Hotel Lindenhof

Where well-being can be felt in every corner

Wellness holiday in South Tyrol … with my best friend. Destination of our trip is the Dolce Vita Design Hotel Lindenhof ****s in Naturns, a real oasis of well-being, located on the sunny hillside of the lower Vinschgau Valley, just a few minutes’ drive from the town of Merano.

At first sight the singular architecture of Lindenhof seems a little bit unusual, since we know only the traditional South Tyrolean hotels, build with lots of wood and decorated with motley flowers. But when we enter the hotel hall, we are amazed: the oversized room, furnished according to feng shui, appears refreshing and inviting. First of all we are accompanied to our room. The honeymoon suite on the last floor of the hotel – which you can reach using the panoramic glass lift – shows promise. Also in this room feng shui practice looms large. The furnishing is stylish and simple, reduced to the essential elements, the bedroom painted in vital green, the large bathroom in warm orange. One thing is for sure: here you can perfectly relax. Soon we find out why this suite is called like that: you can roll the king-size bed trough the large French window and sleep on the terrace. If the season had allowed it, we wouldn’t have missed the chance to sleep under the starry sky and to wake up in the morning having a beautiful view on the Ortler mountain. Thanks to the absolute quiet position of the Dolce Vita Hotel, it could have been possible to spend the night outdoor. Can you imagine a more beautiful holiday in the mountains?

During a detailed and very funny guided tour of the hotel we get to know every corner of the house, from the underground floor with garage and wine cellar to the reception and wellness centre on the ground floor and the bar and the dining rooms on the first floor, until the tower terrace, where you can enjoy the breathtaking panorama of the mountains.

We take our bath towels and go to the indoor pool, but the already summer weather, even if it’s still spring, draws us in the park. We immerge in the flower whirlpool near the feng shui garden, surmounted by the stony sauna in the castle, and the sun heats us up while we are relaxing in the round sun lounger, protected from wind: in fact, the sun here in Naturns – the municipality in the Oriental Alps with less precipitation –seems to shine 315 days a year.

For lunch there is a buffet with salad and Italian pasta in the lounge bar, later a luxurious cake buffet and pasta for biker: how you can see, refreshments will be served during the whole day!

In the afternoon we are expected in the vitarium for wellness treatments. I choose the Lindenhof marble stone - Trehs-Massage – which by the way offers only Lindenhof -, my friend the edelweiss treatment. During the marble stone massage, the interested parts of the body are first anointed with warm mountain pine oil, then the body is massaged with typical chalk white, in water heated marble stones of Laas in Vinschgau. Two South Tyrolean natural products - the mountain pine of Sarentino Valley and the marble of Laas - are skillfully merged into a singular wellness treatment. Another Lindenhof wellness team’s invention is the clover compress: based on the oriental technique of Pantai Luar, in this case are also used original products from Vinschgau for the massage compress: brown bread, clover and apricot essence for an unique fragrance. Also the edelweiss treatment, which my friend is trying in the other room, is noteworthy. It consists of a marble peeling, a relaxing edelweiss bath in the black marble tub, an anointment with edelweiss body lotion and a face and head massage. For this (and many other) treatments at Lindenhof are used products of BERG, a range of certified organic wellness products, which is used exclusively in the five Dolce Vita Hotels. They are made using healing herbs and plants, organically-grown in the South Tyrolean Alps. Totally relaxed and we betake us to the sauna and relax area. Besides the Tyrolean sauna, the laconium and the sole-steam bath, the bio-sauna “Brechlbad“ seems to be very popular: sitting on the heated wooden benches you can enjoy the warming herbal steam rising from the pine cones on the floor, which massage your feet, and in the kettle over the oven. Of course we try also the Kneipp tub, the adventure showers and the feet whirlpool, and rest on the waterbeds in the relax area.

Guests can drink herbal tea and eat fresh fruits and vegetables in the sauna area. We don’t notice that it’s getting late in the afternoon, and after having a last bath in the indoor pool, we prepare for dinner. Senior innkeeper accompanies us to our table in the wooden Tyrolean stube. Family Nischler takes care personally of their guests in every moment of the day: hospitality is the top priority at Lindenhof. Dinner is a great culinary pleasure! We choose our menu down to our whim and after every course, so we can take a little break or simply leave out a course. The buffet offers fresh salad, dressings, little snacks and of course many types of cheese. If you want a good glass of wine to accompany the dinner, ask the sommelier, he will help you.

We let the evening wind down drinking a cocktail in the open-plan lounge bar. True connoisseurs will appreciate the whiskey collection with more than 150 different bottles.

In the morning we are stunned by the breakfast buffet: different bread types, homemade cakes, fresh fruits, cold cuts and cheese, milk and yoghurt with homemade muesli, different kinds of tea, honey, vital drinks and fruit juices. This delicious buffet fulfills any desire!

A Dolce Vita Hotel with an unusual but high class design, ideal for an active holiday in the mountains and surely an insider tip for mountain biker and road biker: innkeeper Joachim Nischler in person takes care of them. Wellness and fitness are top priority: in the Fit & Fun room, one of the largest in South Tyrol, in the vitarium, during hikes, Nordic walking and bike tours, meditation, qigong and pilates and even in the light and healthy cuisine. Also families and particularly children get their money’s worth in the 120 m2 indoor kids room with childcare and animation.

Both young and old people will like this place.

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