Schloss Velden

It sounds hopelessly old-fashioned, the idea of a 17th-century castle turned luxury hotel, alongside a placid Alpine lake in southern Austria. Indeed Velden am Wörthersee has centuries of resort-town history behind it, and the distinctive goldenrod-hued castle, Schloss Velden, has stood here on the shores of the “Austrian Riviera” since 1603. But the old castle has been kept up to date, and then some: it’s added to its holdings, and discreetly evolved into as modern a resort hotel as you’re likely to find anywhere.

Thirty-nine guest rooms remain in the old castle, decorated in a mixed semi-traditional style. Some period architectural details remain, but the antique-style furnishings are modern. Around the back is the modern addition, a low-slung modernist structure wrapping around the courtyard, framing views of the old castle with the lake in the distance.

In the rooms the bedside panels manage everything, from the lighting and the televisions to the climate control and even the automated curtains. The bathrooms, lately the focus of the high-end hotel room, are suitably vast, and as modern as they come, right down to the in-mirror LCD televisions.

An extensive spa and wellness center is a must for a modern resort hotel, and the 37,000-square-foot Auriga spa complex doesn’t disappoint. Saunas and massages barely scratch the surface; here you’ll find the usual, plus an indoor golf simulator, a week-long sleep clinic, and one of the world’s first indoor snow rooms — the effect is something like the Finnish tradition of an icy post-sauna swim, only indoors.

How to get there:
Schloss Velden is a 25 minute drive from Klagenfurt Airport and 1 hour from Ljubljana Airport. By train, Schloss Velden is approximately 8 1/2 hours from Frankfurt, 4 1/2 hours from Vienna, 3 1/2 hours from Salzburg and 2 hours from Venice.