These 11 Hotels Put You in Switzerland’s Most Idyllic Settings

When it comes to hospitality, Switzerland is in a class of its own. Whether you’re checking into Zurich’s castle-like Dolder Grand, standing sentinel over Lake Zurich, or staying at Alpine ski-in/ski-out resorts, such as Zermat’s indie-spirited Cervo, you can almost always count on warm, intuitive service throughout your stay.

Why is Switzerland so service forward? For starters, the polyglot country has four official linguistic regions—Italian, French, Swiss German, and Romansh—plus a nationwide English fluency often spoken not just to tourists but also as a neutral language between residents of those linguistic regions. Or perhaps it’s the nation’s humble Alpine farmer history and intentional lack of royal lineage that eschew snobbiness and elitism in favor of discretion and straightforwardness. Or maybe the presence of the world’s best hospitality schools helps visitors feel pampered and understood.

Add to the mix the world’s highest concentration of Michelin stars per capita—many for hotel restaurants—a geothermal landscape that sustainably fuels spas and thermal baths, and dopamine-inducing, cortisol-reducing Alpine vistas that relax the most agitated travelers. Top it all off with a heaping serving of local Pritzker-winning architects, and you have a destination loaded with great hotels. For Afar’s latest installment of Hotels We Love, read about our 11 favorite Swiss hotels.

The Alpina Gstaad

Courtesy of the Alpina Gstaad

• Location: Gstaad, Switzerland
• Why we love it: A sleek retreat with nods to tradition
• Loyalty program: I Prefer (Preferred Hotels & Resorts)
• From: $1,600
• Book now

Situated on a hill a short walk from the too-pretty-to-be-real resort town of Gstaad, the Alpina Gstaad debuted in 2012 as the first luxury hotel to open there in a century. It took the French and Swiss owners, who are based in Gstaad, 15 years to create the six-story hotel on a five-acre plot in adherence with the town’s strict building codes. The lobby makes a grand first impression with its contemporary artwork, double-height ceilings, sleek central staircase, and use of reclaimed wood sourced from Switzerland, France, and Austria.

The 58 timber-walled rooms, suites, and new residences, designed by Chaletbau Matti in collaboration with regional craftspeople, are mashups of contemporary and traditional. Abstract paintings and marble and timber-clad bathrooms with large soaking tubs are juxtaposed with carved wooden ceilings, hanging lamps fashioned out of embroidered leather cowbell straps, and painted wooden cupboards inspired by the generations-old versions in Swiss Alpine homes. Gas fireplaces add an extra dose of comfort on cold nights. Read Afar’s full review of the Alpina Gstaad, and check out our full list of top ski lodges and resorts around the world.

Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne

Courtesy of Beau-Rivage Palace

• Location: Lausanne
• Why we love it: Belle Époque hospitality for a new generation of travelers
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From: $710
• Book now

Lausanne’s iconic Beau-Rivage Palace is a master class in Belle Époque–era Swiss hospitality. It opened in 1861 and has run regal and strong ever since, with a guest roster of icons from Coco Chanel and Princess Grace to Grace Jones and Keanu Reeves. The 168-room hotel’s enviable location overlooks Lake Geneva, the snow-dusted French Alps, and the city’s leafy Olympic Park—a reminder that Lausanne is home to the International Olympic Committee.

But its modern amenities are even more impressive than its Alpine views and Corinthian-columned, marbled ballrooms. A sprawling Guerlain spa in the resort’s 10-acre park includes saunas, hammams, heated and thermal pools, and tennis courts. One restaurant (one of six on site), headed by noted chef Anne-Sophie Pic, has two Michelin stars. Interiors, revamped by Pierre-Yves Rochon in 2014, feature Murano glass chandeliers, parquet floors, stained glass domed ceilings, and tapestries. Sit on the wrought-iron balconies with signature canary-yellow awnings, enjoy a glass of chasselas from the neighboring UNESCO-listed Lavaux wine terraces, and get a hit of sunshine.

Bürgenstock Resort

Courtesy of Bürgenstock Resort

• Location: Lake Lucerne
• Why we love it: A renovated historic retreat with a standout wellness program and epic views
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From: $1,230
• Book now

After a nine-year, $600 million face lift, the iconic Bürgenstock Resort endures as one of Switzerland’s most top hotels. Set on 148 acres of Alpine ridgeline peering over the sapphire-depths of Lake Lucerne (locally known as Vierwaldtattersee), Bürgenstock is a collection of 4 hotels, 12 restaurants and bars, and a sprawling 107,000-square-foot spa (Europe’s largest) featuring hammams, saunas, and 3 pools, including an outdoor infinity thermal pool overlooking the lake and neighboring central Switzerland’s snow-capped Alps.

Both the 102-room Bürgenstock Hotel and the 160-room Waldhotel—a state-of-the-art medical spa and hotel—are the newest additions. But the historic Taverne 1879 and Palace Hotel, built in 1904, are by no means second best. Originally opened in 1873, the family-owned resort grew into a playground where Hollywood royalty romped—Sophia Loren lived here for many years while Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer in a chapel on the property. It’s possible to arrive by car, but boat arrivals cross the lake and lead to a steep funicular, creating a spectacular arrival experience. In 2024, the hotel launched sleep health programs and guided Hydrothermal Journeys, a resident water sommelier, and new pickleball courts.

Cervo Mountain Resort

Courtesy of Cervo Mountain Resort

• Location: Zermatt
• Why we love it: A contemporary-feeling retreat with a younger crowd and Matterhorn views
• From: $395
• Book now

Not all Swiss luxury hotels are castles or palaces. This indie-spirited 36-room, ski-in/ski-out property—an elevator ride from the base of Zermatt’s Sunnegga funicular—is a cluster of six chalets abutting the larch woods and overlooking the 13th-century, car-free village and ski resort of Zermatt. Its modern, explorer-themed rooms, with their gray palette and rough-hewn wooden furnishings, offer some of the town’s best Matterhorn views, some with fireplaces, all with balconies.

The 107-degree thermal bath outside the spa, with its twin yurts, is a great place to catch the alpenglühen on the Matterhorn, only visible during mornings. Cervo’s guests skew young, so the property focuses on experiences—e-bike tours, Bhutanese medicine baths, guided lake hikes, Matterhorn training treks, and yoga classes, to name a few. Meals are a standout too: They’re a mix of traditional Swiss cuisine with Middle Eastern influences and Italian flair, a reminder that Italy is just a hike, ski slope, or gondola ride away.

Dolder Grand

Courtesy of the Dolder Grand

• Location: Zurich
• Why we love it: A reimagined, lake-facing resort with serious wellness cred
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From: $1,110
• Book now
  

The landmark 175-room Dolder Grand sits beside Lake Zurich and the Glarus Alps and has hosted everyone from Nelson Mandela and Albert Einstein to Leonardo di Caprio and Oprah Winfrey. It was originally a kurhaus (health resort) when it opened in 1899, even employing Dr. Bircher-Benner, the Swiss inventor of Bircher Muesli. Flash forward to 2008, when architect Norman Foster and Partners added two contemporary wings and completely revamped the interiors.

Rooms in the historic main building skew traditional, with beige sofas and hand-painted wallpaper, while those in the new wing are spacious and ultra-mod, swathed in marble and sand-colored Jura limestone. The extensive art collection, featuring pieces by Duane Hanson, Keith Haring, and Niki de Saint Phalle, is not to be missed. Nor is its Michelin two-starred the Restaurant, where roebuck meets buckwheat and truffle and desserts like fragrant forest strawberries with coconut and limoncello inspire. Best of all is the 43,000-square-foot spa, paying homage to its kurhaus past, with a gym, mind and body studio, 17 treatment rooms, and a center for medical treatments and procedures, as well as saunas, steam baths, aroma pools, kotatsu footbaths, solariums, and sunaburos, warm pebble beds to heat up your core.

Four Seasons Hotel Des Bergues Geneva

Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Des Bergues Geneva

• Location: Geneva
• Why we love it: An elegant retreat in the center of Geneva that’s steeped in history
• From: $1,300
• Book now

How often can you stay in a hotel that hosted the inaugural 1920 meeting of the United Nations, then called the League of Nations? The revered Four Seasons Hotel Des Bergues Geneva dates back to 1834, evident by its frescoes, high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and gilded neoclassical facade; it became a Four Seasons property in 2005. The hotel sits in the heart of the city where Lake Geneva becomes the River Rhone. Its 115 guest rooms include 44 suites—all designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon—some with views of the French alps, Mont Blanc, Lake Geneva, and L'île Rousseau, a leafy island named after Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The three level, 30,000-square-foot Mont Blanc spa features a rooftop infinity pool, saunas, and hammams adorned in white Marmara marble and aged oak, while results-backed treatments include micropuncture mesotherapy, probiotic facials, cocoa wraps, and champagne grape seed scrubs. For a coupe of real champagne, head to one of the hotel’s three restaurants, including Izumi, serving Japanese Peruvian Nikkei cuisine, while Michelin-starred Il Lago cooks up Italian specialties like spaghetti alla chitarra and cacio and pepe potatoes.

Grand Resort Bad Ragaz

Courtesy of Leading Hotels of the World

• Location: Bad Ragaz
• Why we love it: A celebrated spa resort with standout cuisine
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From: $730
• Book now

The food-forward Grand Resort Bad Ragaz spa resort, located an hour from Zurich in the pinot noir–producing Rhine Valley of Canton Graubünden, has two five-star resorts, each with its own spa. The resort’s flagship property, Grand Hotel Quellenhof, reopened in July 2019 with champagne-hued rooms featuring Italian granite, modern chandeliers, and parquet walls and floors. The spa has clam shells filled with hot lava minerals, jet peel facials, caviar treatments, and singing bowl massages.

Right next door, Grand Resort Bad Ragaz gazes up at the toothy Glarus Alps and offers quicker access to Tamina Therme, with its oversize white oval windows, and magnesium- and bicarbonate-rich, naturally thermal 97.7-degree water sourced from Tamina Gorge in nearby Pfäfers, first discovered by 13th-century pilgrims. If two separate spas and hotels weren’t enough, the resort also has three Michelin-starred restaurants with a total of six Michelin stars. Choosing among them is hard, but if we had to pick one, it would be Memories restaurant, where chef Sven Wassmer is known for his fresh interpretation of seasonal Swiss cuisine.

Hôtel des Horlogers

Courtesy of Hôtel des Horlogers

• Location: Vallée de Joux
• Why we love it: A sustainable stay with meticulous design from a luxury Swiss watch company
• From: $365
• Book now

The modern, 50-room Hôtel des Horlogers is located in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland’s UNESCO-listed watchmaking valley, which sits on a plateau at 3,300 feet, just minutes from the French border, and an hour from Geneva airport. It’s also the first hospitality project from watch brand Audemars Piguet, whose headquarters and museum are located next door.

Danish-based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) designed both the hotel and the headquarters; it was commissioned to meld modern luxury with sustainability at the hotel. Like watches, the hotel’s meticulous details stand out: Muted colors call attention to oyster-shaped overhead lights and sculptural tree roots hang from the ceiling. The hotel’s materials are completely biodegradable and designed to eventually decompose; they include wood from the surrounding firs of the Risoud forest, local stone walls, cotton Literie Bonnet bed linens, and nontoxic carpet glue and textiles. Le Gogant restaurant’s seasonal, local menu features breaded Tomme Vaudoise cheese, vitello with fir aroma, and apricot clafoutis with rosemary sorbet.

Mandarin Oriental Palace Lucerne

Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern

• Location: Lucerne
• Why we love it: The former Lucerne Palace is now a reimagined contemporary retreat
• From: $1,070
• Book now

Lucerne’s Belle Époque gem, formerly the Lucerne Palace, reopened as a 136-room Mandarin Oriental in September 2022 and sits parked on a prime stretch of Lake Lucerne’s car-free promenade on the edge of the old town. Local architect Iwan Bühler’s 48 refurbished suites are now Lucerne’s largest. Props to local details like rubber ducky swans, mini bars filled with Swiss whiskey, and meticulously restored parquetry. Views of the surrounding Alps like Pilatus, once ascended by Queen Victoria on a mule, are stunning, as are the vistas of Jean Nouvel’s nearby KKL Concert Hall. Five restaurants, including newly Michelin-starred modern French restaurant Colonnade, and afternoon tea on the Belle Époque veranda, ensure that guests will never go hungry.

Park Hotel Vitznau

Courtesy of Park Hotel Vitznau

• Location: Lake Lucerne
• Why we love it: An intimate retreat along the green shores of Lake Lucerne
• Loyalty program: Leaders Club (Leading Hotels of the World)
• From: $1,750
• Book now

The quieter eastern shore of Lake Lucerne is dubbed the Knife Valley for being home to Victorinox, inventor of the Swiss army knife. Here, the picturesque town of Vitznau was built for English tourists during Switzerland’s golden age of Alpine exploration, and it remains dotted with gingerbread Victorian houses lining the green lakeshore. The prettiest of them is the white-turreted, steep-gabled Park Hotel Vitznau, with 48 light-filled modern guest rooms, some with balconies.

Its Michelin two-starred restaurant, atelier Focus, conjures up duck liver ice cream with beetroot and beef tartar, venison with maitake and lovage, and an apple with sorrel and miso caramel dessert, plus a 35,000-bottle wine cellar. You could dip into the pool that stretches from the sprawling interior spa with its ice grotto, saunas, and footbaths onto the resort’s grassy lakefront lawn, or just do as locals do, and jump into the turquoise lake’s swimming area under a canopy of evergreens.

7132 Hotel

Courtesy of 7132 Hotel

• Location: Vals
• Why we love it: A retreat built by world-class architects in an Alpine village
• From: $920
• Book now

Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor’s temple to water, Therme Vals, is reason enough to visit the ancient Alpine village of Vals, set high in Graubunden’s jagged, quartzite-studded Alps. But aesthetes and architects make pilgrimages to the 7132 Hotel, featuring furniture from Fritz Hensen and Eero Saarinen and 73 guest rooms designed by fellow Pritzker laureates. Zumthor added Renaissance-inspired stucco lustro plaster techniques, Tadao Ando designed Japanese teahouse-inspired rooms, and Kengo Kuma built timber-clad rooftop suites, while Thom Mayne’s dark wood and quartz chambers feel like sensory deprivation suites.

Four restaurants, including Michelin two-starred Silver, plate up locally foraged mushrooms and Alpine grown fruit and vegetables from neighboring regions like Piedmont, Alsace, and the Black Forest. Don’t miss Zumthor’s hot bath complex, a warren of steamy hammams, flower-strewn pools, and acoustic watery chambers built from sparkling gray blocks of locally quarried Valesite quartz. Guests have daily access to Zumthor’s iconic baths, including exclusive night bathing between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. three times a week.