Summits of Style

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With its cool and uncompromising minimalism, the new Mavida Balance Hotel & Spa mavida.at — located 98 km from Salzburg in the lakeside hamlet of Zell am See — has set out to prove that there's more to Austria's high-altitude resorts than knotty wood paneling and endless chintz. "Having traveled the world, I wanted to create something that would eventually bring it back here to me," says proprietor and native son Herbert Bren of his $11.4 million brainchild. A collaboration between Munich-based architects Niki Szilagyi and Evi Märklstetter, the Mavida [an error occurred while processing this directive] comprises 47 sparse but tasteful rooms, each with open granite showers, private balconies and widescreen views of the Alps. Public areas are appointed in muted tones and the only real nod to traditional Alpine gemütlichkeit is a classy, glass-enclosed fireplace.

But if décor isn't a draw, the restorative qualities of the Mavida's indoor swimming pool and spa should prove a near irresistible lure to daytrippers and holidaymakers flocking to the area for its year-round skiing. There are two Finnish saunas, a dampfbad (or steam bath) and a whole host of esoteric treatments on offer, including sea-salt peels, lymphatic draining and meditation coaching. There's even a floatarium — a salt-water pool in a private room with ambient melodies piped in. The Von Trapps would never recognize it, but such is the new sound of music in Zell am See.