It can be hard to stay relevant when you hit a certain age. You have to fight the urge to take your foot off the pedal and coast along on the momentum of past glories. The same is true for people, organisations, grande dame hotels and Brian May’s hair. But while you’re keeping yourself up to date you mustn’t let go of those past glories altogether.
One long-established ski resort that’s more “sleigh” than “slay” is Alta Badia, the insanely attractive area in the Ladin-speaking heart of the Italian Dolomites, which cleverly treats its longevity as an asset and where tradition flourishes in a way that fosters progress. There has been skiing here since before the first lift opened in 1938, and while it’s true that Alta Badia is blessed with excellent bone structure — its six villages and skiable slopes are encircled by great sharp-edged rocky slabs rearing up like fortress walls; its buildings are a uniformly handsome line-up of wooden-balconied chalets and onion-topped churches — its enduring appeal is about character as much as looks.
One way Alta Badia has embraced its laurels without resting on them is by leaning heavily into its reputation for excellent food and drink — mountain cheeses, cured meats, deceptively simple dumplings and impressive local wines. Foodie wheezes include the yearly Taste for Skiing, when mountain huts serve dishes created by chefs from Michelin-starred Italian restaurants. This season you might have fusilloni with hare ragu; chocolate and egg yolk caramel cream, designed for the Piz Boe Alpine Lounge by the Cerea brothers from the three-star Da Vittorio restaurant near Bergamo; or at Utia Bioch, tortellini in incense-scented beef and chicken consommé by Massimiliano Alajmo from the three-star Le Calandre in the Veneto.
What you need to know
This summer Aman opened in what was the Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano, but it isn’t the only new hotel on the block. Other recent (and less astronomically pricey) openings include Hotel Recort, which arrived in Colfosco last December.
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“That car was used by my grandmother to take lunch to the ski-lift workers,” says Debora Dellosto, the 28-year-old general manager. The little red Haflinger truck is stationed in what might be the world’s cleanest garage (the floor is washed twice daily), next door to what might be the world’s poshest hotel dog-washing room (marble walls; shampoo and conditioner).
Food and drink are as good as the skiing
ARMIN TERZER
It’s all spotlessly modern but, this being Alta Badia, comes with inbuilt heritage. Recort is Ladin for “reminiscence” and the hotel is dedicated to Dellosto’s grandfather Gottfried Declara, who founded the local ski-lift company — kick-starting winter tourism — and also owned a quarry so he could offer his staff year-round employment. Overlooking the valley towards Corvara, Recort was built on the site of an old hotel to the tune of more millions than Dellosto will divulge. It’s in honour of that quarry that the reception desk in the double-height lobby is a giant lump of Dolomite rock; the bar is a chunk of moody passeier gneiss rock from a valley about 60km away as the yellow-billed chough flies.
From the outside — you can see it from the (mmm, heated) Sodlisia chairlift — the hotel looks much like the other charming Heidi-chalet-style buildings round here. Only up close, and inside, can you see how modern it is. Stone and wood have been used in abundance but so has glass — the light pours in to the lobby bar and the lower-ground-floor pool. Light fittings are many and statementy — pendant cubes in the stairwell, a crown of lights above the sinuous banquette in the (already well regarded) restaurant, long droplets in the spa. They haven’t just used local materials, but local designers, artists and architects too.
The hotel has just 22 rooms — relatively few for the area — done out with lots more wood, huge mirrors, reusable slippers, complimentary sparkling cider and sustainable, locally made Team Dr Joseph smellies. “I’m afraid this is the one with the worst view,” Dellosto says, opening the door to 301 up in the eaves. Out on the balcony, it’s true I can see the neighbour’s snow-covered roof, but right behind it, screaming rather more loudly for attention, is the white-dusted face of the Sella mountains and a blue-velvet sky pricked with silver. Paladin bins it ain’t.
Hotel Recort has a distinctly modern feel inside
ALEX MOLING
Even the spa at Recort has impressive views
ALEX MOLLING
Back inside I am smitten by the wooden bedstead — largely because someone has thought to give the corners smooth, tactile curves that won’t gouge chunks out of passing ankles (there are no ankle-biters either — Recort is adults only). Other aspects of the hotel deserve applause — the self-charging Nohrd gym equipment, the solar-panel heating, the live Ladin accordion music — but those bedframe corners may be the last word in true luxury.
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It’s a place designed to show you the outside rather than push you out in it, but an arrangement with Dellosto’s cousin Gunther, who has a rental shop in Colfosco, means guests can have ski equipment delivered to and collected from the hotel. The slopes are a 150m walk away — then you’re away on the Sellaronda circuit if you fancy, or simply connected to Alta Badia’s terrific 130km (80 mile) network of well-kept runs, many of them wide, spirit-lifting blues.
Early access to the slopes
A couple of lifts and runs away, up at 2,157m, is another recent newcomer, the mountain hut hotel Pralongia. Well, not-that-newcomer, since the Pescollderungg-Niederkofler family who own it have had a business here since the 1930s. But third-generation Dieter received the “heritage but make it gorgeously modern” memo and rebuilt the place from the ski slope up. Beyond the café with its strudel, floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden chairs with heart cut-outs is a contemporary-cool mountaintop retreat. Each of the ten rooms, including two mini dorms for up to five, has astonishing views of the surrounding mountains — La Varella, Cunturines, Santa Croce.
Hotel Pralongia
ALEX MOLING
Stay and you get dinner in the wood-clad stube, early-bird access to the slopes, stroking rights with Simba the house cat and, crucially, time every day in the 16-seater Finnish sauna and on the daybeds and loungers of the relaxation room, angled for prime views of the mountains flaming pink at sunset. “We didn’t want to make a bigger spa because for me the wellness is outside,” Dieter says. I reckon an hour in that room would do wonders for your wellbeing.
I ask Dieter if his 14-year-old son will be the fourth generation to run the hut. “He says he might take it on once I’ve paid off all the debts,” he replies. This will surely not take long. Its understandable popularity means it’s booked up months in advance and you can only book rooms for a week at a time in winter (you can stay in the dorms for shorter stints).
Such is the demand for skiing in Alta Badia generally that short breaks here can be hard to find. Which is one of the reasons I am here on the Skiing with Katie & Mizz trip with Skiworld — a three-night outing with a group of mostly midlife women, many solo, all delightful. Everything is organised — hotels, restaurants, transport, kit hire — so you can properly switch off and focus on the food, the dancing, the views, the chat, the laughter. I was also on the trip in 2024 and had such a glorious time, I came away with at least 19 more reasons to return.
We’re in the same hotel this year, the Ciasa Salares near San Cassiano. And even here the trad vibe has had a subtle update: a new comfier boot room, rooms refurbished with lighter wood and smart bathrooms. The breakfast remains so good the slopes can wait and you still get funny looks from Germans if you keep your cossie on in the sauna.
The penthouse Rü Blanch suite at Ciasa Salares has a hot tub
One (cossied) lady soaking post-ski limbs in the hot tub is unamused for a different reason. “I’ve been coming here for ten years, and my parents for 20 years before that. We did once try Val Gardena” — the neighbouring resort — “but we weren’t keen and retreated to Alta Badia, which fewer Brits know. Then last year I read about your group’s trip in the paper. Please don’t make it busy!” Oops.
The trouble is, it’s hard not to enthuse. And it’s hard to resist coming back to see what’s next. I wonder if it’s wealthy skiers who make innovation possible but Nicole Dorigo at the tourist board has a different take. “It’s the people who live here. Everyone wants to improve the little thing they have and offer more. Every single person works hard — this does bring money, but the basis is passion.” I’m normally thoroughly sceptical of a tourist board line but this one rings true. Not least because Charlie, a new addition to our group this year (and not a tourist board stooge), tells me that, “Alta Badia might have ruined skiing anywhere else for me.”
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Liz Edwards was a guest of Alta Badia (altabadia.org) and Skiworld (skiworld.co.uk). Skiing with Katie & Mizz 2026 takes place January 15-18 (three nights’ full board with drinks from £2,649pp, including flights, transfers, ski hire, pass and guiding); to add your name to the waitlist or register interest for 2027, call 0330 102 8004. Hotel Recort has B&B doubles from £1,094 for three nights (hotelrecort.it). Pralongia has half-board doubles from £1,848 for seven nights (pralongia.it)
