Sonnwies Family Hotel

Tucked up a valley, surrounded by mountains, is the Sonnwies Family Hotel. What is a family hotel, you may be wondering? I wondered the same thing, because don’t most hotels have something for kids and families? Family hotels are a thing here, and now that I’ve seen one, other hotels seem rather mundane. Imagine the hotel in the movie Dirty Dancing, a family run business with all sorts of activities to keep people busy. That’s what a European family hotel is like, a complete children’s activity program for the under-10 set complementing the amazing, family-friendly facilities.

Our room overlooks the mountains and the 10,000 square meter playground. It has a three-story sand ‘box’ with all kinds of sand toys, there is a water pump, a play house, swings of assorted shapes and sizes, a slide, a sand soccer/volleyball area, two trampolines, two zip lines (or sideways swings as Nikolas calls them), and a full-size extraordinarily beautiful tee pee, complete with fire circle inside. Across the meadow is the pony corral, where five ponies give rides each day. In the barn are cows for milking, pigs for feeding, and rabbits for petting. A family of goats wanders the grounds freely.

Inside, there is a giant playroom area with three tractors, a slide, a play house, a room for indoor soccer or ping pong or general craziness, dolls and strollers, a movie theater, and an art room. To accompany the playroom are four “teachers” and a full schedule of activities for kids of all ages, should they choose to take part.

And then, of course, there is a swimming pool which overlooks the playground and the mountains beyond. If it a gorgeous facility with natural stone floors and walls, the main pool heated to 84 degrees with a large children children’s pool with slide that is heated to 95 degrees (ah!) and deep enough that the little ones can actually do some experimenting with swimming and floating.

And then there’s the food, but that’s worthy of its own blog after a few more meals…

You never know quite what you’re getting into when you find a hotel on the internet. Anything can be made to look good with the right website. We definitely picked right this time around. Where as the Dirty Dancing type of family hotel has all but died in America, it’s alive and well over here, thank goodness. The Sonnwies Family Hotel is truly delightful.