Best hotels in the Swiss Alps

Discover the summer delights of two of the Engadin valley’s pre-eminent hotels, where cinematic notions of stately alpine hostelries become a reality.

Grand Hotel Kronenhof in Pontresina, Switzerland.

I am thinking of Monsieur Gustave H. as our little red train climbs east into the Swiss Alps, easing like a corkscrew through steep alpine passes, gliding above milky-blue rivers across stone bridges so high it’s impossible to imagine their construction more than a century ago.

You’ll know Monsieur (aka Ralph Fiennes) as the consummate concierge at director Wes Anderson’s fictional Grand Budapest Hotel, a movie that has inspired in me a great many romantic notions concerning stately alpine hostelries. As we chug by craggy peaks soaring above meadows carpeted in wild yarrow, bound for the Engadin Valley, I’m imagining post-prandial Schnapps, lobby boys with pillbox hats and a room with a staggering view.

Indoor pool at Kulm Hotel St Moritz in Switzerland.

Setting the scene, this short but dramatic train journey forms part of a UNESCO-listed network operated by the Rhaetian Railway, navigating a convoluted 385km ingeniously stitched into the mountains with 84 tunnels and 383 bridges.

The line opened to St Moritz in 1904 and I’m on a journey to discover the summer delights of two of the Engadin’s pre-eminent hotels, the Kulm in St Moritz and only 8km away in Pontresina, sister property the Grand Hotel Kronenhof.

Recently reinvigorated by the Niarchos family, of Greek shipping fame, both properties are splendid examples of the classic alpine hotel.

I’m guessing Monsieur has prepped the immaculate team at Kronenhof who’ve marked me as a pampered heiress (and not a fake German one). Check-in is the work of moments, suitcases are delivered with alacrity, a pot of tea dispatched almost before I’ve put down the phone to room service. And the views from my corner room are staggering, a broad Alpine sweep encompassing the Roseg Glacier, like a blob of clotted cream, the lively Flaz River thundering below. With the windows thrown open, the toot of the station master’s whistle can be heard above the rushing waters and far below someone is whizzing across the river on a zip-line.

The weather is glorious (if somewhat concerning at this altitude), an unprecedented 26C. As much of the rest of Europe bakes, this might be the perfect spot for the Continent’s newly minted heat refugees.

Concierge desk at Kulm Hotel St Moritz in Switzerland.

The 112-room Kronenhof opened in its present guise in 1901 as an impressive neo-Baroque palace inspired by the chateaux of the Loire, but the original 10-room inn, fronting Pontresina’s high street, dates from the mid- 19th century. Small timber-panelled rooms with little beds cosseted in cupboards above the stove are a reminder of when holidaying in the Alps was a rather more adventurous, and chilly, affair. It was a time when the family matriarch sat by the window observing arrivals, setting room rates based on the quality (and quantity) of a guest’s luggage, a strategy I’d rather like reinstated given the state of my port. Today this charming part of the hotel is home to the romantic Kronenstubli restaurant, where black-gloved waiters deliver the house speciality, pressed duck, quite a palaver and very Monsieur.

Breakfast likewise has tremendous gravitas, held in the hotel’s grand dining room with its vaulted frescoed ceilings and great swagged curtains; the old timber floors rock gently as waiters glide about the room delivering complicated lattes as tall as milkshakes. (Hiking boots are fine at breakfast but in the evenings more glamorous attire is recommended.)

Kronenhof’s palatial public rooms have been recently refurbished with a gentle hand by French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon. The once red main salon with epic crown chandelier and frescoes by Otto Haberer is now a medley of relaxing blues, blending seamlessly with the stunning alpine scenery through panoramic windows. Plush velvet sofas complement the original Eames chairs in the adjoining Chimney Room; the new-look bar is ravishing, in rich grape hues (Icelandic gin anyone?).

Lobby of Kulm Hotel St Moritz, Switzerland.

Heart of the hotel is the enormous day spa with large indoor pool, the complex spilling on to the long lawn, set about with tubs of flowers, deckchairs and a handy pop-up Champagne bar.

In the supremely comfortable guestrooms, Rochon provides for a pared-back Swiss aesthetic, a patchwork of blue and cream with vintage alpine photos, and glamorous marble bathrooms stocked generously with fragrant Asprey unguents.

By day the hotel is blissfully quiet, as guests head for the hills, hiking or biking. The trail to the Morteratsch Glacier, through sheets of wildflowers and graceful larch trees, features a series of markers noting the dramatic retreat of the glacier during the last century.

A restorative lunch at Alp-Schaukaserei Morteratsch, a picturesque little alpine cheesemaker, is about as Heidi as it comes; milk warmed in huge copper pots over a wood fire, window boxes spilling with bright red pelargoniums.

Junior suite, Kulm Hotel St Moritz in Switzerland.

Pontresina is a friendly village, home to traditional Engadin houses daubed with pretty sgraffito and hosting a Thursday market that draws Italian fruit growers from across the mountains. Swiss holidaymakers prefer it to busier, ritzier St Moritz.

But forget fur coats and fat cigars, this most famous of alpine towns is a brilliant summer destination with a lively calendar of events and chocolate box scenery (and chocolate shops) to die for. When I check into the Kulm, the bar is welcoming musicians, in town for the famous jazz festival.

Johannes Badrutt opened the Kulm in 1856, originally as a summer destination, but the wily hotel proprietor soon convinced his English clientele that winter held equal appeal.

An Outdoor Amusement Committee got to work, and the hotel is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of winter sports. Most notorious is the Cresta Run, founded by mad Englishmen who decided tobogganing headfirst on ice might be a good idea (many lost fingers, and several lives later they continue to pursue this daredevil sport with relish). Their atmospheric hotel basement clubroom, The Sunny Bar, is lined with vintage photos of intrepid “Cresta runners”. On winter evenings it morphs into a popular Peruvian restaurant.

Chimney suite, Grand Hotel Kronenhof in Pontresina, Switzerland.

Sited majestically above the lake, the 164-guestroom Kulm wears its grandeur with ease. A soaring arrival hall panelled in luminous pine leads up to the delightful grand salon, by the late, lauded Italian designer Renzo Mongiardino, a blend of fabrics and wallpapers adorned with gilt-framed art, both oil and digital. A striking Warhol leads into the moody bar and the hotel’s labyrinth of wide corridors is peppered with epic antique chests and armoires.

In 1879 Switzerland’s first light bulb was illuminated in the vast dining room. One imagines it made not one iota of difference given the proportions of this grand room. (At breakfast ask for directions to the small terrace, the best spot by far.)

Rochon designed Kulm’s guestrooms; here the mood is more traditionally Swiss alpine, although understated.

Engadine pine panelling (in the newly refurbished rooms the resinous scent lingers) is complemented by wooden shutters and if you’re lucky a little balcony overlooking the lake and alps.

The hotel’s popular Country Club, hosting competitors at the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics and reinvented in 2017 by Lord Norman Foster (who lives part of the year in St Moritz), has a lovely Italian/Mediterranean restaurant with large sunny terrace and fabulous bar (dashing chef Daniel Muller is generally on hand to greet guests). The club overlooks a lawn transformed into an ice rink in winter.

Most of us imagine a St Moritz blanketed in snow. But the alpine summer is something special. Floating in the warm waters of nearby Lake Marsch, gazing up at the mountains, inhaling the scent of sizzling wurst drifting across the water from breakfast campfires, I cannot imagine a more idyllic summer’s day.

Switzerland is ridiculously beautiful, and the Engadin Valley especially so. Every concierge and maitre d’ is as handsome and charming as Roger Federer.

The chefs are Italian (Lake Como isn’t far), the evening temperatures mild (no need for airconditioning) and there’s hiking, lake swimming, boating, horse-riding, mountain-biking, even yoga with goats (it’s a thing; Google it).

And the spirit of Monsieur lives on in the Engadin’s grandest alpine hotels where old-school service has never gone out of style.

Christine McCabe was a guest of the hotels and Etihad Airways.

In the know

Rhaetian’s alpine journeys are covered by the handy Swiss Travel Pass, providing access to trains, buses, boats and city transport as well as entry to more than 500 museums.

Rooms at Kulm Hotel St Moritz from CHF400 ($600).

Rooms at The Grand Hotel Kronenhof Pontresina from CHF355 ($530).

Both family-friendly hotels have world-class day spas and large children’s clubs offering comprehensive activity programs.