Hotel la Perla: the Leading Hotels of the World

We didn't stay at Hotel La Perla but our friends were married there earlier this fall. When planning a destination wedding, there have to be activities for the guests and the bride arranged a hike one morning. We gathered at La Perla and Mathias, the proprietor, jumped into hosting mode. He doled out waters, lent backpacks without hesitation, scratched out directions for his preferred routes and offered us recommendations for his favorite refugios at the top, "tell them Hotel La Perla sent you." Hotel La Perla hosted the evening reception for our friends and in a moment unlike any I've ever witnessed, assembled his staff in traditional dress along a red carpet to welcome the bride and groom back from their ceremony. He had brought along his mother and father - Ernesto is 90 now - to introduce them to the married couple. The intimacy of this simple gesture - and the sincerity and purity behind it - touched our friends to the core and created a memory they'll never forget but also, that I'll never forget. The night they hosted was full of that same thoughtfulness and deliberateness. Staff was gracious and engaging. The food - unsurprisingly - was outstanding. And the wine list, the wine carte offered by the restaurant, is endless and full of gems. We stayed nearby on this visit but will return to stay on site with the Costa family, in this wonderful hotel where you want for nothing because they've already anticipated it - no matter what "it" is - and have it ready for you. They are consummate hospitality professionals and it was a delight to be in their company.

Trapped at La Perla in Corvara! Please send help! I’m stunned to read the nearly uniformly positive reviews of this hotel. If zero stars were an option I would choose that. There are four restaurants available at La Perla in the winter. A half board credit is included as part of our stay so we have already paid for half the cost of our dinners. One of the restaurants is a one star Michelin restaurant and the half board credit cannot be used toward that restaurant. We didn’t consider it as we are not one star Michelin folks and it is closed till our final night here. There is one default restaurant and two others for which one needs to make a reservation ahead of time. As we arrived here at 7:30 PM on a Sunday night we figured we’d go with the default restaurant. It alternates between an à la carte menu and a fixed menu and our night of arrival was the fixed menu. It consisted of a choice of two Primi and two Secondi. My wife and I ordered each of the dishes so that we could sample the variety. To say the food was barely edible is to be kind. My wife’s order was a chicken leg and when it came, it looked so odd that she (a physician with knowledge of anatomy) asked me if the dish served to her was what she had ordered. She ate half as that was as much a she could stomach. As a result of our dining experience we had no confidence in eating more meals here and asked to check out after one night, rather than than the planned three night stay, and go on to our next destination, Bologna, where we have been several times and have a choice of restaurants. Our travel agent informed us that our stay at La Perla was nonrefundable. As this hotel is quite expensive, that was disappointing. As I explained to our travel agent, I owned a business for many years, and if I had a client who was unhappy, I apologized to them, gave them their money back, and wished them the best. Evidently, that is not the MO of La Perla. In the spirit of sandwiching in a positive comment there is a robust selection of TV channels. Avoid La Perla.

The accommodations (Romantik double Room Dolomites), staff (housekeeping, dining room, front desk, spa, and everyone else, including the fellow who took skis from the ski room to the slope), meals at Les Stües (the half board dining room), spa, and all else were fantastic. The tariff for La Perla experience (half board) is worth it. So is dinner at La Stüa de Michil, the Hotel's Michelin one star restaurant, During our stay, the weather and snow conditions were ideal. The ski area (actually several interconnected ski areas) is extensive. Don't miss the Sellaronda.