Aspen Alpine Lifestyle Hotel

The Aspen Alpine Lifestyle Hotel is at Aspen 1, in Grindelwald, in the Bernese Oberland, and the Booking page describes it in Swiss chalet style, close to the walking paths and to the slopes of the Kleine Scheidegg and Männlichen area, with the rooms facing the Eiger or the Wetterhorn.

Children are allowed in the hotel, and the house sells rooms specifically for them: among the categories on the website there are the Familienzimmer for up to three, four and five people, as well as the suites with two or three bedrooms. The wellness area, however, is reserved in its entirety, and this is the reason the house appears in this catalogue.

The rule is in the Spa-Etikette on the website, under the heading of quiet and rest: "Kinder unter 14 Jahren haben keinen Zutritt zum SPA-Bereich. (inkl. Whirlpool)". The wellness page repeats it, in English, at the end of the list of facilities, and the conditions of the packages take it up again. There are no time bands open to the youngest and there is no second area for families: the exclusivity is not interrupted, and the reserved area contains the whole wellness offering of the house.

The Aspen Spa measures three hundred square metres and is reached in a bathrobe from all the rooms. Inside, the property lists the old-wood sauna with scented water on the stones at ninety degrees, the herbal steam bath with automatic bursts at sixty-five degrees and sixty per cent humidity, the salt steam bath with adjustable brine release at forty-five degrees and one hundred per cent humidity, the foot massage basin, the outdoor whirlpool at thirty-six and thirty-seven degrees with a bed of air bubbles and massage jets, with a view of the north face of the Eiger and with the entrance from indoors, the rest lounge, the water beds and the loungers, the ice fountain, the experience showers, the tea and vitamin bar and the massage room. In winter the house states that the outdoor whirlpool is directly on the slopes.

The rule on swimwear is stated and applies to the sauna area: "Unser Saunabereich ist aus hygienischen Gründen eine textilfreie Zone", that is, you go in without swimwear, with the obligation to use a towel while seated so that the sweat does not reach the benches. In the steam bath cabin, the house adds, the towel is not needed, and before and after you clean the seat with the water hose. Bathrobe and slippers are in the room, the sauna towels in the area itself. Again in the rules, the house asks guests to do without the telephone and loud conversation, because the whole conception of the area is meant for those looking for quiet.

Note that the two sources do not say the same thing about the threshold. The website writes "Kinder unter 14 Jahren", so from the age of fourteen you can go in; the Booking page writes, in the important information, that "Children aged 14 or under are not allowed in the wellness centre with outdoor whirlpool", which would move the threshold to fifteen. On this page the property's website prevails, because it is the primary source: fourteen years.

Outside the wellness area the house has the restaurant with the Alpstube, the bar, the lobby, the terrace and a food truck, and it publishes the restaurant's hours, from Monday to Friday from 15 to 22 and on Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 22.

Booking, used here as the fallback source and read twice with and without a child in the search and with real dates, confirms the address Aspen 1 in 3818 Grindelwald, rates the house four stars, states that children of all ages are welcome and that from the age of eighteen the adult rate is charged, and writes that pets are not allowed. In both readings the block of highlighted facilities names the spa and the wellness centre, the restaurant, the bar, the private parking, the rooms for disabled guests and the free connection, and in neither does the wording "Adults only" appear.