Knowing that Santa won’t be able to help, we decided to set off on a journey to Family Resort Rainer in the Dolomites, South Tyrol. Just over two hours flight and we were in Venice, where we had a transfer booked to take us to the hotel. In the two-hour drive past lovely villages and picturesque mountain views, we could see how one part of Italy turned slightly more Austrian as we approached the hotel.

That was South Tyrol – the Italian province with Austrian roots, ceded to Italy after World War I. As soon as you enter, all signs are in two languages – Italian and German. The closer we got to the province, the more dramatic became the views: beautiful sunlit valleys alternated with snowy mountain peaks.

Family Resort Rainer is located in the holiday region 3 Zinnen Dolomites – part of the UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites – in the beautiful village of Sesto (or Sexten in German). The village serves as a starting point for mountain adventures.

As soon as you arrive at the hotel, you feel at home – and for a reason: the hotel is family-owned and run. It started as a bed and breakfast some 60 years ago, founded by a father whose four children continue the family business. You can meet Verena and Joe Rainer at the hotel, chatting to guests or teaching children to ski. “My parents-in-law started a bed and breakfast, offering tea and cake to their guests, and now we have grown into an international hotel,” says Verena.

The hotel has four distinct parts: Familienhotel Rainer, ideal for parents with children; Königswarte Strata – modern apartments with access to all the services at the family hotel; Paramount Alma, for design and nature lovers; and Villa Rainer – a quiet hideaway just a few minutes from the main building. We stayed at Königswarte in a family-friendly suite, with a separate children’s bedroom featuring bunk beds, plus a living room, kitchen, and terrace. As soon as we arrived, the children dashed out to the meadow to play in the snow – their first proper experience of it.  

Ski and snowboard adventure

This trip was about a lot of firsts for my children – the first-time seeing snow, the first-time trying skiing and snowboarding… And the hotel is the perfect place for these experiences: it has the Ski and Snowboard School Sesto Dolomites on site and a slope right on the doorstep. The ski school offers group and private lessons at times that suit you, with kind, professional instructors who helped my daughter and son try both skiing and snowboarding — and figure out which they liked more.

A little learner slope is right outside the hotel, and if you’ve mastered a few skills and are ready to go a bit higher, you can slide down the hill to a ski lift that takes you up to the next-level slope – which leads back to the hotel. Easy! If you’re up for a bigger adventure, there’s a whole network of pistes and lifts stretching across 115 kilometres of smooth, well-looked-after runs – five interconnected ski mountains.

But if skiing or snowboarding isn’t your thing, you won’t get bored. The 3 Zinnen Dolomites ski resort is perfect for cross-country skiing, tobogganing, and winter hiking. And the fun doesn’t end in winter: in summer, you can enjoy endless trails for unforgettable hikes, plus more adventurous options such as via ferratas and mountain-bike routes.

“We offer hikes for both parents and children. We also offer walks with alpacas. They don’t like outings in winter very much, but in summer, once or twice a week, we do alpaca trekking – children can take them out and bring them back. The summer season starts at the end of May and runs until mid-October. The winter season starts in early December and ends on Easter. My husband is both a ski teacher and an Alpine guide – he’s a real outdoor freak,” shares Verena.

Sauna, spa, kids club: time to relax

But the hotel is not only about active winter fun. You can relax and treat yourself in the spa. What made it feel special wasn’t just the variety, but how thoughtfully everything was put together. You could sit back in the main hall on comfortable chairs or loungers, make yourself herbal tea with the excellent selection on offer. Then there were the sauna rooms: a traditional Finnish sauna with a spectacular panoramic mountain view, a herbal sauna filled with the sweet scent of eucalyptus, and an aromatic steam room, centred around a large, illuminated crystal that younger guests love for its futuristic look.

There is an impressive selection of treatments, too. Facials, cosmetic and body treatments, massages… There are different baths on offer: a birch-and-juniper bath for detoxification, a hyaluronic-acid rosehip bath to energise the skin, and many more. You can even bring children for a kids’ massage, or a bit of hair-and-nails pampering.

And when you want a proper relaxing moment, Family Resort Rainer’s kids’ club is there to keep little ones happily occupied. We checked it out – and our kids ran there happily every day. The kids’ club offers a weekly programme: on Mondays, children visit and feed the animals; on Tuesdays, there’s kids’ yoga and a mini disco; and Wednesdays are for a recycling workshop. Candle-making, a magic workshop, painting, and plenty more are on the agenda too. In winter, children can attend ski lessons through the kids’ club, and in summer they head out to the nearby fields and forests.

And what’s most pleasant for parents – it stays open until 10 PM. That’s it: you can enjoy dinner in peace, with a glass of wine and a set menu, while the children take part in their evening activities and are looked after by highly qualified staff.

Cuisine with German and Italian roots: a delicious kind of relaxation!

The food deserves a special mention. The breakfast and dinner menus are designed to satisfy even “picky eaters” – my children could always find something they liked. In the morning, the buffet offered eggs, pancakes, cereal, yoghurt, cheese, ham, and fruit – everyone could find their ideal breakfast. Dinner options are thoughtfully tailored to children’s taste buds: pasta, tomato sauces, chicken drumsticks (my son ate three!), turkey, crispy chickpeas, a salad bar…

For adults, there is a set menu every evening, combining the best traditions of both Italian and Austrian cuisine. Dinner is served as a five-course menu. We had the chance to try homemade burnt-flour tagliolini with black truffle oil, beef fillet with zucchini mille-feuille and mountain herb sauce, beetroot risotto with Parmesan foam, mountain herb cream soup, duck with Schupfnudeln and orange sauce (you can really see the fusion of German and Italian!), and much more. Desserts were no less impressive: vanilla mousse with persimmon sauce, chocolate rocher with passionfruit sauce… even the kids’ mousse was so silky and well balanced that I asked them to share!

***

“Mum, of all the places we’ve been, I know which one I liked most.”
“Which one?”
“Here, in Resort Rainer! Will we come again?”
“Of course!”

And it’s true: once you’ve been here, you’ll want to come back – in winter for skiing, and in summer for hiking and those breathtaking views. For us, it’s the kind of place that turns a holiday into a family tradition.

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