It’s 5pm on a Monday and I’m sitting in a panoramic rooftop sauna. Outside the huge glass windows, forest-plastered peaks stretch away into the clouded distance. Inside, accordion-laced, German-language reggaeton blasts from a Bluetooth speaker. The warm, dry air smells of lemon balm, and a man in red harem pants is whirling a towel around his head, sending hot gusts rushing over a handful of spellbound kids and their smiling parents. As lightning flashes over a far-off mountain, I find myself thinking: you’d never get this at Center Parcs.It’s not easy in the UK to find a place that’s truly built for kids – even letting them join in with hallowed sauna rituals like the Aufguss. But this is par for the course in the South Tyrol: a peculiar corner of northern Italy that’s home to breathtaking hilltops, a fascinating cultural mash-up and some of the world’s greatest family hotels.If you’ve heard of the region, it’s probably because of the Dolomites: the impossibly dramatic mountain range that begins in South Tyrol. Its surreal, tooth-like peaks stretch away to the south and east, and have become an increasingly popular destination for British tourists in recent years. Popular hiking spots such as Lake Braies are beginning to experience overtourism.The region is renowned for its awe-inspiring mountains (Getty/iStock)And yet most visitors from the UK are still unaware of the region’s epic family hotels, which seal South Tyrol’s status as perhaps the best destination in Europe for a holiday with kids.Falkensteiner Family Resort Lido is a flagship for child-friendly hospitality in the region. Set in the Puster Valley, at the Dolomites’ northern edge, it’s the largest property in the Familienhotels Südtirol association – a club whose members are all run by families, for families.Lido has been managed by the Falkensteiner dynasty since the 1950s, when it was just a lakeside guesthouse in a quiet Alpine village. Over the decades, the hotel has mushroomed into a veritable mini-resort, custom-built for family trips. It’s only a mid-sized hotel by international standards: with 126 rooms and suites, it’s dwarfed by even the most modest of Mediterranean all-inclusives. But its facilities are truly mindboggling.Take the family waterpark, with its outdoor and indoor pools, toddlers’ pool and bright yellow, thrillingly long and winding tube slide – plus that rooftop family sauna. There’s also a separate adult-only spa, tucked away under an artificial hill. Most striking, though, is the rooftop “adventure park”: a soaring structure that manages to squeeze in a year-round ski slope, trampoline park, sports hall, rooftop bar, hiking trail, majestic kids’ playground and even a miniature ice rink.It’s all designed to operate year-round, with families visiting in the winter to glide down the rooftop slope or in the summer to paddle at the sandy lakeside beach.Just below ground is an extensive kids’ club, which is split into separate rooms for babies (from as young as six months), kids (from three to 11 years) and teens. Childcare runs from 9am to 9pm every day and is included in the room rate – no extra fees, surcharges or booking required. As well as supervised rampaging in “Falky-Land”, a two-storey affair with an indoor slide and play village, the ever-changing weekly schedule might include imaginative crafting, watercolour painting, baking, or getting out and about: building campfires in the forest, sailing across the lake on the hotel’s hand-hauled pirate raft or meeting the animals on a local farm.The hotel operates a range of activities year-round (James Manning)Read more: I went on the perfect Tuscan family road trip – at the worst time of yearThis isn’t your average kids’ club, doing whatever it takes to keep the sprogs busy so the grown-ups can do grown-up stuff (though that is a totally valid and very enjoyable side effect). The staff at Lido – and all its associates in the Familienhotels Südtirol – are trained in a holistic approach to childcare, which takes education, exercise and nature just as seriously as fun. It has deep roots in Germanic philosophies of child-rearing: forest school, physical education and giving children the autonomy and independence to help them learn to navigate the adult world. (This is also subtly incorporated throughout the hotel: for example, the restaurant has buffets at child height, letting kids serve themselves at the salad bar.)Speaking of German influence: you’ll notice that most of the signs at Falkensteiner Lido, and many other family hotels, are in German first, before Italian and then English. That’s down to the unique cultural blend of South Tyrol – known in Italian as Alto Adige.Ruled as part of the Austrian Habsburg empire for centuries, South Tyrol only became a part of Italy in 1918. Nowadays, the autonomous region’s Italian-speakers cluster in the cities of Bolzano and Merano. Beyond that, most residents of the mountains and valleys (including a local hero, tennis champ Jannik Sinner) speak German day-to-day.The city of Bolzano is one of the rare, Italian-speaking parts of South Tyrol (Getty/iStock)Read more: Portugal’s Fisherman’s Trail is the perfect multi-day hike for first-timersThe province’s cultural mash-up makes for some interesting experiences – and not just in the sauna. Our last evening at Falkensteiner Lido was South Tyrolean night in the restaurant. Seranaded by live accordion music, we dug into local tirtlan pastries, goulash with spätzle, and schlutzkrapfen dumplings, handmade in vast quantities at the dedicated pasta bar. This is still Italy, after all, and South Tyrol is as proud of its food as any other corner of the Boot.There are plenty of other family hotel groups (such as Kinderhotels Europa) and standalone properties such as Sonnwies operating in the region too. The prices aren’t budget, but you get an extraordinary amount bundled in to your all-inclusive package: three meals a day (plus tea and cake), all-day childcare, access to the spas and pools, rooms that can comfortably sleep families of virtually any size, free use of any baby and child equipment you might need, and a packed daily programme of fun for adults and kids alike. This can be pretty impressive, too: I won’t soon forget watching from our balcony at Lido as a troupe of fire-eaters performed by the lake, or dancing at Sonnwies’s kids’ disco with Ferdi, the hotel’s cuddly horse mascot.Alto Adige is remarkably child-friendly (Getty/iStock)The region is full of spectacular spots to visit – from the interactive, buggy-friendly WoodyWalk hiking trail to the mile-long Fun Bob mountain coaster at Innichen, or the Kronaction high-ropes adventure park. Many are accessible by public transport, which is free when you stay at participating hotels thanks to the local tourist board’s Guest Pass.It’s a beguiling combination of luxury, fun and sheer practicality, which feels precision-tooled to help us frazzled parents achieve levels of relaxation which we thought we’d lost for good. After two visits to South Tyrol in as many years, we’re already plotting our return.How to do itIt’s easy to travel flight-free to the region from London: take a Eurostar to Amsterdam, then a comfortable Nightjet sleeper train to Innsbruck, followed by local train transfers.Alternatively, SkyAlps – the region’s own independent airline – flies direct from London Gatwick to Bolzano, increasing its schedule to four return flights a week from July 2026.Where to stayFalkensteiner Family Resort Lido has classic double rooms from around £225 per night, full board. Book nowFamilyhotel Sonnwies Dolomites has family studios from around £550 per night, full board.Book nowJames was a guest of Falkensteiner Family Resort Lido, Familyhotel Sonnwies Dolomites, SkyAlps and the South Tyrol Tourism Board