The road to San Luis runs through the woods. At 1,400 metres on the sunny Avelengo plateau, fifteen minutes above Merano, a small village of wooden chalets and tree houses stands in a clearing around a mountain lake of 5,800 square metres, inside forty hectares of its own larch and spruce forest. Across the water rise the peaks of the Texel Group, close to 3,000 metres high, and on still mornings they lie reflected in the lake.
San Luis was opened in December 2015 by a family of Merano hoteliers, now in their fourth generation, after almost twenty years of thinking about it, and named after their great-grandfather, Luis. They meant it as a new version of the South Tyrolean summer retreat, the long season spent up in the cool of the mountains: nature and seclusion first, with the ease and service of a fine hotel around them.
The chalets are built of Mondholz, moon wood, cut and worked according to the cycles of the moon so that the timber keeps its strength. Inside are clay walls that breathe, slate, handmade pieces, natural linen and wide windows onto the trees or the lake. Every chalet has a fireplace and a private sauna, and the tree houses, on one or two storeys, are raised among the larches.
At the heart of the village is the clubhouse beside the lake, with the lobby and library, the bar, the restaurants, a small cinema and a wine and cheese cellar. Beyond it lies a pool hall the size of a barn, where an indoor pool lies by an open fire, a heated pool continues outside, and a Jacuzzi waits in the middle of the lake.
The resort is kept for its own guests alone, with no day visitors. Mornings begin with an alpine breakfast brought to your door at the hour you choose; walking trails start at the edge of the clearing, and the evenings end by your own fire.
