Badrutt's Palace Hotel

Badrutt's Palace Hotel

If Suvretta House is St Moritz for people who prefer to be slightly apart from it, Badrutt's Palace is St Moritz at full volume. It has been at the centre of the town, above the lake, since 1896, and for much of that time it has been the centre of the town, the building around which the social life of one of Europe's most deliberately glamorous resorts has organised itself. Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, and several decades of international jet set have all passed through Le Grand Hall, which remains one of the great see-and-be-seen lobbies in Alpine hotel-making. None of this is incidental to the experience. If you find it appealing, you are the right guest. If you find it alienating, Suvretta is two kilometres away. The 155 rooms and suites are individually furnished, many with views over Lake St Moritz and the Engadine mountains, and the larger suites, including the 280-square-metre Hans Badrutt suite, are among the most serious rooms in Swiss Alpine hospitality. Butler service is standard in all suites. The dining offer runs to eight restaurants, from French haute cuisine to Nobu to Chesa Veglia, the 17th-century farmhouse across the road that functions as the hotel's most atmospheric dining room, with wood panelling, low ceilings, and a fondue that people plan their winters around. The Palace Wellness spa draws on organic botanicals and the surrounding landscape, the indoor and outdoor pools are exceptional, and the King's Club nightclub below the hotel has been a fixture of the St Moritz season for decades. The hotel operates seasonally, closing between seasons, and the winter iteration, from December through April, is the one that made the reputation. The White Turf horse races on the frozen lake, the polo, the Cresta Run: the events of the St Moritz season orbit Badrutt's Palace in the way that events at a royal court orbit the palace itself, which is more or less the intended effect. The short version: A 155-room grand palace hotel above Lake St Moritz, open since 1896, with eight restaurants including Chesa Veglia, a Nobu, butler service in all suites, and the most storied social history of any hotel in the Alps.