South Tyrol, Italy

Saltus

Price per night from$379.26

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR342.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Au naturel nirvana

Setting

Basking above Bolzano

From the inside out, Earth-kind Saltus soothes the soul. It isn’t just courtesy of calming interiors and private alpine-admiring terraces – although they’re welcome details, too – but a sky-high infinity pool backdropped by the wonder-striking Dolomites. And if you’re yet to achieve your meditative state, a team of in-house doctors can create a personalised wellness programme that’ll have your mind as quiet as the forest that circles you.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

€20 each to spend at the spa

Facilities

Photos Saltus facilities

Need to know

Rooms

28, including two suites.

Check–Out

10.30am, but flexible until 7pm for €55 a person. Check-in is at 3pm, and is flexible, subject to availability.

More details

Rates include breakfast (gluten and dairy free, vegetarian, and vegan options are available), as well as a Bozen Card, access to the spa and all the hotel’s hiking equipment.

Also

All Saltus’ floors are serviced by a lift, four of the rooms have been adapted for guests with limited mobility and all communal areas are accessible.

Please note

The hotel’s WiFi is turned off between midnight and 6am to help encourage phone-free rest. If you need access to it during these times, just let reception know and they can turn it back on for you.

Hotel closed

Saltus shuts its doors annually from mid January until late March or early April.

At the hotel

Hiking corner with walking poles, rucksacks and snowshoes to borrow; vegetable garden; charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: minifridge, tea-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes and Susanne Kaufmann bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Private terraces mean your morning caffeine comes with captivating views wherever you settle; but for the sultriest of sights, snag one of the Saltus Suites for its 180-degree panoramas and seductive freestanding tub.

Poolside

Both the indoor and outdoor pools are heated and accompanied with sweeping views of the looming Dolomites, so you’re guaranteed striking scenes wherever you choose to soak. The 18-metre, infinity-edge alfresco pool is particularly impressive come the first snowfall, as its steaming top balances beautifully against powder-dusted peaks.

Spa

A self-declared ‘meditation path’ leads you out to the mind-quieting Forest Spa, where you’ll find skylit treatment and relaxation rooms, as well as a sauna and steam room. But at Saltus, wellness is more than a few massages here and there (though these ones are particularly restorative, courtesy of Susanne Kaufmann and Biologique Recherche products). So, with this in mind, the team developed their medical spa, personably equipped with a team of in-house doctors who tailor homoeopathic wellness programmes entirely to you, based on physical tests. Naturally, activities differ depending on preference, but options include yoga, pilates, meditation, forest bathing and watercolour painting. You’re also welcome to take part in private therapy, physio and osteopathy sessions.

Packing tips

A flower press – trust us, you’ll want to take a part of this forest home.

Also

The artwork that adorns the hotel is all created by artists in residence, who are invited for three-month stays to seek creative inspiration from Saltus’ surroundings.

Pet‐friendly

Four-legged friends are welcome on request for €30 a day, as long as they steer clear of the spa. See more pet-friendly hotels in South Tyrol.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome, though this forest-flanked retreat is better suited to adults.

Sustainability efforts

Every decision, be it design or day-to-day, is made with the environment in mind at GSTC-certified Saltus. The hotel was built almost entirely from locally sourced natural materials and operates on renewable energy. Inside, you won’t find any single-use plastic; rigorous recycling schemes ensure nothing goes to landfill, motion sensors limit light pollution, repurposed rainwater reduces water consumption, and even the views from rooms have been designed to frame the rolling landscape. The artwork and decor is supplied by local artisans (and there’s an artist-in-residence programme, too), and all the staff are hired from the region and supported with flexible work schemes. The restaurant’s produce is sourced from South Tyrol’s farmers (vegetables come from the onsite gardens) and the team works closely with reforestation charities to help protect the environment. Oh, and Saltus is completely carbon neutral, so be sure to offset your journey once you arrive (friendly reception staff are on hand to advise).

Food and Drink

Photos Saltus food and drink

Top Table

It has to be one of the cosy corner tables, set against mountain-watching windows.

Dress Code

Rival the valley views and go all-out elegant for dinner at Tschögglbergerhof.

Hotel restaurant

Each table at Tschögglbergerhof has been carefully angled to frame the enchanting Dolomiti views, but the scenery isn’t all that grabs attention around here. An ever-changing selection of dishes is cooked up with locally sourced ingredients that roll with the seasons. But whatever Chef’s inspiration that day, South Tyrolean fare sits at the root of every meal, and plates are coloured with fresh vegetables from the onsite gardens that’s run by the owners’ grandma.

Hotel bar

Honeyed tones bring warmth to Saltino Bar, where the drinks list runs from freshly squeezed juices, to sommelier-selected wines and locally brewed beers. There are also light bites available during the day.

Last orders

Breakfast is served between 7.30am and 10.30am, lunch is from noon to 2pm, and dinner is 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Afternoon tea is also laid out from 2pm till 7pm, and Saltino Bar serves between noon and 11pm.

Room service

Meals can be brought to your room for a €15 charge (€45 during breakfast or dinner) between 7.30am and 10pm.

Location

Photos Saltus location
Address
Saltus
Freigasse 8
Jenesien
39050
Italy

You’ll find Saltus sitting at a 1,100-metre altitude in the undulating Dolomites, just above South Tyrol’s capital of Bolzano.

Planes

SkyAlps has direct routes from most of Europe’s largest cities (including London, Rome, Berlin and Copenhagen) to Bolzano’s airport a few times a week. From there, it’s a 30-minute drive to the hotel and staff can arrange shared or private transfers from €40 each way. The closest international airports are in Verona and Innsbruck, both around two hours from Saltus by car.

Trains

The hotel is a 20-minute drive from Bolzano/Bozen station, where you can catch direct trains to Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome, Innsbruck, Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. Private transfers can be arranged from €40 each way.

Automobiles

You’ll be given a Bozen Card during your stay, which gives you free access to the region’s public transport, so a car won’t be essential. But if you decide you’d rather be behind the wheel, there’s private parking onsite for €12 a day, or you can use the free parking lot across the street.

Worth getting out of bed for

If you find yourself in South Tyrol as the snow starts to settle, then it’s most likely your days will be filled with skiing, snowshoeing, sledging and horse riding. On the last Thursday before Christmas, there’s an annual advent market in the nearby Sarntal Valley that brings carolers, locals and visitors together over toe-warming mulled wine. Spring and summer bring equally enticing adventures, as over 800-metres of hiking and biking trails begin to resurface around the Monzoccolo massif, and water warms for refreshing lake swims. Stay put and soak up the serenity at the spa; or, if you’re more of a city slicker, Bolzano is an eight-minute cable ride away.

Local restaurants

For traditional Tyrolean flavours, make your way down to Vögele in Bolzano’s Old Town, where homemade dumplings, smoked speck and goulash have been drawing crowds to its ancient arches for centuries. Löwengrube takes this classic cuisine and amps it up with a contemporary twist, before plating up against scene-stealing frescoes. Mediterranean-inspired meals are paired with salient views of Bolzano’s historic rooftops at Restaurant Arôme.

Reviews

Photos Saltus reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this healing hotel in the Dolomites and unpacked their binoculars and walking boots, a full account of their curative break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Saltus in South Tyrol…

We shouldn’t be shocked that wellness rests at the core of what female-founded Saltus do. After all, the family behind it has been championing the curative power of these almighty mountains since the 1960s, when owner Hedwig’s grandfather arrived in San Genesio to open a B&B, backed by the (now-proven) belief that staying at high altitudes could have powerful remedial effects. Almost 50 years later, Hedwig recruited her daughters, Nadja and Claudia Mumelter, to help give healing a more modern makeover.

Now, this sustainable stay flaunts sweeping panoramas of the sky-piercing Dolomites and brings the serenity of its surrounding forest into every room, each built from Tyrolean clay and coated in calming, natural tones. Outside, the daughters’ grandmother works away on her vegetable patch, picking the freshest crop for that day’s dishes. If, unlike Oma, gardening isn’t your idea of relaxing, then the spa’s doctors are on hand for tailored-to-you wellness programmes, the infinity-edge outdoor pool is wrapped in soul-soothing scenery and hours of alpine adventures await.

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Price per night from $372.61