Auszeit im Bad Diezlings

The Auszeit im Bad Diezlings is at Diezlinger Straße 52, in the locality of Bad Diezlings, above the village of Hörbranz, in Vorarlberg. We are in the Leiblachtal, the valley of the border river Leiblach, at a little over 430 metres above sea level and a few kilometres from Lake Constance and from Bregenz. The house is on the edge of the nature reserve, on the Königsradwanderweg cycle route, and looks out over meadows and woodland.

What the house is

It is not a mountain hotel with a spa: it is a historic Gasthof. The two buildings are constructions from 1898 under monument protection, renovated room by room. The accommodation is divided into three rooms for two people, each with a private bathroom, and two large apartments for up to four people, with an equipped kitchen. Under the same roof there are the restaurant with Austrian cooking, open at lunchtime and for an aperitif as well, and a Kursaal for a maximum of ninety people which the house hires out for seminars, workshops, dance courses, exhibitions and daytime parties, with a media package, a bar area and catering.

The minimum age, and who states it

On the age the situation is clear in one sense and silent in the other. The official website writes that the house is run as an Erwachsenen Hotel, adults only, and the booking portal confirms that children are not allowed. Neither of the two sources, however, publishes a minimum age in figures: there is no number either on the website or on the portal. Anyone travelling with an older young person therefore has to ask the property, because the information simply does not exist in written form. What is certain is that under-age guests are not admitted.

The history, which counts here

Bad Diezlings is a name with a past. The property is documented from the seventeenth century and was for a long time a place of cure thanks to the mineral and sulphurous springs. Here the writer Norbert Jacques wrote the novel Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler in twenty days. In 1926 the then owner Johannes Füssinger discovered a new mineral spring and from 1927 began bottling table water; by adding natural lemon and orange flavourings Diezano, the first fizzy drink brand in Vorarlberg, was born. After changes of ownership and a thorough renovation, the house has taken up again its function as a place of retreat and of meeting.

Services and practical rules

Outside there is a Kneipp station with a pool for walking through the water, useful after a walk or a bicycle ride, and a garden with sun loungers in the shade of the chestnut tree. For those arriving by bicycle there are lockable rooms and hire of four 29-inch Cube e-bikes, from the city and trekking models to the full suspension mountain one, with daily rates between 40 and 58 euros, a helmet at 5 euros and discounts from the third day; hire requires a photo document and has to be booked at least 24 hours in advance. Anyone setting off on an excursion of several days can leave the car on the house's land at 10 euros a day. Pets are welcome at 15 euros a night, food excluded: there are rooms and apartments expressly bookable with a dog and, with notice, the house provides a bed and bowls. The website states no sauna, pool or wellness area.

It suits anyone looking for a quiet base between Lake Constance and the Pfänder, anyone travelling by bicycle and anyone organising a seminar in a period building. It suits less anyone expecting a wellness hotel: here the wellness is the Kneipp pool and the silence of the wood.