Das Kaltenbach - Naturhotel im Zillertal

Das Kaltenbach is in Kaltenbach, in the Zillertal, not on the valley floor but higher up, on a plateau facing the Tyrolean mountains and leaning on the Jungwald, the young wood that gives the spa its name. The architecture takes after that of a mountain village, with local materials, and the design revolves around a wellness terrace on the roof.

Two wellness areas, and that is the thing to grasp first of all

This is not a property closed to children: it receives families and reserves a precise part of its wellness for adults. On a separate level there is the adults-only sauna area, open from the age of sixteen upwards. On the other side, next to the pool, there is the Sky Sauna, a textile sauna in Swiss pine at sixty-five degrees accessible to everyone, children included, with three levels of benches, a steam infusion every quarter of an hour and panoramic windows onto the peaks. Anyone looking for silence knows where to go, anyone travelling with children is not left out.

What there is in the area reserved for adults

Four saunas: the Finnish Almsauna in reclaimed wood, the bio sauna with fresh herbs and the steam grotto, which is the house's steam bath. Then the infrared cabin in local Swiss pine, the rain shower with the Kneipp zone, the relaxation area with a lounge corner, an outdoor level for the swimwear-free sauna facing the meadow, and a tea bar with herbal teas, spring water and fresh fruit. The hours run from fifteen to twenty-one; in summer, on hot days, it opens at sixteen.

The pool

The WaldSPA pool, six hundred square metres on the roof, is indoor and outdoor at once: thirteen metres of water kept at thirty-two degrees twelve months a year, from seven in the morning to twenty-one. You swim even in January with the snow falling, and that is exactly why a heated pool in the mountains is worth the journey. Around it there are relaxation rooms with a fireplace, a suspended lounge and a natural garden of five thousand square metres. A panoramic gym, yoga and massages by a physiotherapist complete the picture. The whole spa is reserved for hotel guests: no day entries from outside.