The Best Hotels Near Vesuvius, by the Record

A two-room bed and breakfast on the top floor of a building that's been around forever, in a mountain town that produces a remarkable share of France's pastis and absinthe. One room leans historical, the other contemporary, both decorated with an eclecticism that stops just short of chaos. It's a genuinely small operation, so if both rooms are booked, that's it. Pontarlier sits midway between Basel and Geneva, which helps explain the clientele.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

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.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

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.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

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.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The infinity pool hangs above Lake Geneva like someone forgot to put a wall on it, and that view sets the tone for the whole stay. This is a grand Belle Époque palace hotel in Evian-les-Bains, still carrying its original architectural swagger while managing not to feel like a museum. The evian SPA, the lakeside setting, and a Michelin-starred restaurant on the premises make it easy to justify not leaving the property for days.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

A 19th-century cloister in the old heart of Besançon, converted into a boutique hotel with just enough monastic bones left to feel like somewhere, not just somewhere nice. The name means "wild," which the nuns who preceded the guests would find baffling given the spa. Rooms look out over the citadel and the river, and there's a restaurant downstairs for the nights you'd rather not wander far.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels