Vacation in Toblach with the family Santer

Herbert Santer, native of Dobbiaco, visited the school of hotel management in Merano. Already in his youth, he assisted his parents a lot in the small pension "Villa Santer". In 1970 he married his present wife Godelieve Vercruysse and took the inn of his parents over. Through hard work and commitment, together with his wife, he expanded year for year the small guesthouse into a prestigious 4-star wellness and romantic hotel. Herbert is known as one of the pioneers of the tourism in Dobbiaco and a committed player in politics and sport. He was one of the founder of the wonderful cross-country stadium "Nordic Arena" in Tobalch.

Godelieve Santer is born in Belgium and is the good soul of the house. Already her mother owned a hotel and restaurant at the North Sea, therefore she graduated at the school of hotel management. When she came on winter holiday to Toblach, she met Herbert Santer and fell in love. With only 21 years, she left her beloved hometown Oostende to start a new adventure in the little village Dobbiaco, where now she is mother of four children and owner of a family-run Romantik Hotel.

Nathalie, the firstborn, is worldwide known as the most successful Italian biathlete. She indeed achieved numerous podium finishes in the World Cup races and was second in the overall standings of the Biathlon World Cup in season 1993/94. Moreover, she successfully took part to 5 Olympic Games: Albertville (1992), Lillehammer (1994), Nagano (1998), Salt Lake City (2002) and Torino (2006). Now that she concluded her carrier as biathlete, she turned her passion for horses into her current profession. The family’s traditional farmhouse “Steinwandterhof” in the Braies Valley has been recently renovated and turned into a B&B with riding school, where Nathalie offers horse riding lessons.

Jürgen, the only male, is junior manager and chef of the house. Since the graduation at the school of hotel management “Kaiserhof” in Merano, he supports his parents vigorously in the hotel. Nearby he also manages a farm in Braies (“Gstattlhof”) on which he rents apartments. In 2011 Jürgen married his wife Kathrin and is now father of two children. His wife Kathrin manages also two 4-star hotels in Braies: the Wellness and Family Hotel “Asterbel” and the mountain hotel “Croda Rossa” on Prato Piazza. In 2014 he built a wood power plant, with which he produces green electricity. An innovative way to actively participate in the protection of the climate.

Saskia Santer, the physiotherapist of the family, began cross-country skiing at the early age of 6, changing to Biathlon at the age of 24. She participated to two Olympic games: Salt Lake City (2002) and Torino (2006). Her greatest successes were the Junior World Championship title in cross-country skiing and some top rankings in the World Cup of cross-country skiing and biathlon. After 2005/06 Saskia concluded her carrier of biathlete and began her study of physiotherapy in Amsterdam, which she successfully completed in 2009. After many years of experience as a physiotherapist for the Swedish national biathlon Team and private physiotherapist of the famous German biathlete Miriam Gössner, Saskia recently opened in Oberau her own sport physiotherapy practice. Besides, she also directs the Spa at the family-run Romantik Hotel Santer. Since 2013 Saskia is married and mother of two sons.

Stephanie, the youngest of the three sisters („Santer Sisters“), won her first cross-country skiing race at the age of 5 and has been an active member of the Italian National cross-country Team since 1999. She took part to many international World Cup races and 2006 she qualified for the Winter Olympic Games of Torino. Unfortunately, a bad fall with the cross-country skis, which caused a fracture to her leg, prevented her from participating to those Games in her homeland. Only this training injury to Stephanie could prevent that first time in history three sisters attended the same Olympics. Stephanie’s greatest sporting success was the victory in the overall of the Fis Marathon Cup 2011/12 and the third place at the “Marcialonga”, an important international long distance race for all cross-country skiers. In the same year, Stephanie married and two years later, she got a young son, today she is mother of a son and a daughter. Besides sports, Stephanie studied Economics & Management at the Free University of Bolzano and graduated in summer 2014 successfully. Since then, Stephanie supports the family business.