Hotel Bon Alpina

Stayed as part of a British coach holiday group. The hotel was welcoming, very clean, and comfortable. I found the staff to be delightful especially in the restaurant area who were accommodating to my dietary needs. The location being a few miles from Innsbruck offers a real sense of being a village but has the joy of being connected to Innsbruck by an excellent public transport system. With the Innsbruck travel card offered by the hotel the Bon Alpina provides a great platform for touring the area.

We stayed at this hotel for 4 nights and had a lovely time. The room (room 306) was big, lots of wardrobe/storage space and had a balcony which I wasn’t expecting, it was lovely to be able to sit outside. We were all inclusive, at breakfast you are asked to let them know if you are coming back for lunch or would like a picnic. We got a picnic 1 day and it was lovely, 2 sandwiches, some fruit, water and a chocolate bar. You also pick your evening meal at breakfast time, it’s a varied menu with meat, fish and veggie choices. There is a choice of soup and salad that you help yourself to. I had read some reviews about finding your table. When you go to the restaurant for the first time they give you a table and that is the one you use for the rest of your stay. There isn’t a sign saying that though so I can understand the confusion if you walk in and just sit at a table without realising. We found the staff lovely and friendly. The area is gorgeous, it was our first time to Austria, and the Welcome card with the free public transport was great, and the bus outside the hotel so regular, even runs through the night. There is an indoor and outdoor pool, with loungers, and a sauna area (sauna, steam room and thermal room). There is a gym, it has 3 cardio machines and no weights. So….the bells…. The hotel is next to a beautiful church, the bells on that church are possibly the loudest bells I’ve ever heard. Our room was perhaps the closest room to the church and it was quite unbelievable! The bells start at 7am and randomly seem to go off all day and ding at different times with no real pattern. If you like to sleep in in a morning, this may not be the hotel for you. It’s hard to criticise as it’s a beautiful church that was probably there for hundreds of years before the hotel was, but seriously, prepare yourself!!! We also happened to be there for the Sacred Heart Procession (I think this is an annual thing), this was extra special as it started at 6am and went on until nearly 11. Not only did the bells ring from 6am, but they also had guns as well for extra noise! I am being glib here as the procession was really beautiful with a brass band and singing but the volume at times was unbelievable. Even saying that I would stay here again, I would just make sure I brought earplugs.

The Bon Alpina Hotel in Innsbruck is a bit of a contradiction. The physical hotel is very large, modern and aesthetically pleasing. It has a very large restaurant, again very aesthetically pleasing, but with too many table settings making access difficult at high volume breakfast time. The bar and lounge areas are very comfortable and inviting. The individual bedrooms and bathrooms are modern, clean, comfortable and reasonably spacious. The only mistake the architects made with the physical hotel design was the minuscule lifts, which only have capacity for one couple and their luggage. Such a large hotel on the outskirts of the city were guaranteed to attract coach loads of tourists, so you can image the problems that arise when 40-50 people with luggage are all trying to access two small lifts at the same point in time. So the physical hotel building and its facilities would rate 4+ stars.

Igls is a lovely quiet village with cafes, restaurants, shop, tourist information, ski hire and tram and buses straight down into Innsbruck, which is about 5km away. The ski slopes are a short bus journey away. There are walks through pine woods and meadows. The Hotel Bon Alpina is very pleasant. The food was great (with free water) the staff friendly and the rooms although a little dated are clean and comfortable. The Spa and pool are really nice!! The only issue is for rooms within earshot of the very loud and extensive 7am wake up bell chiming from the church. Not what you need on relaxing holiday!!

Out of the way but free shuttle bus into Innsbruck. Food in restaurant is not the best, 27 euros for three course but I didn’t think it was good value, food like school dinners. (I eat out a lot so maybe I’m fussy). I wasn’t informed of the ‘rules’ for the table system so got ‘told off’ by the waitress Angela for taking some man’s table & think that she needs training on how to speak to guests as she embarrassed me in front of others in the dining area. The chalk boards on the table with names are so out of date & other people were telling me they felt the same. Regarding staff members Jeffrey and Nicholas were great bar staff, kind and made us feel at ease and Monika in the office helped me with a problem of missing ski’s. I would say Monika is a credit to this company of Innsbruck hotels and was very professional and really helped me. I would give this hotel a 2 star rating, I think that there needs to be better management in the food area. The area was clean, there was basic selection of food but it was better than the evening meal selection. Our room was cleaned really well, the sauna, steam and pool area were lovely & kept well. I would not stay here again as just thought that the restaurant system is very outdated.