The Best Hotels Near S.Zimmer, 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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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.
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You arrive by horse-drawn sleigh, because there are no cars in Avoriaz. MIL8 is a ski-in, ski-out boutique hotel in a clifftop village where the streets are also the pistes, and the building's woody retro-futurist look pays quiet tribute to that whole era. Porthole windows, king beds, and an après-ski cocktail bar with genuine period flair fill the interior, while a heated outdoor infinity pool and glass-enclosed spa look out over the Alps.
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The balconies face Lake Geneva and the Alps, so the view does most of the decorating. This grand lakeside hotel in Lausanne has been around forever, and it leans into the chandeliers-and-marble register without apology. Rooms are spacious, beds are serious, and the spa and two pools give you reasons not to leave the property. A Forbes Four Star. The Pic restaurant handles French cuisine if you do venture downstairs.
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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 angular, pyramid-shaped building looming over Avoriaz is hard to miss, which is convenient because it's also ski-in, ski-out. This historic landmark hotel, a relic of the resort's 1960s heyday, has cedar-walled rooms that run small by design, protected from any structural changes by French preservation law. Stone fireplaces roar downstairs, the bar leans retro-chic, and the 34 rooms book up fast among people who have figured out that cozy and memorable aren't mutually exclusive.
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The central fireplace and the snow-capped peaks visible from nearly every window set the tone at this family-run Alpine chalet hotel in the heart of Morzine. Rooms are blond wood and traditional fabrics, comfortable without pretending to be fancy, which is precisely the point. The pool and terrace handle summer; the cozy bar handles après-ski. Morzine sits near the Col de Joux-Plane, a Tour de France haunt, so the surrounding mountains draw cyclists, hikers, and skiers alike.