Montreux
Switzerland


The Experience

Mild year-round temps and palm trees make sheltered Montreux one of the most desirable resort towns on the Swiss Riviera, so it comes as no surprise that this popular historic hotel is hopping January through December. Once past the red-caped doormen, an air of the good life is apparent at every turn. The sweeping central staircase that anchors the opulent hotel lobby is enough to conjure images of Rhett Butler, and there’s always a parade of jet-setters and well-to-do Swiss misses at the hotel’s upmarket shopping mall. Literary lions Tolstoy, Flaubert and Dostoyevsky all spent time here, but it was controversial Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita fame who practically made the Montreux Palace his second home.

The Rooms

Even the standard rooms in this hotel, with mountain rather than lake views, are redolent of the Belle Epoque era, with striped floor-to-ceiling drapes, bouquets of fresh flowers and marble baths. In the case of more upscale rooms and suites, you also have French doors leading out onto private balconies and verandas. Here, the formula is simple: The better the room, the better the vistas. At the very top end, the rooftop Palace Suite (960 square feet) can accommodate up to 50 people, and its panoramic views over the Lac Leman and the Alps are the best the hotel has to offer.

The Service

Service here is formal yet friendly. The adept concierges can arrange an enormous number of interesting activities any time of year, like trips on the narrow-gauge Montreux-Oberland-Bernois railway’s Panoramic Express or Cessna flights that actually touch down on nearby glaciers. Conversely, the restaurant service, albeit courteous, at times surpasses leisurely to officially qualify as slow -- if you’re starving and want a quick bite, best look elsewhere.

The Highlights

The Swiss are never shy about patronizing their own five-star hotels, and the Sunday brunch in the colonnaded, chandeliered upstairs dining room is an institution for Montreux locals. Eponymous Harry’s New York Bar, with its low-lit atmosphere and circular central bar, buzzes until late with hotel guests and locals alike, but the downstairs street-side Brasserie, with menus falling apart and wine served in dirty carafes, is a disappointment. At over 20,000 square feet, the waterfall-accented Amrita Wellness Spa is arguably the largest -- and quite possibly the finest -- in Switzerland, though its “caviar body treatment” seems like a spotlight-nabbing gimmick.

--Alistair Scott

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