I love hotels with a soul. When a hotel isn’t just a business project but also a passion for its owners. When there’s not only stylish interior but also a story behind the beautiful facade. That’s the reason why I’m always fascinated by the family-run hotels and find them particularly warm and cozy. As a result of the several generations’ work, they combine decoration elements and furniture from different epochs, which creates unique and inimitable atmosphere. Comparing to the chain hotels independent properties have individuality and offer not only accommodation but a one-of-a-kind experience.
Hotel La Perla located in the heart of the Dolomites, the village called Corvara, is a perfect example of a distinguished family-owned hotel, charming and classy at the same time. It is run by Costa family who also owns the spa hotel Posta Marcucci in Tuscany (I’ve already written about it before). The best way to get there is to fly to Venice or Innsbruck and rent a car, it’s about 3 hours of driving and the road offers spectacular views!
This trip to the Dolomites started by an unexpected problem: my travel companion Valentin missed our morning flight to Venice and had to take a ticket to another one arriving in the evening. I spent a day in Venice waiting for him (not a bad place for waiting though;) and then we drove to La Perla. We arrived after midnight, tired and hungry, and were pleasantly surprised by delicious cold dinner prepared for us at the hotel (Italian hams, cheeses and vegetables, bread and wine). It was exactly what we needed after a long drive on the mountain roads!
Next day started by breakfast with a fantastic view at the sunny Dolomites. The choice of foods was impressive: large variety of local cheeses and meats, salmon, fresh and marinated vegetables, all kinds of bread and pastries, home-made yoghurt with granola, fruits and fresh juices just-squeezed. Eggs and pancakes were cooked to order. I should say we spent a long time breakfasting and it was pure pleasure… I appreciated a big number of healthy options in the menu, local products and home-made foods.
The service was perfect: smiles, fluent English, attention and discretion. It’s not surprising, since La Perla has a good team of professionals who have been working there for a long time and acquired a huge experience. Their work is their passion, and we could feel it in every single situation when we interacted with the hotel staff.
A fun thing about breakfast: every morning La Perla issues a short news-list which is ditributed among the guests during breakfast. It’s a kind of one-page newspaper, with local news, weather forecast and interesting historical facts.
La Perla is situated just next to the ski slopes which is very convenient for those who choose this hotel for the ski vacation: they don’t need to go far away with their ski equipment. I don’t practice mountain ski, so unfortunately I couldn’t take advantage of it but I fully took advantage of another hotel’s feature: the spa center.
As you could have already noticed if you read my blog regularly, I’m a big spa lover, especially when it’s cold outside. At La Perla I had everything I needed for total relax: an indoor swimming pool with hydromassage, hammam and sauna, chill out area and a buffet with fruits, tea and healthy snacks. The spa is furnished with wooden furniture with rustic decoration elements, which gives a feeling of natural beauty and warmness. Rustic style might appear heavy and dark but thanks to the huge windows there’s lots of light inside and it feels fresh and cozy.
After a good spa break we took the car and drove around admiring the views and stopping here and there to snap a photo. The area is very beautiful! The Dolomites are a part of the Alps but the shape of the mountains is different from the French Alps, its very particular and recognizable. The Dolomites are included into the UNESCO World Heritage List and on the UNESCO web site they are described as “some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high density of narrow, deep and long valleys“. It’s a fantastic place to explore, so inspiring for nature lovers and photographers!
We had a half board accomodation, so in the evening we had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Les Stües, offering traditional local dishes with a refined touch. Beautifully served and accompanied by excellent prosecco and Italian wines, the food was delicious and we really enjoyed it. Here’s a short summery of our dinner:
La Perla has also a Michelin-starred restaurant La Stüa de Michael. We had a chance to have dinner there next evening but it was such an epic experience that it merits a separate article which is coming soon;)
As I told you at the beginning of the article, I love family-run hotels for their individuality, the story behind each project, based on family values and traditions. The owners of La Perla, two generations of the Costa family, invest in the hotel not only time, efforts and money but also put some heart in it. Together with Posta Marcucci in Tuscany and Berghotel Ladinia (a cozy 3-stars hotel in Corvara, just next to the luxury La Perla) La Perla is a part of the Costa family’s property and enjoys their special care and attention. Some of the family members work directly at the hotel, the others participate on the distance – the hotel is a result of their common creativity.
I’d like to show you a few photos of Berghotel Ladinia which is less chic than La Perla but very home-like and full of charm!
To finish my article, I’d love to tell a few words about The Costa Family Foundation, the charity project run in the countries which need aid. A part of the revenues from the Costa family’s hotel business is used to develop educational and ecology projects – actually they’re working on two “green” projects in Uganda and regularly visit this country to control the progress of work. I’m sure they pay as much attention to this part of their activities as they pay to their hotels and it’s a warm feeling. You might not want to think about the less developed countries’ problems during your vacation but it’s good to know that your staying at the Costa family’s hotels will help these countries, at least a little bit.
Str. Col Alt, 105, 39033 Corvara In Badia BZ, Italy
Tel: +39 0471 831000
AnnaCossack 
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