THE FUSE

A family-run inn that began as a miners' tavern in 1567 has become one of Austria's most remarkable alpine escapes.

Halfway up the majestic Wilder Kaiser mountain range, my guide Lois Manzl – who was born and bred right here in Tyrol – decided he wanted to play his trumpet for a while. Dressed in lederhosen he belted out a traditional alpine song as I caught my breath and felt sweat trickle down my body. I thought about the reward Manzl had promised me at the end of the climb: a 300-year-old hut sitting just at about 5,000ft (1,524m) above sea level, below the enormous petrous cliffs of the mountain. "You're going to like it," he said between bursts of notes, as I traipsed behind him.

He stopped playing and looked at me. "Kids absolutely hate hiking," he told me. "When I have kids on one of these hikes, they almost always ask me why I chose to be a mountain guide for a living. And so I tell them: I was very bad in school and was condemned to do this for a living." And then he burst out laughing.

The closest you might come to a real-life version of The Sound of Music or Heidi would be a few days at Stanglwirt, a one-of-a kind resort in Austria's Tyrolean Alps, where this guided hike with Manzl is just one of many diversions on offer. As a travel writer, I tend to use hotels for what they were originally intended: a place to sleep while I explore a destination. But the longer I spent at Stanglwirt, the more I felt like staying put. In fact, with the exception of the hike, I didn't leave the property during my four-day visit.

Founded in 1567 as a tavern for miners, Stanglwirt became a fully-fledged inn around 1720. Two years later, it was taken over by the Hauser family, who have been running it ever since. But to call the 170-room Stanglwirt simply a "hotel" would be a misnomer. When I encountered Balthasar Hauser, the 80-year-old owner and patriarch in a hallway one day, he told me, "Stanglwirt is not a hotel with an organic farm," he said, wagging his finger at me. "It's an organic farm that happens to have a hotel."

He had a point. Set on 132 hectares of arable land and pastures, Stanglwirt produces its own cheese, milk, yoghurt and beef. "The creamier the cheese, the shorter the life span," said Anna Aichinger, the on-site cheesemaker, during a tour of the cheese cave. "But because I'm only producing cheese for the hotel, it gets eaten very quickly." She handed me a thick slice of Bergkäse, a semi-soft mountain cheese made with raw cow's milk and speckled with herbs. It was the creamiest cheese I'd ever tasted.

Eco-friendly Stanglwirst has been sustainable since long before it became a buzzword in the travel industry. But its dedication to sustainability goes beyond its methods of food production: in the 1980s, it began using a bark-powered biomass plant, making it one of the world's first hotels to generate renewable energy on site.

In autumn 2024, the Hauser family installed a state-of-the-art power plant called "Stanglwirt BIO-Energie", created by Tyrolean-based company SynCraft. The technology converts wood chips from naturally fallen local timber into wood gas, which produces electricity and heat – and even creates biochar, a nutrient-rich soil enhancer. It's the first hotel on the planet to use the technology, and after a year of testing, Stanglwirt announced the system now fully powers the property. "It's both carbon neutral and climate positive," said said Balthasar's daughter, Maria, who is part of the 18th generation of Hauser innkeepers.

The guest rooms are built with locally sourced timber and the property is powered by its own wood-gas energy system (Credit: Stanglwirt)

Timber not only fuels the property, it is the property. Swiss pine, a particular durable wood that only grows at higher elevation, is the main building material, along with white stucco. "In the 1970s, my father would ask farmers if he could take their scrap wood," said Maria. "They thought he was just crazy because the wood to them was just trash. But to my father it was reclaimed wood – and that's what we used to continue expanding the hotel."

But even if the behind-the-scenes sustainability isn't a pull for you to visit Stanglwirt, there's plenty else to admire. The attention to detail at the hotel is impressive. The staff wear dirndls and lederhosen, and each room is layered with Tyrolean detail – from crocheted pillows to large windows framing the Alps. Stanglwirt has been designed so that wherever you're at on the entire property, whatever your eye focuses on, you never forget where you are.

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The property also has a large band of Lipizzaner horses and its own riding school, visible just off the windowed lobby, where guests can train on the prized white breed. Then there are three swimming pools, including a natural pond-like pool in the "adults only" area where guests swim au natural and participate in the particularly German and Austrian aufguss – a sauna ritual led by a saunameister named Gary, who sprinkles essential oils onto hot rocks and uses an oversized fan to wave hot air at guests during the 15-minute sessions.

The property's natural swimming pond is purified through a plant-based filtration system and fed by its own spring (Credit: Stanglwirt)

Dining at Stanglwirt ranges from a fine dining restaurant to a traditional tavern (the very oldest part of the property) to the Kuhstall Stube, or Cowshed Tavern, a unique 12-table restaurant where the windows look into a barn where a line-up of cows peer back at diners feasting on steak and beef goulash.

"Current trends have made it easier to be more sustainable," said Johannes, Balthasar's son. "These days, most people want locally produced beer or other local food products, which is good because we can definitely supply that." About 75% of the food comes from the region. "We could make other things, like schnapps. But why would we do that when there are such great schnapps makers just a few kilometres away?" Stanglwirt does produce its own beer, though – a light, crisp pilsner called Stangl.

Probably the least interesting aspect of the hotel are the famous people who have been here. Hallways are bedecked with framed photos of celebrities who have laid their heads at Stanglwirt: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Bing Crosby and Audrey Hepburn, among a long list of others. "Journalists used to always ask me about the celebrities who have stayed here," said Maria. "These days, though, they ask about our sustainability practices."

Stanglwirt is one of the few hotels in the world to maintain its own Lipizzaner stud and riding school (Credit: Stanglwirt)

Back on the mountain, Manzl and I trudged our way up the steep Wilder Kaiser peaks to the Stanglwirt hut at the summit, where we were met with plates of creamy mountain cheese, smoky landjäger sausages, cold Stangl beer and peppermint schnapps – all produced either by the hotel or within a few miles of it.

It seemed that my reward for the hike was not only some of the best cheese I've ever eaten, but a lesson in how an old alpine hotel can lead the way to a greener future.

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