Who needs snow when you’ve got steam?
Shane Watson discovers her ideal skiing trip – in the spa
ONE of the sure signs that you are middleaged (after discovering ‘you can’t hear yourself think’ over the music in bars) is a shift in what you mean by ‘a brilliant skiing holiday’. Even if you used to be a super-keen skier, you may be surprised to discover a realigning of priorities: you may love the holiday as much as you ever did, just no longer so much for the skiing.
These days I am still excited to touch down in an Alpine valley, but I’m less bothered about the snow conditions than whether to have a massage in the spa as soon as I get to the hotel, or ease in with a swim.
It’s not just fading stamina or laziness (always so hard to distinguish between the two) that has gradually shifted the balance away from the powder-bashing break to something more flexible. It’s the need for a bit more variety and a lot more chilling. You might turn up in peak season to find there’s no snow, so it pays to be in a place where the glamour, the food and the apres-ski pampering are a draw too.
If you’re going for the his ’n’ hers ski-and-spa holiday, you need a resort that delivers big on both fronts. For wellness you can’t beat Austria, and for skiing you can’t do much better than Solden. The resort boasts three peaks over 3,000ft and has two glaciers, which means a longer season (it starts here in September), and better odds of snow.
It also means you can’t get bored. The pistes on the glaciers are wide open and go on for ever, and if you are looking for a challenge then there are some testing black runs.
So, that’s him sorted. And that’s before any mention of the James Bond connection. Yes, those scenes in Spectre were filmed here, with Ice Q, the restaurant on top of Gaislachkogl, standing in for the clinic where Lea Seydoux’s Madeleine works.
Still, for the occasional fairweather skier like me, Solden needs a bit more than ridiculously good conditions and a famous restaurant. Fortunately, the Austrian Tyrol happens to be the heartland of wellness, and Solden, which attracts three million visitors annually, is at the apex of the wellness world.
In the centre of town, just a fourminute shuttle ride from the main lift, is Das Central. It is difficult for a 125-room, five-star hotel to be a state-of-the-art operation and charming at the same time, but Das Central has pulled it off.
Our wood-panelled bedroom was like a cosy chalet – we could have thrown a drinks party for 50 people in there. The dining room, which can feel soulless in bigger hotels, is twinkly and atmospheric at night, the waitresses look gorgeous in their dirndls, and the five-course evening menu is as good as it gets.
In the bowels of the hotel is the wellness centre, which for some reason has been decorated in Venetian style, with scarlet velvet curtains, silk-tented ceilings, and a pool ‘inspired by’ the Grand Canal, complete with a fixed black gondola and striped mooring poles. Venetian masked ball isn’t a look you associate with the clean, serene spirit of an Alpine spa, but not to worry.
THERE’S an ice room (for those who like a roll in the snow between saunas), an elegant steam room, a rest area with loungers equipped with headphones, and two kinds of sauna – bio and Finnish. During the latter, a man swings a towel above his head and then flicks the scalding hot eucalyptus-infused air towards you, matador-style, for maximum delivery of the benefits. It’s the definition of going the extra mile.
Even so, if you are a spa hound, the real treat is down the road at the Aqua Dome, a hotel complex which looks like a set from the Hunger Games – but in a good way.
A tier of heated outdoor swimming pools steam away against the backdrop of the snowy Otztal mountains. You swim out from the main indoor pool, and then scarper up helterskelter steps to each new level.
This is the public side of the Aqua Dome – a family-friendly hub of life. But extra to this (joy of joys), there is the secluded Spa 3000, available exclusively to hotel guests over the age of 15, where you can enjoy the perks of a private pool, relaxation area, and more saunas than you can shake a stick at.
This spa within a spa feels like the kind of place the elite will decamp to in the future when the water runs out. It’s a hushed sanctuary, with vast vaulted ceilings, and 25ft-high windows framing the truly spectacular landscape.
If you have to be holed up on a snowy day, or on a no-snow day, this is where you want to be.
If it exists in a wellness brochure you’ll find it here: rooms for absorbing salt, pools for breathing in moss, and a range of top-quality treatments including a hot stone massage, which relaxes the muscles after which you take a mineral sauna for maximum detox.
I slept like a baby for six nights. When I got home, everyone kept asking me what I’d had done.
So what about the skiing? Well, the hot tip, if you are a reasonable skier, is to rise early and get the first of the lifts from the mittelstation at Gaislachkogl, head across to the Rotkogljoch, and from there make your way to the furthest of the glaciers – a gondola and chairlift journey that takes about an hour. After that you have unlimited choice and you’ve beaten the lift crowds. The gentler slopes are on Giggijoch, which is accessed from the other end of town.
Among Solden’s USPs is the Big 3 Foto Rally – a 30-mile loop through the ski area that takes you to the top of the area’s three highest mountains. At the summit of each one you can activate a camera with your ski pass and take a picture of you in front of the unbeatable view.
And, of course, there is the big attraction of the area – lunch at Ice Q, a stunning piece of minimalist architecture at the top of Gaislachkogl.
At €73 (about £63) for three courses it’s not cheap, but then you’ll never eat food and drink pinot noir like this with a view like this.
Lunch is one of the best parts of a skiing holiday and there are plenty of mountain restaurants to suit a tighter budget.
For an authentic experience, head to the Lople Alm, which is filled with locals knocking back schnapps, and skiers munching plates of fried potatoes with bacon.
For a couple who like to ski a bit or a lot, spa a lot or not at all, who like their food and wine (with or without children), I’m struggling to think of a better holiday. No. There simply isn’t one.