Sonus Alpis

The Sonus Alpis is in the San Valentino locality, a cluster of houses above Siusi allo Sciliar in the municipality of Castelrotto, in the province of Bolzano. The exact address is Loc. S. Valentino 12/1, and the landscape you look at from the terraces is that of the Alpe di Siusi and the walls of the Sciliar. It is a family-run four-star hotel with a declared signature, music: the rooms and apartments take their names from the birds of the area, the furnishings are in resonance spruce from the Alpe di Siusi, and in the house there are a music library, a lounge bar with a panoramic window, a fireplace and a grand piano, a soundproofed rehearsal room for anyone travelling with their instrument and a calendar of musical events at the hotel.

The accommodation ranges from the double room to the superior apartment, with a balcony and daily cleaning in the apartments too. Some units in the Cuculus double room, Deluxe Apart Room Merula and Junior Suite Turdus categories are free of architectural barriers. All the rooms are non-smoking.

The wellness side is the reason many choose this house. There is a single pool, outdoors, 11 metres long and 4.5 wide, and it is heated all year round: 33 degrees in winter, 29 in summer, with a garden and loungers around it. It is open from 8 to 20.30 in summer and from 14 to 20.30 in winter. The sauna world includes a panorama sauna in Swiss pine, a Finnish sauna, a bio sauna and a steam bath, with a relaxation room facing the peaks and a spa set with towels, bathrobe and slippers included in the stay; the sauna hours are 14.00-20.30 in winter and 15.00-20.30 in summer. A fitted fitness room, massages and a paid day spa offer complete the picture. No indoor pool is on record, and the property declares no whirlpool.

On the minimum age the two sources do not say the same thing, and it is worth knowing before booking. The official website, on its prices and information page, writes in those words that the Sonus Alpis is an adults-only hotel from the age of 16. The booking portal, by contrast, gives 18. This entry keeps the portal's figure, because on age the editorial rule is to follow the portal until the property confirms in writing: so above you read 18, and it is the prudent number. Anyone travelling with a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old does, though, have a statement from the hotel's own website to lean on, and does well to ask reception for written confirmation before confirming. Either way, it is not a house for children. Dogs are allowed only on request, for a charge, in certain rooms and judged case by case according to availability; they may not go into the spa, the dining room and the outdoor pool. The bill may be settled in cash up to 1,999.99 euros or by debit card, Visa and Mastercard, and the tourist tax of 3.50 euros per person is counted separately.

Among the included services there are breakfast with regional produce served until 11, wifi throughout the hotel, parking partly covered with assigned spaces, a locked store for skis and bicycles with a heatable boot dryer, the Seiser Alm Live holiday area guest card and reductions on the green fee at the Golf Club St. Vigil Seis. Dinner is à la carte at the Saporis restaurant.

It suits anyone who wants altitude, silence and a warm pool usable even in January, and anyone who really listens to or plays music. It suits less anyone looking for a large spa with many-sided water and steam circuits: here the wellness area is small and there is one pool only, outdoors.