Our history

The Karadar family, your hosts at Alpine Wellness Hotel St. Veit in Sesto

A family-run 4**** hotel offering a superb range of services. The history of our Alpine Wellness Hotel St. Veit in Sesto is full of surprises, characters and stories, and has taken decades of commitment and hard work to get to where we are today. Let us tell you about our grandfather, Franz Happacher. It was he who laid the foundation for the Alpine Wellness Hotel Sesto project.

Franz Happacher was a farmer's son, mountain guide and manager of the Tre Cime Alpine hut in the Tre Cime mountains. He took care of the hut and its guests in the Sesto Dolomites, renovated it and built a sheep's stable around it which was to be the foundation of the Carducci mountain refuge. Still today the hut is run by the family's own Klaus Happacher.

In 1961, Franz Happacher's children were born. By then he had become a well-respected mountain guide. In 1960 he married his wife Emma, who he loved just as much as the mountains. In 1967, they set upon building a 40-bed hotel right in the location where our hotel is based today. Early plans were scraped due to their innovative architectural ideas which were not a winner with the local community. Buy the Happacher family never gave up and after a lot of convincing and hard work, their dreams finally came true and at Christmas 1969 the 3*** Hotel St. Veit was opened.

In 1985, the family-run hotel, managed by Franz's daughter Gertraud and her husband Peter, was turned into an open trade company. In 1987, the bowling alley and the "Herzlalm" night club were opened - a popular meeting point for guests and locals alike until 2004. In the same year, the restaurant and dining room were added to the mix. Between 1990 and 1998, renovations included the rooms on the second floor, and in 2002, the winter garden with its open fire place and reading lounge was added. In 2004, the swimming pool was renovated and the beauty facilities were introduced.

By then the hotel had become much more than your average wellness hotel. Thus, today's Alpine Wellness Hotel was born. In 2006, the hotel was expanded to a total 66 beds and a new focus on the Vitalpina wellness philosophy was introduced, a move which helped our hotel acquire its status as a 4**** hotel. Never entirely satisfied, the host family decided to set their sights on a new target:

Sustainable tourism

In 2009, the hotel received the 4**** wellness quality award - an acknowledgement for authenticity and service quality. In 2011, the kitchen staff further expanded their capabilities in order to cater for those suffering from allergies and dietary restrictions.

Our goal for the coming years is to focus on the Green Spa philosophy to guarantee a sustainable and environmentally friendly use of spa and wellness facilities.