Hotel Montchalet

If you had to confine your travels, for the rest of your life, to destinations entirely within Italy’s borders, you could still do pretty well for yourself. From Sicily to the Amalfi to Rome to Cinque Terre, the diversity is astonishing — and the mere existence of South Tyrol and the Dolomites feels downright gratuitous. The impossibly picturesque Val Gardena is where you’ll find Hotel Montchalet, an alpine lodge in flawless modern luxury-boutique style, which, though it contains a mere 16 suites, nevertheless features all the comfort (and many of the services) of a much larger and more extensive resort.

The wellness center, for instance, includes not just a sauna, a gym, and the usual beauty treatments, but a spectacular indoor pool and a Nu Relax flotation-bed program, for cutting-edge relaxation. There’s also a small but impressive restaurant, a reminder that, even in the Alps, nobody lives the good life quite like the Italians. And while a hotel of Montchalet’s size won’t have its own ski shop, the hotel’s shuttle connects you to the nearby lifts, and the concierges can arrange anything from snowshoe walks to heli-skiing excursions — or you can simply settle down in the hotel’s cinema for a private screening.