Forestis Dolomites

An adults-only 5-star in Palmschoß (Plancios in Italian), a hamlet of Brixen/Bressanone: at 1,800 metres on the south slope of the Plose, facing the Odle peaks and bordering the Puez-Odle Nature Park. It has 62 suites and a 2,000 m² spa, according to the hotel’s press kit dated 1 September 2026; it is a Small Luxury Hotels partner and the MICHELIN Guide gives it 2 Keys.

The story begins in 1912, when the Habsburg monarchy commissioned the architect Otto Wagner to build a sanatorium that the war left unfinished; clergy stayed in the house of wood and stone until the 1950s. Alois Hinteregger came across it in 2000 and made it a hotel, opened in 2009 according to the history page and in 2010 according to the press kit, and remembered by Tripadvisor as Hotel Rosalpina Dolomites. His son Stefan and daughter-in-law Teresa reopened it as Forestis on 20 July 2020.

The altitude the hotel states is 1,800 metres. Its own description on Tripadvisor says 1,770, and the European elevation model EU-DEM gives about 1,750 metres at the building.

4 types, each for 2 people, on the official suites page: the Room of 35 m², the Suite of 50 m², the Tower Suite of 55 m² and the 2-storey Penthouse of 200 m². All face south, towards the Dolomites; the bed is a king-size box-spring and the taps run with the hotel’s own spring water.

The differences matter. The Room and the Suite have no air conditioning and a shower only; the Tower Suite has air conditioning, the full-height window, a tiled stove, a bath and a terrace; the Penthouse adds an open fire and, upstairs, a private pool and sauna. In March 2025 one guest wrote of paying €36,505 for 5 nights in a Penthouse.

The press kit counts 20 suites in the historic house, 40 Tower Suites and 2 Penthouses, 62 in all, and never mentions the Room, which the website does present; it gives the historic suites “one or two bedrooms”, the website one. Apart from these there is the Villa, booked as a whole: 1,200 m², 5 bedrooms, up to 10 guests.

At Palmschoß 22, 39042 Brixen: a few houses in the forest on the south slope of the Plose, above Afers. The contact page calls the location secluded, in the midst of the forest; the last stretch of road is reserved for guests, the press kit says.

Silence is what guests mention most, along with the view. There is no village round the hotel for an evening stroll: shops and other restaurants mean driving down to Brixen. Google Hotels scores the area 4.2 out of 5 for things to do and 2.5 for public transport.

From the hotel to Brixen railway station is 18.1 km and 29 minutes by car, to the cathedral 18.2 km and 30 minutes, both computed on 8 October 2026 on OpenStreetMap’s roads. A second router, more cautious on the bends, makes it 44 minutes; the hotel estimates 20 minutes in its shuttle.

The airports, by the same method: Bolzano at 65 km and 1 hour 10 minutes, Innsbruck at 101 km and 1 hour 42 minutes, Verona at 207 km and 2 hours 33 minutes. The hotel’s “Contact & Arrival” page gives 50, 90 and 195 km instead, then Munich at 260, Bergamo at 306, Venice at 326 and Milan Malpensa at 377; the transfer list on the same site gives 108 km for Innsbruck, 207 for Verona and 300 for Munich.

Booking.com says the hotel is 3.7 miles from the centre of Brixen: that is the 6 km as the crow flies. By road it is 18 km.

Yes. The official page describes a forest path from the ski room to the piste and to the chairlift’s valley station, and a trail from the piste back to the ski-room door. On OpenStreetMap the Palmschoß chairlift is 317 metres away, a 4-minute walk; one guest in January 2025 speaks of 30 seconds to the piste, another of 5 minutes downhill in ski boots, or the shuttle.

The Plose has 45 km of pistes by the hotel’s count and “more than 40” by the lift company’s, which on 8 October 2026 listed 19 runs and 7 lifts, with the 2 summits at about 2,500 metres. The Trametsch is 6 km long, or 9 km with 1,450 metres of descent from the summit. Ski passes are sold at the hotel and equipment is reserved before you arrive, an article on its site explains.

Last winter the lifts closed on 6 April 2026; the opening day of the 2026/27 season was not printed on the pages read. For other ski areas, the Sellaronda, Alpe di Siusi and Kronplatz are each roughly an hour’s drive.

Yes, and it is free: a garage for all guests, with charging points, according to the hotel’s FAQ. You leave the car in front of the historic house and a member of staff takes it to the carport, the press kit says.

The MICHELIN Guide’s listing shows “free parking” and “self service parking (charges apply)” side by side: the official site speaks only of a free garage.

No: Forestis is a mountain hotel, and the sea is far off: Venice airport, on the Adriatic, is 326 km away by the hotel’s count. The water here is in the spa’s 2 pools, filled from the Plose spring, and in the private pools of the Penthouses and the Villa.

For a lake there is the outing the hotel suggests in summer to the Pragser Wildsee (Lake Braies), where wooden boats are hired out.

There are 2, joined together: the indoor one of 20 metres by 4.3 and the outdoor one of 22 by 5, according to the press kit. They are stone pools filled with Plose spring water, the spa page says, and they look at the Dolomites.

Google Hotels and Booking.com also list a hot tub: the official sources name none. Each Penthouse has its own rooftop pool, and the Villa an indoor-outdoor one.

Guests describe it as heated: “warm in winter and in summer”, one writes in June 2026, and in 2023 another found it, if anything, a touch too warm. No temperature is published; the website does say the Villa’s pool is heated.

Opening hours are not on the pages read. The treatment list does sell the pool and the whole sauna area for exclusive use from 9.30 pm to 11.30 pm, so at that hour they may be closed to other guests.

The restaurant below the historic house serves breakfast and dinner: in the evening the Forestis menu and the Detox menu, 7 courses each, or à la carte. The Garden Restaurant, inside the historic house with a large terrace, changes its menu with the season and admits dogs. The bar, with its lounge and fireplaces, is in the same building.

YERA is the restaurant in the forest, open to non-residents as well: Tuesday to Saturday from 6 pm to 11 pm, €650 a person with all drinks, guests of 14 and over. There is also the wine cellar, with a table for 10 for tastings and private dinners, and the Tea Lounge in the spa, which serves light snacks.

The kitchen is Roland Lamprecht’s. Born in Brixen, he calls it forest cuisine: mushrooms, berries, herbs and bark, produce from neighbouring farmers, bread baked in the house. The hotel restaurants’ opening hours are not published.

That depends on the rate: the site’s request form offers breakfast or half board. On 7 October 2026 the official-site rate that Google Hotels showed was the one with breakfast. Half board, guests say, means the 7-course dinner.

Booking.com writes that dinner and afternoon snacks “are also included”: true of a half-board booking. Breakfast brought to the room cost €20 in July 2024, according to one guest.

It covers 2,000 m² on 2 floors beneath the 3 towers, according to the press kit, whose first line says “almost 2,000”. On the ground floor are the 2 pools, the brine steam bath at 65°C, the Finnish sauna at 85, the bio sauna at 70, the textile sauna at 45 and the outdoor sauna at 90, plus the Silent Room and the Tea Lounge.

On the first floor: 4 treatment rooms, 4 private spas for couples, 2 beauty rooms, the Technogym gym, open all day, and the room for Wyda, the “yoga of the Celts” the hotel teaches. One page of the site speaks of 7 saunas; the press kit lists 4, plus the steam bath.

Outside guests cannot: the spa is exclusively for hotel guests, the FAQ answers. There is no day pass.

For anyone staying at Forestis the pools and saunas carry no price: the list charges for treatments and private spaces. Guests write of free access every day. Guests of ODLES LODGE, the same owners’ 4 chalets a few kilometres higher up, may book treatments.

The hours are not published on the site. Each treatment begins with a conversation with the therapist, the spa page explains.

The saunas have an Aufguss daily; the forest sauna can be reserved for a private 20-minute Aufguss at €120.

All follow the “tree circle”: mountain pine, spruce, larch and Swiss stone pine, each with its wood, its stone and its sound. From the official list: an individual body treatment, €180 for 60 minutes and €240 for 90; Healing wood or Healing stone, €260 for 90 minutes; the forest salt bath, €120; a facial from €200, a Hydrafacial from €280.

The long rituals: the tree circle ceremony, 180 minutes, €580; the Private Couple Ritual, 180 minutes for 2 in a private spa, €820; the private spa on your own for 2 hours, €480. The products are the Forestis line, made in the Sarntal valley. Another page of the site gives the ceremony 110 minutes; the list, 180.

No, except in one: guests describe a swimwear-free sauna area, as is usual in South Tyrol, and the press kit does set a “textile sauna” at 45°C apart from the rest. In the pool and on the loungers swimwear stays on, a guest wrote in October 2023.

On phones the site lays down a rule only at YERA, where they are left at the entrance. The hotel is non-smoking: smoking is confined to the terraces and the garden.

Only from the age of 14: guests of that age and over are welcome, the FAQ says, and the same limit applies at YERA.

Booking.com lists “children not allowed” and Google Hotels “guests aged 14 and over”. The official pages mention no kids’ club, children’s menu or children’s pool.

Yes, one per room, at €50 a night without food, if you say so when booking, according to the FAQ; on request a dog bed and bowl are put in the suite, and the kitchen will cook the dog’s meals for a fee.

Dogs are kept out of the pool and lounger areas and the main restaurant: in the evening you dine with yours in a set-aside room, and the Garden Restaurant, the garden and the terrace welcome them. YERA does not admit pets.

A broad lawn in front of the buildings, the ski room, a shop that also sells skiwear, the wine cellar and the show kitchen used for cookery classes. Backpacks, poles and snowshoes are lent free; mountain bikes and e-bikes are hired at the Plose top station, the FAQ says.

The hotel has its own hiking guide, for sunrise walks and snowshoe outings too, and holds Wyda outdoors when the weather allows. Wi-Fi is free, according to Google Hotels; the main cards are accepted, cheques are refused.

The site has no offers page: you request a suite with breakfast or half board, and you can buy gift vouchers. The one package still online is the Opening Special from the opening in July 2020: 3 nights in a Tower Suite with breakfast, a 7-course dinner and daily Wyda, at €744 a person instead of €930. It is a page from that summer and says nothing of today’s rates.

Booking takes a 30% deposit. Cancelling costs 50% from 29 to 11 days before arrival and 100% in the last 10; the site recommends insurance.

The site has neither a weddings page nor an events price list. What it does publish: the Villa is taken as a whole, for up to 10 guests, and has a room for private celebrations in its stone cellar; the hotel’s wine cellar has a table for 10 for private dinners; and one page is given over to honeymoons.

What guests write about is mostly proposals and anniversaries: in February and April 2026, 2 of them thank the staff for arranging the proposal, one with a photographer. Any party has to reckon with the age limit of 14, which applies to everyone.

Yes, 31 December is a themed evening: for the night of 31 December 2025 the hotel announced “Forest of Lights”, in deep blue and gold, with no dress code. The menu and the price were not published.

For 31 December 2026 the Google Hotels calendar, read on 7 October 2026, showed no price from 28 December to 3 January; the nights of 27 December and 4 January were €1,400 for 2.

No: golf does not appear on the official pages. The sport here is the mountain, as the hotel’s page on movement lists it: skiing, ski touring to the Gabler, snowshoeing, guided hikes and, on the Plose, 4 mountain-bike lines.

The site publishes no closing periods. The Google Hotels calendar, read on 7 October 2026, priced 107 of the 116 nights from 8 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, every night of November among them; the ones without a price were 9 and 17 October and the 7 nights from 28 December to 3 January.

Google reviews carry dates from every month of the year, and one guest recalls a stay in early May. What changes is what runs around the hotel: in summer the Plose lifts operate from 23 May to 1 November 2026, and the last ski season ended on 6 April.

Google Hotels, read on 7 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night: €1,100 on 8 October 2026, €1,400 on Saturday 24 October, €750 on 18 November, €1,000 on 8 December, €1,400 on 24 December, €850 on 13 January 2027 and €1,250 on 31 January.

The calendar shows the day’s lowest rate and does not say for which room. For 8 October it was the official site’s, with breakfast, and its link stated tax of zero: the card does not show whether VAT and the tourist tax, €3.60 a person a night, are already inside the figure.

107 nights out of 116 had a price, from €750 (18, 23 and 24 November) to €1,400: 24 October, 23 to 27 December, and 4 and 5 January. November was the cheapest month, and the 7 nights from 28 December to 3 January showed no price at all.

The tourist tax of the municipality of Brixen is €3.60 a person a night, according to the FAQ. For 8 October 2026 the official site’s link on the Google Hotels card carried a total of €1,100 and tax of zero, on the breakfast rate; on the same card Booking.com and Agoda showed €1,217, and their links a total of €1,217.19 of which €117.19 was tax.

The card does not show whether the official site’s €1,100 already includes VAT and the tourist tax. The gap to Booking.com equals 10% of €1,100 plus €7.19, almost exactly the tourist tax for 2 people for one night. The published extras: €50 a night for a dog and €110 a person to keep the suite until evening.

On 7 October 2026 Google gave 4.8/5 from 846 ratings, 93% of them 5 stars; Tripadvisor 4.8/5 from 567, fourth of Brixen’s 35 hotels, with location at 4.9, rooms at 4.7 and value at 4.5; Booking.com 9.7/10 from 395, with comfort at 9.9 and value for money at 9.1.

The view of the Odle, the silence, the breakfast and the spa come up again and again. Before booking it helps to know that the rooms in the historic house are plainer than the towers and have no air conditioning, and that in the restaurant you keep the same table throughout your stay. Some write that 2 or 3 nights are enough.

Check-in is from 3 pm and check-out by 11 am, according to the FAQ. Anyone leaving later without keeping the suite may use the lockers in the changing room; keeping the suite and the hotel’s spaces until evening, when available, carries a supplement per person.