Feuerstein Nature Family Resort, South Tyrol

Short Haul

31 Jan

We first discovered the beauty of a holiday in the mountains last summer and quickly got converted. The breathtaking beauty takes some beating. We also discovered the concept of kinder hotels for the first time - a hotel designed specifically around children and families. They’re honestly a kid paradise - and therefore every parents’ paradise! Happy kiddos, easy parenting, luxury hotel. Win win. In January this year we had the most insane weekend at Feuerstein Nature Resort in the Dolomites and I’d love to tell you all about it…

The Details

We flew with easyJet direct from London Gatwick to Innsbruck, Austria which was about a 90 minute flight.
We took an early flight out on Friday morning and were at the resort before lunch was even served! The beauty of living in Europe. I mean, it is brutal waking your children up at 3am to drive to Gatwick for a 7am flight {we actually put them to bed in their clothes the night before so could lift them straight into the car half asleep} and then Raffy aged 3 had a nap thankfully in the transfer and the energy of the adventure was enough to carry them through to an early bedtime!
From Innsbruck we had booked a hotel transfer that included car seats. It was around a 45 minute, very scenic, drive. But not cheap. €160 each way… we’d normally hire a car but car hire seemed expensive. Maybe the time of year? You could also get the train & the hotel can pick you up for free from a nearby station but it would have been quite a lot longer, we didn’t have that much time so wanted to really max out on the hotel facilities.
We travelled hand luggage only because we hate paying for checked baggage these days as it adds up. We vacuum packed our bulky layers & knitwear and we always utilise the free children’s items - buggy or car seat or travel cot to add tiny bits we can’t fit in our main rucksacks.
We stayed for 3 nights, restricted school wise but I’d say 4 would be optimum as there is so much to do & you won’t want to leave. 100% go for longer if budget allows.
You won’t need to take much. The hotel really thinks of everything to make it easy for parents.
Whilst it’s not cheap, a lot is included in your package so once you’re there, it’s unlikely you’ll need to spend any {or much} more. There’s a whopping 70 hours of childcare every week included from age 0 - and it’s super high quality in the most incredible playrooms with the sweetest staff, gorgeous Montessori inspired toys and activities. That’s worth a LOT on its own and gives some precious adult time to visit the spa, take a leisurely lunch or go skiing/tobogganing. Almost all of your activities are included, there are fitness classes, guided hikes, lots of parent/child activities like wood working workshops, art classes, snow art, horse riding.
Children are grouped into 0-4 or 4-10 with separate childcare spaces. But I liked the fact that it’s not too regimented, my children are 5.5 and 3.5 and were allowed to be together in either section. They ended up wanting the 0-4 each day.
This style of Kinder hotel makes for an amazing trip in all seasons, they offer so much inside and out whatever the weather but we were particularly excited to visit in the winter and had been dreaming of a snowy trip. Now, we don’t ski - I think we didn’t learn when we were young enough and know so many prone who have broken limbs from it - but I’ve always lusted over friend’s snowy cable car photos and the alpine atmosphere.
You can book padel or ski school for an extra charge.
The only things I wished I’d known were:
to take conditioner, request better pillows - both kinder/mountain resorts have had two single duvets on a double bed. Not sure why that’s a thing? But really thin pillows. They do have a pillow menu we just forgot to utilise!
Also take slippers. They give flip flops {on request} & robes, cute kids ponchos but no slippers.
The dress code is pretty relaxed, jumpers, jeans, ski wear, spa dressing gowns to walk to the pools.
Some people ate in gowns, some got really dressed up for dinner.
Children rule the roost. If you’re without kids I’d go to an adults only spa Dolomites resort instead.

Our favourite parts of the resort

The children’s play spaces. Out of this world. My son felt like all of his dreams had come true with the mud room, literally a glass room in the basement where you can play with diggers, mud & pump water. Overalls & wellies are provided as are towels!
The Hay Room was my daughter’s favourite, a beautiful barn with a huge area full of hay to play in or jump down into, climbing walls, a huge slide, dressing up areas, mini ride ons, a trampoline, soft play blocks, wooden open ended toys, swings, you name it. Closely followed by the newly opened Ninja parkour action room which was a lot of fun for us all. They had an amazing interactive trampoline with a camera/sensors to play games on. As a parent I also appreciated the comfy sofas everywhere in these play spaces!
Even in reception there was a play space for when you’re checking in & it had the most beautiful wooden Montessori toys, drawing and huge Lego blocks to build with.
I haven’t even mentioned the swimming yet! The incredible outdoor pool that you swim through to from inside, pretty spectacular when it’s snowy and all steamy from the heated pool hitting the cold air. Then there are indoor pools, water slides big & small, a baby pool, an action pool and an indoor pool. There are plenty of floats and arm bands to borrow. We loved the family spa areas with a family sauna & steam room at more child friendly temperatures.
Or the art studio or the outdoor play or the sledging fun with a magic carpet for bringing you back up the hill or the kids playrooms/baby rooms that are open at all hours.
Don’t miss the adults only spa set on three floors with a rooftop open air ice plunge pool but do be aware that traditional Finnish style saunas and steam rooms are nude!

The Room

we had a family amethyst room which consisted of a {room tour video on my stories} large bedroom/living area with a walk in cubby bit perfect for hanging all of our snow gear. A big bathroom - no bath though - and a separate bedroom for the kids with cute wooden bunk beds. I could not stop staring out of the balcony at the hotel pool, snowy trees and vistas over the village and beyond to the mountains.

The Local Area

the hotel is set in a valley in South Tyrol, its Italian but right on the border with Austria. It used to be part of Germany so both German & Italian are used here. Surrounded by mountains with a river running through, it’s such a stunning place. There’s a small village you can walk to, mountain trails right outside the door & the local bus stops right outside the hotel lobby which you can use for free with the hotel cards they can set you up with.
When the hotel is that dreamy, it’s hard to leave! But equally from your room you’re staring at the beautiful mountains and it would be a shame not to explore. We didn’t stray too far afield but did take the free shuttle to Ladurns cable car/ski area which is just 5 minutes down the road for a 6km toboggan run which was incredible. The cable car cost €33 for both of us, kids under 8 are free. We borrowed the hotel’s toboggans and helmets for the kids - under 18s must wear them. We were all so wide eyed riding the cable car above the snow.
We also hiked up the trail from just outside the hotel’s grounds to Allriss, an impressive alpine restaurant at the top of a mountain right next to the hotel one day whilst the kids were in club. It was an hour up to walk dragging our toboggans, with stunning views the whole way and then we sledged back down!
You won’t want to miss the 15 minute very scenic walk to the sweet Feuerstein farm. You can borrow buggies from the hotel or use sledges like we did to transport the kids!
You could go 20 minutes to Vipiteno Stirzing on the bus, an alpine town which looked lovely in photos. And from there you can get to the Rosskopf cable car and ski resort with Italy’s longest 10km toboggan track.

The Food

The board is called luxury full board which covers basically everything except drinks.

There’s a wonderful breakfast buffet {7.30-11am}. Think Italian pastries, meats, cheeses, an egg station, pancakes, local apple sauce, freshly baked breads of all kinds, lots of fruit, freshly squeezed orange juice, a juicer with crates of produce, all kinds of nuts, seeds, oats, puffed quinoa, spelt, bee pollen, yogurts of all kinds, a make your own tea station with herbs, pistachio cream, fresh honey, its extensive. Coffee/babyccinos etc are included at breakfast. You can also go back if you or your kids have eaten early but then get peckish again later on.
Lunch {12.30-4pm} is a huge buffet that changes everyday full of salads, bread, sandwiches, cold meat, a couple of freshly made pasta dishes, a main dish, fruit and allll the dessert you could ever dream of. Again, you can go back to this if you need a snack later on- great for when my daughter suddenly wanted a second bowl of pasta! The activities and fun will make you hungry.
Dinner {from 6.30pm} is a 5 course affair. There’s an impressive buffet again plus a fine dining a la carte tasting menu that changes each evening with two or three choices plus an alternative menu too. All the food was incredible, they encourage you to order more to try if you like. And an ice cream bit my children adored!
The room service for hungry children was fab on our first night when they were shattered. Included. And you can ask for milk whenever you need it.
There are huge stacks of towelling bibs for whenever you need, endless children’s Lego cutlery, a microwave, daily changing purees & a kids station at each buffet plus an a la carte menu for them. There are baby high chairs for them to be at a table with you & toddler high chairs.

Top tip // email the hotel a week or so before your stay and ask for the activity schedule to reserve your spots. You can use room number 0 if it’s before check in.

You can find more about the resort on their website here and my discount code REBECCA5 will give you an extra 5% off including on already discounted rates for stays up until April 2026.

** I received a press discount for our stay in exchange for sharing on my socials but not in exchange for this blog post.

As ever, I’ve shared more over on my Instagram. There are these posts/reels:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFGLJfCuo-y/?igsh=cm5kc3B5YXY1Njhs

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFHng-vOkVv/?igsh=MXNjN2p1c3RqbmczMw==

https://www.instagram.com/p/DFI52N8uqXa/?igsh=M2dpNmZxM2hycHhq

https://www.instagram.com/p/DFLh0IfuoRr/?igsh=MTNxampjY2VkeHRn

plus this story highlight https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODkyMzEwOTIwMTU3MjE3?story_media_id=3551145185938288065&igsh=MTJ6bHhuMDZkd2p5eA== if you’d like to see more.