The Best Hotels Near Panorama, by the Record
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Local stone and timber frame a hotel that refuses to look like a chalet museum. Perched above Gstaad village on its own hill, The Alpina is a luxury ski resort with a Six Senses Spa, a private cinema, a cigar lounge, and a Japanese restaurant, all wrapped in a contemporary design that quietly side-steps everything you expect from the Alps. The floor-to-ceiling bar views of the Bernese Alps are doing plenty of heavy lifting for the ambiance either way.
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The only palace hotel on Gstaad's chalet-lined main street, Le Grand Bellevue is painted buttercup yellow and anchored inside by a Murano glass chandelier and two grand Steinway pianos. It holds a Forbes Four Star. The spa is monumental, there's an in-house cinema, and the whole place leans into a playful, color-forward energy that sits a little unexpectedly inside such a grand old frame.
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Belle Époque turrets rising above a valley floor with the Alps stacked behind them set the scene at this grand mountain resort. Kempinski Palace Engelberg has been around forever, and the bones show it, though a recent expansion added six floors and 129 rooms without losing the old-school hotel feel. A rooftop pool, spa, ski facilities, and a kids' club mean almost nobody has an excuse to be bored. Forbes Four Star.
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The checkerboard marble floors and pink scagliola pillars have been here since the Belle Epoque, and the views of Lake Lucerne and the Alps from the private balconies haven't aged a day either. This Forbes Five Star hotel sits right on the water in a restored lakeside palace, with a contemporary art collection and bespoke Italian furniture slipped in alongside the pale stucco without anyone making a fuss about it.
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A cherry-red funicular delivers you to two very different buildings perched above Lake Lucerne: a glass-fronted modern structure and a Belle Epoque holdout that looks like it never got the memo. This Swiss Alps resort spreads across 148 acres with ten restaurants and bars, five pools, a spa, and a golf course, though the lake views are so relentless that guests have been known to abandon all of those plans entirely. It holds a Forbes Four Star.
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Tibetan temple bells lined up beside mounted reindeer heads sets the tone: this is a Forbes Five Star luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps that can't quite decide if it's a mountain chalet or a Kyoto retreat, and somehow that tension works in its favor. Jean-Michel Gathy's design stacks alpine and Asian aesthetics until they start to look like cousins. There's a Japanese restaurant perched above 7,800 feet, a spa, pools, a golf course, and a cigar library for when serenity isn't quite the mood.
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Turrets, stone, and sprawling balconies on the shore of Lake Lucerne make the exterior look like a castle someone forgot to stop building. Inside, this all-suite hotel has been renovated into clean, modern rooms, each with a control panel that lets you check who's knocking before you answer. The Alps-facing pool in the spa doesn't hurt, and the La Prairie facials are for the guest who has already done the hike. A Forbes Five Star property.
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A private elevator cut into the rock face delivers you to this 30-room mountain lodge perched above Zermatt's rooftops, with the Matterhorn filling every window. The late architect Ali Tayar layered American lodge warmth, crackling fires and brown leather, against a Turkish bath and Finnish sauna. Four dining options, an indoor-outdoor pool, and a flower steam room round out a place that holds a Forbes Four Star and takes the views entirely for granted.