Baur Au Lac

Hotel description

It doesn’t get much grander than a 19th-century palace hotel in Europe’s banking capital. Baur au Lac, a Zurich institution since 1844, played host to pretty much anyone who was anyone, from royalty and heads of state to artists and Alfred Nobel. It’s kept itself in fine shape, and its antique-strewn opulence is a chastening reminder that today’s design hotels might not age quite so gracefully.

Here refreshingly little has changed. Today there’s a rooftop fitness center with an extraordinary view of the lake, and the bedrooms come with business-traveling musts like wireless internet and technology butlers. Mostly, though, Baur au Lac’s charms are timeless and low-tech: shoes are collected and shined while you sleep, and the hotel’s private garage will not just store your vehicle but clean it, refuel it, even fix it if need be.

This is the kind of hotel that becomes a hub for its city’s social life. The impossibly elegant restaurants are perhaps better suited for expense-account business dinners than to solo dining, and many a deal has no doubt been made over tea or aperitifs in Le Hall; meanwhile Club Diagonal is the sort of contemporary and relevant VIP-catering nightclub that’s a real rarity in an old-world grand hotel.