Alpenhotel Montafon

The Alpenhotel Montafon is at Silvrettastraße 175, in Schruns, in the hamlet of Gamplaschg, at the mouth of the Montafon valley, in Vorarlberg, at around seven hundred metres of altitude. It is a four-star superior hotel open all year round, with the Silvretta Montafon a ski-bus ride away in winter and the valley's paths in summer. Rooms and suites are in modern country style and the family suites take in larger groups too.

The alpenSPA, reserved from the age of 16

The point that matters is written explicitly, and repeated on several pages of the website: the alpenSPA of three thousand two hundred square metres is adults only, accessible from the age of 16 upwards. The cut is that of a complete spa, not of a simple sauna corner. There is an indoor pool with a zone from which you swim out into the open, with an infinity effect and a view of the mountains; there is a generous terrace with loungers and two large open-air whirlpools; there are wide rest rooms full of light.

In the heat circuit there are a bio sauna and two Finnish saunas, a saline steam bath kept between eighty and one hundred per cent humidity, designed for the airways, and a sanarium, that is, a low-temperature sauna between fifty and sixty degrees with humidity between forty and fifty per cent. Added to these are the infrared sauna and an infrared grotto with a salt stone wall, the sensory showers and the SnowMotion, a snow room with permanent snowfall that serves for cooling down after the sauna or on hot summer days. At the entrance the hotel hands over a bag with a bathrobe and a sauna towel and asks guests to bring their own slippers, because it has decided to do without disposable ones.

The part for families

The rest of the house is not closed to children, quite the opposite. The property writes that children and teenagers find their space in the Montis Erlebniswelt, the play area, and that the outdoor pool is for young and old. The treatments too can be booked for the young guests. Anyone who wants still more privacy can book the privateSPA, with a private Finnish sauna and a rose bath for two.

Practical matters

The gym has cardio and strength equipment, and next to it there is a room for classes. Those not staying at the hotel can enter the alpenSPA with the daySPA formula, again from the age of sixteen. Dogs are allowed in every room category, with a daily surcharge, and may be in the room, in the hall and on the terrace, but not in the restaurant or on the lounger meadow. The hotel has an underground garage and a heated ski room.

It works for anyone arriving with the family who still wants a real, silent spa, and for anyone looking in the Montafon for a large house with quiet rooms. It works less well for anyone expecting to take their children into the sauna: here the threshold of sixteen has no declared exceptions.