Alpinhotel Jesacherhof

The Alpinhotel Jesacherhof is at Ausserrotte 37, in St. Jakob in Defereggen, in the Defereggental in East Tyrol: the website's impressum writes Hotel Jesacherhof GmbH, Ausserrotte 37, AT-9963 St Jakob / Defereggen, Österreich, with Birgit and Christian Jesacher as representatives, and Booking reports the same address in the form Ausserrotte 37, 9963 Sankt Jakob in Defereggen. The house presents itself as a four-star hotel, and Booking lists it as Hotel Jesacherhof 4s with four stars.

Children are admitted, and the house also presents itself as a family hotel: the website calls it a Kinderhotel bei Lienz, has a Familienhotel page and declares childcare for children from four to twelve, Monday to Friday, in summer from 9.30 to 17.30 and in winter from 13.30 to 21. Booking, in its Child policies block, read twice, with a five-year-old in the search and with group_children=0, states in both readings that children of all ages are welcome and that no minimum age is required for check-in, with a free cot on request from zero to five and no extra bed available. In neither reading does an Adults only mark appear. Pets are allowed on request, with a possible surcharge.

The division is a clean one, because the house writes it on two separate pages. The page Adults only im Spa Alpin says: "Der Spa Alpin ist unseren Gästen ab 16 Jahren vorbehalten. Jüngere Gäste sind in unserem Familienwellnessbereich herzlich willkommen". The Familienwellness page repeats it from the other side: "Bitte haben Sie Verständnis, dass das Saunareich unseren Gästen ab 16 Jahren vorbehalten ist". And the included-services page puts the measurement next to the threshold: "Adults only im Spa Alpin, 2 000 m² große Wellnessoase für Gäste ab 16 Jahren".

The Spa Alpin has three parts. The Saunareich includes the Finnish sauna at ninety degrees, the Bio-Stubensauna at fifty-five, the infrared cabin at forty-five, the saline steam bath from forty-five to fifty and the flower steam bath from forty-five to fifty-five, with heated benches, the Kneipp walking pool, the fresh-air grotto and a wellness buffet with spring water and the herbal tea station. The resting pools are the indoor pool of nine metres by three and the outdoor one of fourteen metres by six, joined together and heated all year round to thirty-two degrees, with built-in massage loungers and a view of the Tyrolean mountains, plus a raised indoor whirlpool facing the countryside. The Relaxreich runs over two floors, measures eighty square metres and has comfortable loungers, water beds and hanging loungers scented with Swiss pine, relaxation zones in the indoor pool part and a wide atrium. The website sums the wellness complex up as two thousand square metres of Saunareich, Wasserparadies and resting zones; the house publishes no rule on swimwear, neither on the page for the reserved area nor on the one for families.

The family department is a department of its own, and the website describes it as created expressly so that parents can be with their children. The indoor pool measures six metres by eight, sits at twenty-nine degrees and is open all year round; in summer the outdoor pool in the hotel garden is added, eleven metres by eight at thirty degrees, with the large meadow for play and for the sun. For children and teenagers up to sixteen the house offers massages and beauty treatments designed for them, from the coconut oil massage to the alpine facial treatment with an ice-flower mask to the care of hand and foot nails. Booking counts three pools.

Outside the wellness area the house declares the Fitness-Lounge with cardio equipment, ergometers and strength stations, a tennis hall of its own with two granulate-on-carpet courts, the weekly programme with guided walks and summit climbs, mountain bike outings, cross-country and snowshoe excursions, and e-bikes and mountain bikes for hire on special terms at the sports partner in front of the hotel. The website also names the curative water of the Defereggental and has a page devoted to gluten-free cooking.

The table is three-quarter board: the alpine breakfast buffet with home-made jams, fruit pulp and things from the region, ham, speck and country bread, fruit, organic yoghurt, eggs and specialities of the day; the afternoon vital buffet with cakes from the house pastry kitchen, crisp bread, spreads, salads, soups and the coffee and tea bar; and in the evening a five-course gourmet menu, with the salad buffet, the starter, two soups and three main dishes to choose from plus dessert, with a vegetarian menu as an alternative; there are themed evenings every week. Among the included services the house lists free wifi throughout the hotel and a free place in the underground garage. Booking lists among the most appreciated services three pools, the spa and wellness centre, non-smoking rooms, the restaurant, the gym, room service, free parking, the bar, breakfast and a free cot on request.