. Back then you had to be in the main house. You were a nobody if you were demoted to an outbuilding, so I’d dread the walk of shame every time I needed to go back to my room, a journey not made any easier by the fashion at the time for sky-high Jimmy Choos.
These days shoes and sensibilities are more low key and for many travellers luxury now means enhanced privacy and space, hence the rapid rise of short-term letting agencies. Hoteliers are keen to get a piece of that action and are sizing up buildings in their grounds or vicinity to convert into outlier hotel-ettes. In these the bedrooms come with fitted kitchens and living areas as well as all- important squatters’ rights at the mothership’s restaurants and spa. Crucially, they also have access to those relationship-saving services known as housekeeping. Basically, it’s Airbnb with benefits.
The demand is highest at upmarket country retreats, so while (not exactly) staying at Forestis in the Dolomites, one of Italy’s hottest hotels, I enjoy a proud moment in its 007-glamorous reception. I clear my throat theatrically and ask loudly if someone is available to bring the Land Rover around to drive me back to the lodge. I pretend not to notice the envious glances from fellow guests.
I am the first person to check into the eagerly awaited Odles Lodge, the new mini-me Forestis. It has four souped-up suites-cum-apartments in an exclusive chalet enclave a short, chauffeured drive from Forestis, which sits at an altitude of 1,800m on the Plose massif.
This is Italy, Jim, but not as we know it. The closest town is Brixen in South Tyrol, the northern province that has been through a long-running custody battle between Italy and Austria. The tussle was finally resolved in 1992, with an agreement that the region would continue to fly under the Italian flag but have its own government. Innsbruck airport is a 90-minute drive north whereas the nearest Italian airport, Verona, is three hours south, and German is the first language for locals, so most folk think of themselves as Germanic with a massive crush on Sophia Loren rather than Mediterranean with a soft spot for Marlene Dietrich. Fortunately, at Forestis, this split personality manifests itself with stereotypical cliché, so the hotel’s design exudes effortless Italian sexiness, while the ultra-efficient service exhibits Teutonic tendencies.
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Forestis opened in July 2020 after a six-year renovation of a 1912 tuberculosis sanatorium — ironic, given the arrival of Covid hung over its launch like a dark cloud. But the “build it and they will come” instincts of thirtysomething first-time hoteliers Teresa Unterthiner and Stefan Hinteregger proved spot-on, largely thanks to their concept. The emphasis is on nature, wellbeing and sustainability, three elements that are increasingly sought after in this post-pandemic period.
Their eco-hideaway (they prefer not to call it a hotel) was a hit from the off and was soon welcoming high-profile holiday-makers including Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin, and Calvin Harris and Vick Hope. I can see the appeal for lovebirds. The mood board is serenely seductive: rooms are predominantly pine-clad and so pared back they don’t have art on the walls or even books on the coffee tables. Who needs distractions anyway when all 62 bedrooms and every inch of public space have panoramic windows with epic views of the Geislergruppe massif?
This part of the Dolomites is hypnotic at any time but particularly at sunrise and sunset, when the magnesium carbonate embedded in the dolomitic limestone produces the twice-daily drama, turning its jagged peaks anything from a blush pink to a blazing red. It’s so uniquely affecting they’ve even coined a word for it: enrosadira. It’s also wondrously romantic; on average the team choreograph two marriage proposals a week, with the record being three in a day.
That minimalist aesthetic and the adults-only policy have been exported to Odles Lodge. My key unlocks the two-storey sanctuary, clad in sweet-scented spruce and stone pine and accessorised by uncluttered styling that surrenders any thoughts of competing with the wholesomeness seen through the floor-to- ceiling windows. Here, though, I have the bonus of my own open-plan living/dining area with a traditional tiled wood-burning stove that encourages peel-me-a-grape sloth, a kitchen stocked with complimentary local delicacies including apple juice, cheeses, homemade jams and cured meats, and a super-sized terrace for early-morning coffees, afternoon tea breaks and nightcaps under the stars.
The greige soft furnishings that decorate bedrooms 200m down the mountainside are replaced by a warmer mossy green and the freestanding bath tub next to my bed is pistachio rather than cappuccino-coloured. But, as at Forestis, the purest of water flows from the taps. The Hintereggers share ownership of a nearby spring with a bottling company, so the same H2O that I can drink for nothing and leisurely soak in while watching the sun set sells for a tenner a litre in posh restaurants. Just saying, Cleopatra.
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The lodge’s quartet also has a communal pool, steam, sauna and activity room with rucksacks, hiking poles and maps, snowshoes and yoga mats to borrow. However, given that Forestis is the area’s only ski-in, ski-out hotel, is 100m from a lift and has a stunning spa with an indoor/outdoor pool, the charms of the main base are pretty irresistible year round.
I can have breakfast delivered but I prefer to hit the lavish buffet down the road, laden with cereals, cheeses, meats, cakes and breads baked fresh in-house, foraged berries, a roll call of honeys (of which my favourite was Alpine pasture blossom) and a variety of yoghurts including a hay-milk one, although I’m a tad disappointed to discover that this simply means the cows ate hay rather than fermented fodder.
Healthily fortified, I join two elderly German women for a free guided forest walk along one of the 31 miles of trails from the doorstep. We hike in silence, with the crunch of pine needles underfoot and birdsong overhead on the way to a fairytale clearing where our guide plucks shoots from larch, spruce, stone pine and mountain pine so that we can learn to distinguish their individual but equally uplifting scents. We then take off our shoes and socks to try wyda, a centuries-old mindful movement practice rather like yoga, developed by Celtic Druids who once lived here. It’s fabulously relaxing.
I top up my serotonin and vitamin D levels further at the resort’s futuristic spa where couples, mainly in their thirties and forties, are draped on loungers, sipping guilt-free glasses of champagne. This is wellness lite, balancing indulgences (the afternoon tea’s apple strudel is 100 per cent Austrian artery clogger) with stints in the various saunas and hot tubs to sweat out toxins. There are both textile and non-textile (ie naked) saunas — the latter usually has quite the display of imaginative piercings, or so I’m told. I keep my cossie on.
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The seven-course dinner offers the kind of inventiveness with which I’m more comfortable. Menus feature organic produce from local artisans, with meaty or vegan versions, or you can mix and match, but I stay plant-based and particularly enjoy the artichoke stuffed with a herby cream, the earthy mushroom ravioli and the delicacy of the lemon verbena dessert.
I snooze in the spa’s Silent Rooms and struggle to stay awake during my “healing wood” treatment, in which an ancient technique using specially selected wooden sticks is used to apply pressure along my body so that the wood’s sound frequencies help restore my equilibrium. I also squeeze in a white-knuckle 30-minute ride down the corkscrew road to Brixen to wander the medieval lanes, now lined with arty galleries and designer stores.
The town’s historical importance as a seat of religious and political power is apparent from the impressive legacy of Renaissance and baroque buildings, including an imposing cathedral. Its grand butter-coloured towers dominate the square and signpost the extravagance within. The church features 33 types of marble, an elaborate high altar by Theodor Benedetti and an extraordinary ceiling fresco, spanning 200 sq m, by the renowned Austrian 18th-century painter Paul Troger.
I’m happiest though just wandering, à la lonely goatherd, about the forest, where I find taking in huge gulps of pure, pine-scented air is addictively restorative. There’s no walk of shame here. In fact, I urge you to take it outside, Forestis-style.
Susan d’Arcy was a guest of Forestis, which has B&B doubles in Odles Lodge from £478 (odleslodge.it) and half-board doubles in the main hotel from £626 (forestis.it). Fly to Innsbruck
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Four other hotels with views in the Dolomites
1. Haller Suites, Brixen
This family-run hotel is embedded in the father Hans Haller’s vineyard; it overlooks Brixen old town and the views are as intoxicating as the wines. Go traditional by staying in the seven pine-clad bedrooms in the old house or contemporary in one of the 18 new suites tucked between the rows of grapes. Activities range from retox to detox, so there are wine tastings and alfresco yoga classes looking down to Brixen’s church spires. Dinner in the organic restaurant AO is a treat, putting a modern twist on South Tyrolean specialities.
Details B&B doubles from £140 (byhaller.com). Fly to Innsbruck
2. Guesthouse diWINE, Merano
Franz Kafka, Richard Strauss and Ezra Pound used to holiday in Merano, drawn by its health-inducing microclimate. Blowing away the cobwebs with pure mountain air might become even more apposite if the wine expert at this stylish guesthouse leads you astray. Rooms are named after grape varieties and their contemporary mood board is as rich and warm as a good drop of red. If you swerve a hangover, nearby Dorf Tirol is the region’s lake district, with spectacular hikes; Parcines has climbing and the highest waterfall in South Tyrol.
Details B&B doubles from £148 (diwinemeran.it). Fly to Innsbruck
3. Hotel Garni Paradisi, Mezzano
Mezzano, near San Martino di Castrozza, is regarded as one of the prettiest villages in the Dolomites and makes a brilliant base for sporty types. There’s hiking, canyoning and climbing in the Primiero Valley and a cycle path on the hotel’s doorstep for mountain bikers. After expending all that energy, the saunas and Turkish bath back at the hotel provide the perfect antidote for tired limbs. Rooms are done out in local wood and all have mountain views that inspire you to keep on with the exercise. The homemade cakes and brioche on the generous breakfast buffet provide fuel for all your exertions.
Details B&B doubles from £139 (hgparadisi.it). Fly to Venice
4. Vigilius Mountain Resort, Lana
Reached by cable car, this minimalist eco-resort is nestled into a forested crest, 1,500m up Vigiljoch mountain outside the pretty town of Lana, and places the emphasis firmly on wholesome wellness. Apart from limitless pure Alpine air available for free on hikes and bike rides, folksy therapies include the sheep wool treatment, for which you’re wrapped in the woollen stuff for a pre-massage warm up, body scrubs made with mountain pine peel, and traditional hay baths (apparently snoozing on damp straw bales did wonders for goatherds). You may prefer to restrict your soaks and sleeps to your bedroom; a good plan given they are calming, larch-clad sanctuaries.
Details B&B doubles from £324 (vigilius.it). Fly to Verona
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