Hotel Ciasa Salares and La Siriola Restaurant
Armentarola
Ph:0471-849445, fax 0471-849369
website www.altabadia.com/ciasa

At Alta Badia, in Armentarola, there's a fabulous restaurant/hotel combination, Hotel Ciasa Salares and its La Siriola, which has achieved well-deserved international fame. Located on the confines of a nature reserve, the hotel enjoys a perfect position, both tranquil and blessed with an optimal view. The decor is rustic and cosy, and the facility boasts a large terrace used for dining and taking the sun. Downhill and cross-country skiing are just outside the door, if, that is, you make it past the swimming pool, sauna, steam baths and hydromassage...
It's really the restaurant, however, which gets your attention. It's considered on of the best in Italy, a veritable treat for the eye as well as the palate, thanks to the meticulous research conducted by Stefan Wieser and Corrado Fasolato in their efforts to optimize Tyrolian cuisine. Their extraordinary wine-cellar holds no less than 800 bottles bearing the world's most prestigious labels.

Hotel & Beauty spa Rosa Alpina
San Cassiano
Ph:0471-849500, fax 0471849377
website www.rosalpina.it

Also in Val Badia, at San Cassiano, along the main road, is the Rosa Alpina hotel, a temple of a spa for the body and soul. 60 rooms and 10 suites, each with its own special name, each decorated with refined elegance and precise attention to even the smallest detail. The restaurant is of the highest calibre and is especially geared toward exceptionally healthy and light dining. There is a sort of taverna, a wine bar, three snack bars and a fantastic beauty farm with an unbelievable range of treatments.
To cite just a few examples, there are the facial masks of orange, apricot, jasmine and almond. There's the candlelight hydromassage treatment enhanced by the scent of the ocean, or by essences of vanilla and cinnamon, milk and honey. And it's all natural, all made on site. There are beauty packages available for men and women both. La Cure Royal is a regenerative anti-cellulite program, while there is a 3-day revitalizing treatment and an anti-stress week.

La Perla - Romantik Hotel
Corvara
Ph: 0471-836132, fax 0471-836568
website www.altabadia.com/laperla

In Val Badia's Corvara, there's a true class act: the hotel La Perla, born of the Costa family's great passion for elegance and style. The various areas of the hotel are lined in wood panelling, decorated with exceptionally good taste, each room distinguished by a different color. The lovely decor and the minute attention to detail from linens to porcelain are trademarks of this fine establishment, though the kitchen is not far behind. Indeed, the cuisine is optimal and the wine-cellars are a collector's dream. Situated as it is on the country's frontier, on the Sella Ronda slope, skiing commences at the front door! And after a strenuous day, the hotel offers a healthy dip in the natural rock pool located on a subterranean level.

Hotel Sassongher
Corvara
Ph: 0471-836085, fax 0471-836542
website www.altabadia.com/sasshonger

Sassongher is the name of a very imposing, very high mountain which dominates the village of Corvara in Alta Badia. It is also the name of a historic old hotel which has been welcoming guests for the last 60 years. It was opened by Sandro Pescosta, one of the very first ski professionals in Italy. The Hotel Sassongher has managed to preserved its original spirit and the warm, welcoming charms of bygone days. The decor is rich in antique Tyrolian furnishings and the location blessed with a truly stupendous view. Facilities include swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool, fitness equipment, solarium and massage. The Pescosta family hasn't skimped on the restaurant either -- the cuisine has taken the hearty best of the German and Italian traditions, prepared and served with a smile!

The regional cuisine is called "ladina" (elaborate Upper Adige cooking). The Hotel Armentarola restaurant, located in an enchanting location amidst the best slopes, (Ph. 0471-849522) offers the "ladina" (Upper Adige) cuisine ("strozzapreti" (spinach gnocchi), "spatzli" (gnocchi), barley soup and an excellent mushroom risotto. The restaurant La Siriola of the Hotel Sport Teresa, in Pedraces (Ph. 0471-839623), prepares high class Upper Adige regional meals (it has ne Michelin star) with game which is in season, "canederli" (dumplings) , "strangolapreti" (spinach gnocchi), and "risotto ai finferli".
The La Perla Hotel's restaurant, La Stua di Michl (Ph. 0471-836132) is situated in a XVIII century room. The perfection of the furnishings is equal to the fare: watercress soup, creamed potato and porcini mushroom soup, spinach dumplings and crusted lamb. all of the dishes are accompanied by Santa Magdalener, Blauburgunder, Sylvaner and Muller-Thurgau Tirolean wines.The restaurant of the Hotel La Villa a La Villa (tel. 0471-847035) is also very good.

In Alta Badia, as in all of the Upper Adige, the water-proof loden fabric (a soft, furry wool cloth which has been fulled until it is flat) reigns supreme. However, it is best to purchase it at the Moessmer factory outlet (Via Walther, see Vogelweide 6, Ph. 0474-85814) in Brunico in Val Pusteria (37 km). Overcoats, skirts and jackets in waterproof, green or grey loden can also be found in the Sporting Center Franz (Ph. 0471-849408) in San Cassiano, located in front on the church on the main road, where one can also purchase felted wool jackets and rather technical skiing equipment.

This area is not as lively as Cortina which is 45 minutes by car, over the Falzarego pass. Presently, in Corvara the most popular places are the pub in the Hotel Posta-Zim and the one in the Hotel La Perla (Ph. 0471-836132). In San Cassiano the trendiest place to go after skiing is Hugo's Bar.