{"id":12037,"date":"2016-06-09T09:08:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T07:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=12037"},"modified":"2016-08-30T17:13:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T15:13:21","slug":"stanglwirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/eu\/stanglwirt\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanglwirt: from Stables to Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Balthasar Hauser<\/strong> started asking neighbouring farmers for their discarded wood back in the 1970s, people thought he was crazy. While they were constructing in cement and glass, Hauser spoke of soul<\/em> while expanding the farm, tavern and rooms he’d inherited from his mother. 50 years later, guests of his five-star eco-resort agree that he is a visionary, and a large part of this comes from the feeling you get when you’re inside a hotel room that does, indeed, have soul.<\/p>\n

\"Pastures,
Pastures, tennis courts, and the new expansion of Stanglwirt, with the Kaiser mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stanglwirt<\/strong><\/a> has expanded to 171 rooms, 5000 square meters of spa, 14 tennis courts, stables, and more, but it’s still a family-run hotel (in the 11th generation) that pays more attention to the environment and to genius loci<\/em> than to the bottom line. I chose to spend the week of my 40th birthday at this hotel in the Austrian mountains, not far from Innsbruck, alternating daily tennis workshops with relaxing afternoons in the spa. Apparently I have returned looking younger!<\/p>\n

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To the casual, first-time visitor, Stanglwirt may seem like a great mountain hotel, with its traditional style in pine wood, and all the services you’d expect from a five star. But when you sit down for a welcome drink in the library and get talking to other guests, you quickly learn that this place has something special that keeps people coming back. We met some youngsters in their 70s and 80s who had been coming annually for 25-30 years!<\/p>\n

Stanglwirt calls itself a bio-hotel, which doesn’t mean everything is organic, but there is careful attention to natural resources, especially to the on-site spring. But what I think is most interesting is how the hotel actually grew up<\/em> organically.<\/strong> Every room, feature and activity has been developed after much thought, based on demand or philosophy, not on the advice of some marketing experts. And you feel the difference.<\/p>\n

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A photo posted by Alexandra Korey (@arttrav)<\/a> on