Home > Holidays > Holidays in the Snow > Choosing a holiday to Switzerland

In the Snow: a Guide to our Swiss Hotels

No matter how often you visit Switzerland in winter, you are sure to fall under its spell each and every time. The majestic scenery, the delightful ancient villages and the equally charming and historic hotels all combine to give it a special allure.

The villages & activities

In Switzerland perhaps more than any other country in our winter programme, the activities you are interested in will influence your decision as to where to go. For lots of cross-country skiing, we recommend the Posthotel Engiadina in Zuoz or the Hotel Castle in Blitzingen, both great bases - whatever your level - for exploring the delightful Engadine and Goms respectively. The two valleys are quite different, not least in their architecture - in the Engadine, the old houses are built of stone and decorated with frescoes, while in the Goms, which boasts what is widely considered to be the best cross-country network in Switzerland, the houses are wooden and the colour of roasted chestnuts. Common to both, though, is an idyllic tranquillity, and plenty of opportunities to extend your range - in the Engadine, you can take advantage of the hotel minibus to access domains further along the valley, while in the Goms Valley the train that links the charming hamlets enables you to ski out and take the train back.

If downhill skiing is your passion, then the Romantik Hotel Bella Tola in St-Luc is definitely for you – the lifts and pistes are wonderfully quiet, and it is not uncommon to have the sunny, panoramic slopes more or less to yourself, especially on weekdays. The Hotel Edelweiss in Engelberg is another good choice, particularly if you are looking for a family holiday.

Of course, you needn’t ski at all, in which case we would recommend the Hotel Meisser in Guarda - from this peaceful village above the Engadine Valley you can strike out across the high slopes on foot or on snow-shoes (or as a passenger in a horse-drawn sleigh!), enjoying marvellous views into the valley and to the jagged peaks above. If you would like the flexibility of having all these activities on your doorstep plus skiing, then you should choose the Hotel Victoria in Kandersteg. Kandersteg is exactly the kind of pretty yet pleasantly bustling village that we seek out for our programme, and offers cross-country skiing for all abilities, downhill skiing for beginners and families, winter walking, snow-shoeing, curling, ice-skating and horse-drawn sleigh rides, not to mention swimming in the hotel’s own panoramic indoor pool.

The hotels

The wide range and appeal of the activities at Kandersteg is one reason why the 3-star Victoria, the hotel that has featured in our winter programme longer than any other, is our most popular hotel. The other is the Platzer family’s first-rate hospitality, still every bit as friendly and attentive as when we first ‘discovered’ the hotel nineteen years ago. Of course, great service is something we look for in all our featured hotels. Peter and Brigitta Gschwendtner and their team at the Hotel Castle in Blitzingen look after guests so well that they have won awards for their outstanding levels of service. This, combined with exquisite cuisine - also worthy of a prize in our opinion - and 4-star comforts that include very spacious bedrooms, a sauna and jacuzzi mean that you feel quite spoiled and pampered. The icing on the cake is the secluded location on the slopes of the Goms Valley, making it the best choice for an away-from-it-all week.

If you like romantic hotels with great character, then both the 4-star Romantik Hotel Bella Tola in St-Luc and the Hotel Meisser in Guarda fit the bill. The former was named Swiss Historic Hotel of the Year in 2001 - welcoming, attentive hosts Anne-Françoise and Claude Buchs have been careful to preserve the hotel’s elegant fin-de-siècle feel, evoking the era of the Grand Tour with beautiful antiques and polished wood floors. Even the fantastic spa complex, the best of our hotels in Switzerland, has been sympathetically designed to blend in. At the 3-star Meisser, the feeling of romance is enhanced by the village setting. We describe many of our featured places as ‘fairy-tale villages’, but Guarda actually was the setting for a fairy tale, and strolling through the cobbled streets lined with ancient, frescoed houses you feel as if you have been transported back in time. Further up the Engadine Valley, Zuoz is a very handsome village too. Here, the Posthotel Engiadina, complete with sauna and steam bath, is a 4-star hotel of style and Grand Tour elegance – it does not take too much imagination to picture wealthy Victorian travellers sipping tea by the fires of the high-ceilinged lounges. Finally, for a family holiday, we recommend the Hotel Edelweiss in Engelberg. Run by Peter and Susanne Kuhn, perhaps the friendliest of all the hotels in our selection, the hotel has a very relaxed atmosphere and a weekly programme of events that appeal to children of all ages.

If you would like further advice on which hotel to choose, then we would be happy to call you to discuss the hotels - simply drop us an email.

< To the top of this page

< Back to Holidays in the Snow Index