Seiser Alm Urthaler

We’re just finishing a great week here and are happy to recommend Hotel Urthaler. Quick summary: it’s a comfortable and relaxed hotel with lovely staff, superb half board meals, and a calming swimming pool and spa, and is well located for superb winter walking and skiing. But it isn’t truly ski-in ski-out; you have to walk carefully down a sometimes icy driveway and about 100m up a small access road to reach the nearest piste. The atmosphere in the hotel is relaxed, even laidback; for instance the dinner menu kindly points out that the dress code in the dining room is casual and they’d prefer you not to use your phones. The staff - particularly in the cosy restaurant and stylish bar - are friendly, multilingual, and highly professional. Our room and bathroom are spacious and comfortable with a mountain view and with everything we need including a kettle, fridge, and daily supplies of tea, instant coffee, and mineral water. We chose half board and the food has been excellent. The breakfast buffet and the nightly salad buffet both have a generous and inviting range of options. We eat fish but not meat, and we’ve been really pleased by the choices every night from the two half board menus; one with meat and fish, one solely vegetarian, and with the ability to pick your dishes from both. A typical dinner for us has comprised five courses: salad, soup, pasta, fish, and dessert - all of smallish size (but not the tiny Nouvelle Cuisine type of portion with more garnish than food), superb quality, and enough creativity in the use of ingredients and flavourings to make you feel “ooh; that’s a slightly new combination but it really works”. The fish and veg have been perfectly cooked every time, the handmade pasta gorgeous, and the desserts truly excellent. On two of our nights here there’s been a special menu: one night the desserts were provided as a buffet, and yesterday it was the Tyrolean buffet. That was mostly focused on meat eaters, but there was a good vegetarian soup and traditional dumplings of spinach and cheese, plus plenty of vegetables, so we didn’t go hungry. One thing that has seemed a bit strange to us: if you want cheese at the end of your meal you have to pay extra for it. Having said that, the salad buffet includes some nice cheeses and chutneys, so just have them at the start of the meal rather than the end. The wine list is really good, with a particuarly lovely selection of excellent local wines and helpful advice from the waiters. If you buy a bottle they are happy to recork it and keep it for you to finish the next night; this has worked perfectly for us two. So; on to the winter sports. We’ve been interested to see that the hotel does not focus specifically on skiers; it’s as much for walkers and people simply wanting a calm retreat among the stunning scenery and nature of this beautiful mountain plateau. The walking trails are well marked, varied and extensive, and are cleared enough of snow so that you can walk in normal

Wonderful hotel in one of the prettiest places on Earth. We rarely stay at 5 star hotels, but hotels in Alpe di Siusi are all expensive. This was very reasonable for the quality. Great service, underground garage, excellent food, indoor outdoor pool. Right in the middle of great hiking of Aloe de Sues.