Steirereck am Pogusch: Inside Its Working Glasshaus

Steirereck am Pogusch made me rethink what luxury can feel like. Instead of polished marble and quiet corridors, our cabana sat inside a working Glasshaus, surrounded by citrus trees and lush plants. Outside, deep winter snow covered the mountain. Walking out of that dense greenery and into the snow never stopped feeling strange.

Beyond the cabanas, the Glasshaus houses a sauna facing the mountain and a shared lounge with an open fire where I read and worked. Every detail felt deliberate. Plenty of expensive hotels are striking, but very few create a world this rich and then carry that quality throughout the whole experience. I nearly kept Pogusch out of Atlas, purely due to a desire to preserve it.

The Reitbauer family opened Steirereck am Pogusch in 1996 as a countryside inn atop the Pogusch mountain pass, running it alongside their 3-Michelin-starred Steirereck im Stadtpark in Vienna. Just below the inn sits their working farm, which guests can visit to see where much of the food comes from. Today, the property cultivates over 400 edible plants and 110 heirloom orchard fruits right on site.

That seriousness about ingredients explains the glasshouses. One is kept at about 22°C for the herbs and spices used by the kitchen. The second, larger Glasshaus grows plants year-round with 10 guest cabanas built right inside it. Putting bedrooms in the middle of a working greenhouse sounds slightly mad on paper, but once you arrive, it feels entirely natural.

Elsewhere on the property, guests can stay in treehouses, Vogelhäuser and rooms spread across the mountain pass. Together they look like a fairytale settlement, although the charm never feels accidental. Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer said in a 2026 interview that they spent years thinking through every corner. After staying there, that is easy to believe.

Living inside the garden

Sleeping there felt different enough to send me looking for an explanation. Biophilic design is the formal name for bringing plants, daylight and views of nature into a building. Steirereck am Pogusch takes it further by making the plants part of the working life of the place.

Studies show that natural elements make a measurable difference in how we feel and how we experience spaces. In a 2024 experiment with 581 adults, living walls, dense planting, and natural light made the greatest contribution to relaxation, energy, and mental clarity. Another 2026 luxury hotel study built on this, showing that indoor greenery increased guest pleasure, strengthened perceptions of sustainability, and increased willingness to pay.

The direct health benefits are equally clear. A paper tracking 81 people in quarantine hotels found that vegetation, wider views, and larger windows were linked to better mental health, including less depression and stress. Another experiment comparing 50 young adults sleeping in a forest versus a standard room found that a single night in nature caused a much greater drop in anxiety and lowered systolic blood pressure. Incorporating nature into our surroundings directly improves well-being, mood, and peace of mind.

Research can measure elements like views, greenery, and light, but living them is something else entirely. Walking to our cabana, we could genuinely feel the difference in the air. The mountain framed every view, and surrounded by plants, that connection to nature was constant.

That spirit extended directly into the food. The hotel offers any guest the chance to help in the kitchen in exchange for breakfast the next day, so I decided to take them up on it. I spent the morning working alongside the cooks on small prep tasks, and learning to make gnocchi became the highlight of the trip, a recipe I still make at home to this day.

By evening, we were seated at the open kitchen bar, watching one of the same cooks prepare our dinner over an open flame while we carried on talking. The ingredients were exceptional at every meal. You go there for the rooms and the landscape, but the kitchen alone makes the entire trip. Steirereck am Pogusch remains my absolute favorite, and nothing else has quite matched it.

Which citrus suits your winter room?

The citrus trees inside Pogusch made the Glasshaus feel abundant in the middle of winter. A citrus tree can live in a conservatory, glazed porch or bright room at home too. Choose it by the lowest temperature that space normally reaches overnight.

All citrus need strong winter light and compost that drains freely. Water less in winter, but do not let the root ball dry out. Move the pot outside gradually once spring nights remain above the minimum for that plant.