Alpenpark Resort Superior

The Alpenpark Resort is in Speckbacherstrasse, in Seefeld in Tirol, on the sunny plateau that takes the village's name, at 1,180 metres of altitude. The house presents itself at the same time as a family hotel, a wellness house, a dining address and an active resort, and it welcomes families in earnest: a club for the children, a dining room of their own, supervision during dinner, equipment for babies, a menu for the little ones and a family spa. The threshold does exist, though, and it is unusually high: the adult spa, around 750 square metres, is reserved for those who have turned 18. Not 12, not 16: eighteen. That is the number to keep in mind, because it is stricter than the Austrian average and it also shuts out teenagers.

Inside the adult spa there is a panorama sauna looking out over the Tyrolean Alps, a sauna in mountain-hut style, the Finnish sauna and a steam bath. The most unusual piece is a saline inhalation refuge of four metres by three, with the water at 33 degrees, flanked by a second saline pool. For resting there are a panorama area, a zone with water beds, infrared loungers, the Four-Senses-Lounge and the Plauderstube, the room where talking is allowed instead. The turbo solariums are paid for separately, with tokens collected at reception.

The house puts the rule about swimwear in writing on its sauna page, and it is the detail the portals do not report: in Austria saunas are swimwear-free zones, sweating in a swimsuit is considered unhygienic, and anyone who does not feel like undressing completely wraps a large bath or sauna towel around the hips or the body. You wash before every round, and you do not enter the cabins in slippers. Every day there are aroma infusions and peelings, with the times published in the activity programme and in the hotel's app.

The pools, on the other hand, stay open to everyone. The outdoor sports pool measures 25 metres by 12.5, is 1.38 deep and is heated to 28 degrees all year round: in summer it opens from about 12.00 to 19.00, in winter from 16.30 to 18.00. The indoor pool, around 16 metres by 3.5, has the same temperature and is available every day from 7.30 to 19.30. In the family spa there is a large whirlpool with many jets.

The room price includes entry to the adult spa and the sauna world, the bathrobes and the towels in the wellness basket, the gym with its cardio and weights area, the wifi, the library and a guest kitchen with washing machine and dryer. In summer the garden playground, volleyball, the sandpit and bicycle hire are added; in winter the heated ski room. Half board means breakfast from 8.00 to 10.30, a sweet break from 13.30 to 15.30 and a four-course menu from 18.00 to 20.00, with the children's dinner at 18.00 in their own restaurant.

Dogs may be brought by prior arrangement, at 12 euros a day excluding food, but they do not enter the dining room, the indoor and outdoor pool areas, the saunas, the lawn and the garden, the beauty oasis and the children's world.

It suits the couple who want the certainty of not crossing paths with even a teenager in the quiet area, and anyone with no problem about swimwear-free saunas. It suits less those travelling with sixteen- or seventeen-year-olds hoping to take them into the sauna, or anyone looking for a hotel that is adults only throughout.