Hotel MASL

Hotel Masl sits at the entrance to Valles, a quiet mountain village above the Val Pusteria in South Tyrol, where the Messner family has been hosting guests for four generations and the building itself dates back to 1680. It reads as an alpine hotel rather than a purpose-built resort, and the details show it: seven pram-friendly elevators, a private chapel, an underground garage with a reserved space for every room, and a working farm on the land above. Accommodation runs from double rooms up to genuinely generous family formats, including the 70 square meter Family Suite Chalet and Family Suite Alpina (the latter with a kitchenette) and the 80 square meter Suite Paradiso, all sleeping up to six across separate sleeping areas. Larger families used to hunting for the one room that fits everyone will find several options here instead of one. For a mountain family vacation that works in both seasons, the position is hard to improve on: the practice lift stands directly beside the hotel and the Tasa lift carries you into the Gitschberg Jochtal circuit, making this a true ski-in, ski-out address, while in summer the same slopes turn into hiking and mountain-biking country.

The clearest sign that Masl understands parents is the decision to run two entirely separate wellness worlds. The Family Spa has a 33 degree pool with indoor and outdoor sections, a 15 meter wave slide, a separate 34 degree toddler pool with a ball pit and its own small slide, and three swimsuit-friendly saunas. The adults-only Wellness and Spa, open to guests 14 and over, keeps a 20 by 8 meter outdoor pool, a full sauna world and a Technogym fitness studio completely free of splashing, and both are included in the rate. The indoor pool means the weather never decides the day. Outside, Toni's world spans 2,500 square meters of natural playground, a children's ropeway, a pedal-car course and a petting zoo with ponies, goats, dwarf sheep and miniature cows, with a weekly walk up to the real working farm. Indoors there is a 70 square meter playroom for younger children and a separate teen lounge with a PlayStation and table football. Dinner is a five-course menu served from 18.30, early enough to work around a small child's bedtime, and children's menus, cots, high chairs, baby monitors, kettles and prepared baby food are all standard. There is no supervised childcare or kids club, which is worth knowing in advance: among family hotels in Italy, Masl is a clear example of the hotel that gives parents space by design rather than by taking the children off their hands.