Gradonna Mountain Resort Châlets & Hotel

Kals lies in a side valley of East Tyrol at the entrance to the Hohe Tauern National Park, below the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain. The Schultz group opened Gradonna here in 2012: a hotel tower and 36 chalets clad in larch shingles, designed by reitter_architekten with Erich Strolz. Inside, Kals marble, spruce, stone pine, linen and loden replace the usual Alpine pastiche. The scheme was nominated for the Austrian State Prize for Architecture in 2014, and the name refers to a prehistoric archaeological site nearby.

The whole site is car free. Guests leave the car in the underground garage, and the hotel carries the luggage to the chalets. The valley run of the Grossglockner Resort Kals-Matrei, a ski area with 47 kilometres of piste, passes straight through the resort, so you can click into your bindings at the door and ski back in the afternoon. In summer the same slopes become walking country, and a solar heated bathing pond of 700 square metres opens beside the sunbathing lawn.

Sustainability here goes beyond the brochure. The resort is ISO 14001 certified, draws its drinking water from its own spring in the national park and takes its heat from its own wood chip plant. The Nature Kids Club takes children from three, from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week, while the sauna area is reserved for guests from sixteen. Dogs are welcome in rooms and chalets, with a zone of their own in the garden, though spa and restaurants stay off limits.