Cortina d'Ampezzo is about to get a new luxury address. The First Cortina, part of The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts group, opens in early December on Corso Italia, the town's main street in the heart of the Dolomites.
The selling point is simple: every one of the 76 rooms and suites comes with a private balcony facing the mountains. Studio Marincola Architects designed the building around that idea, using full-height glass panels and a restrained mix of Dolomia stone and fir wood so the scenery does the talking. If you're splashing out, the Jacuzzi suite view balcony adds a sunken hot tub positioned right at the window.
Cortina is a winter sports town first and foremost — it will co-host the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026 — and the hotel leans into that. There's a dedicated ski room for storing gear, plus skis and snowboards to rent on site. For summer visitors, the hotel also stocks hiking and trekking equipment, so the kit excuse for skipping the trail doesn't apply.
Recovery time gets its own two-floor space. The REVĪVŌ Spa includes treatment rooms, a sauna, a traditional hammam and an indoor-outdoor pool. Dining splits between two concepts: Zuma, the celebrity-magnet Japanese restaurant group, runs aperitivo and dinner with live music and DJ sets afterwards, while Velo handles all-day Italian cooking from breakfast through to dinner, with afternoon tea in between.
Practically speaking, the hotel is a long transfer from anywhere — Venice Marco Polo and Treviso airports are both roughly two hours away by car. That's the trade-off for waking up to some of Europe's most dramatic peaks, whether they're snow-covered in January or glowing pink at a summer sunset.
For travellers, this fits a specific brief: a design-led alpine base with serious spa and food credentials, workable for both a ski week and a summer hiking trip. If you want to be there for the Olympics buzz or the December season opening, booking early is wise — new luxury openings in Cortina tend to fill fast.