Relais & Chateaux Hotel Dollenberg

Relais & Chateaux Hotel Dollenberg

At Hotel Dollenberg, breakfast faces a green valley that falls away toward the Black Forest, four kilometers below the old town of Bad Peterstal-Griesbach. This is a working estate more than a conventional hotel: 101 rooms across Junior, Standard and Luxury suites, the largest running to 1184 square feet, a business center and conference hall for meetings, a chapel for weddings, and a kitchen, Le Pavillon, that carries two stars, a rarity among countryside resort hotels of this size. The 5,000 square meter wellness area does the rest, with outdoor and indoor pools, a spa tub, sauna, steam room and massage rooms, plus a fitness area and yoga space for guests who want the exertion before the sauna rather than instead of it. Cyclists and hikers walk straight out into the forest, skiers do the same in winter, and the property keeps a library and ping pong table for quieter afternoons. Families get a playground, babysitting and kids' TV; couples get the chapel and a staff fluent in English, German and French. None of this suits anyone wanting to stroll to a museum after dinner, since the center of Bad Peterstal-Griesbach is a genuine four kilometers off, and the draw here is the valley rather than the streets. It also is not built for guests who want spa and serious cooking kept separate, or wellness kept minimal, since this hotel layers both without apology. What it has that most grand countryside properties do not is that two-star kitchen sitting under the same roof as the pool, the chapel and the conference hall, still run by the family whose name is on the welcome letter. Hotel Dollenberg sits four kilometers above Bad Peterstal-Griesbach, its 101 rooms built around a 5,000 square meter spa and a two-star restaurant, Le Pavillon, rare in a resort this size. Good for skiers, hikers and anyone who wants a chapel wedding with a serious kitchen attached; not for city-center wanderers.