THE BEST CITY HOTELS FOR SKIERS
Inspired by the slower pace of lockdown life, Gabriella Le Breton reveals the virtues of taking time to explore the European cities skiers usually zip through on their way to the slopes and selects some of the best hotels in them.
We’ve all done it: flown over Lake Geneva, marvelling at the glittering lake ringed by snow-topped peaks and inviting promenades lined by grand old hotels, before hopping straight into a car or train out of the city, bound for the Alps. You’ve probably lost count of the number of times you’ve gazed upon beautiful Lake Annecy, as you whizz past it en-route to the Three Valleys or Val d’Isère, or glimpsed the medieval houses of Innsbruck as you head for Obergurgl, wondering when you’ll take the time to venture into the Tyrolean capital.
Rather than make a trip from Val d’Isère to Lech in a oner last winter, I broke my journey and stayed overnight in Geneva. It was a revelation, and not only because I had the opportunity to stay in one of the city’s finest hotels, the Beau-Rivage. I took an evening stroll along the lake, watched the sun set over the mountains with the glittering lights of Geneva around me, enjoyed live music and people watching in the glamorous hotel bar, slept like a log (at lower altitude) and awoke refreshed and excited to get back into the mountains, after a slap-up breakfast and some shopping.
If lockdown has taught us anything in recent months, it’s to take pleasure in slowing down. So, while we’re all desperate to get back on the slopes, try not to forget that there’s a whole world to explore in the beautiful cities we habitually dash through each winter and make this the season you discover one of them.
GENEVA
There’s much more to this sophisticated, cosmopolitan city than the swanky boutiques, paddle steamers and chocolatiers that make the postcards. By all means, join the fur-clad locals with a promenade along the Quai de Mont Blanc or join a watch-making workshop but, if you take the time to scratch Geneva’s glossy surface, you’ll find a fascinating counterculture. Try dipping into the boho Les Grottes district to discover its intriguing second-hand shops and renegade artists working in tiny ateliers or potter around the Quartier des Pâquis - its quirky galleries, speciality food shops and intimate jazz bars offer a refreshing antidote to the touristy feel of big Alpine resorts.
SPLURGE: BEAU-RIVAGE
Taking pride of place on Geneva’s prestigious Quai de Mont Blanc promenade, with Lake Geneva and the iconic jet d’eau at its feet, the Beau-Rivage has hosted the rich, royal and famous ever since it first opened in 1865. The very essence of old-school glamour, it delivers flawless service and jaw-dropping luxury. Whether you go all-out luxe with the sprawling, price on application Royal Suite, enjoy some star-gazing from the comfort of your bed in an opulent Lake View Loft Suite, or ‘make do’ with a sophisticated double room, you’ll be made to feel like a dignitary by the friendly, eager-to-help staff. And, if you’re really pining for the mountains, you can dine in a candlelit gondola for two on the hotel’s lakeside terrace.
Doubles from CHF441 / £360, room only
SAVE: LA COUR DES AUGUSTINS
Another artsy little number, La Cour des Augustins is located in the Planpalais part of town, on the left bank. Snap up one of the property’s Ski Stopover deals, which enable four adults to share a comfortable two-bedroom apartment, complete with a fully-equipped kitchen, dining table and sitting room, for less than £90 each, including breakfast.
Ski Stopover deals start from CHF415 / £340 b&b for four adults sharing a two-bedroom apartment on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
OFF-PISTE: HOTEL N’VY MANOTEL
Banish bland with this colour and art-filled hotel, set a few paces back from the lake by the Mon Repos park. Ideal for a fun stopover in Geneva, the four-star N’vY delivers good value for money in a city famed for its expensive hotels: bedrooms pack a colour punch with bespoke artworks and designer furniture, the bar attracts locals as well as hotel guests and the smart Trilby restaurant serves the best burger in town (for a hefty CHF28/£23, including fries, but then this is Geneva…).
Doubles from CHF180 / £145, room only
ANNECY
With its meandering canals, flanked by pastel-painted medieval buildings, straddled by narrow stone bridges and topped by the 13th-century Château d’Annecy, it’s easy to see why Annecy is known as the ‘Venice of the Alps’. Strolling along the cobbled alleyways of Annecy’s Old Town is a joy at the best of times but particularly in December, when the fairy light-bestrewn wooden chalets of the city’s Christmas market cluster along the canals and spill out onto the square overlooking the crystal-clear waters of Lake Annecy.
SPLURGE: BLACK BASS
There’s a distinctly fishy design theme to the Black Bass, a smart 25-room spa hotel set in landscaped grounds on the shores of Lake Annecy. It starts with the blue-painted dining room and glinting silver fish chandelier above the bar and continues through the iridescent scale-shaped tiles and little black fish soaps in the bathrooms. Fortunately, the hotel’s foodie credentials are anything but fishy: owned by the same hotel group that recently revamped Le Chabichou in Courchevel, the Black Bass’ gourmet menus are created by Le Chabichou’s legendary chef, Stéphane Buron, and make the most of the wealth of local produce on offer. If you can splash the extra cash, plump for a lake view room or suite for eye-popping views from the comfort of your bed.
Doubles from €197 / £176, room only
SAVE: HÔTEL DU CHÂTEAU
This cosy, no-frills little hotel is a real find: family run since 1959, it’s hunkered down at the feet of Annecy Castle, affording sweeping views of the town and lake below. Yes, the rooms are snug and you have to arrive early to bag one of the few parking spaces but Romain, the third-generation owner, will do everything possible to welcome you. Breakfast, an extra €9 per person, is a good spread of fresh baguettes, pastries, local cheeses, hams and jams as well as boiled eggs and cereals.
Doubles from €69 / £61, room only
OFF-PISTE: REFUGE D’ZE LA VOYE
Set at the foot of the l’Aiguille de Manigod, 45 minutes’ drive from Annecy, a stay at the Refuge D’Ze la Voye is like a step back in time. Dating to 1779, the sun-blackened timber and stone farming chalet has been sensitively restored and extended into an inviting refuge that sleeps up to 20 guests in six en-suite bedrooms. Owners Lucie and Lionel have retained all the classic Alpine charm of the ancient chalet while adding contemporary touches like a slick spa and convivial public dining and chilling area. The icing on the cake is that Lionel, a qualified mountain guide, is on hand to introduce you to the snowy secrets of this little-known area.
Doubles from €125 / £112, room only (dinner and breakfast from €41 / £36 per person)
INNSBRUCK
The capital of Tyrol, Innsbruck is like a mini kingdom all of its own, complete with a grand Imperial palace, ornate baroque cathedral, hill-top castle, excellent ski slopes and a towering Zaha Hadid-designed ski jump. As you stand in the heart of Innsbruck’s beautifully preserved Old Town admiring the Goldenes Dachl – the ‘little golden roof’ oriel window topped with 2,657 gilded tiles that was commissioned some 500 years ago by Emperor Maximilian I - you’ll hear the clatter of ski boots on cobbles as skiers head for the city’s funicular, bound for the slopes of Nordkette. Far more than a convenient skier’s stopover, Innsbruck is a resort within its own rights, with 11km of its own slopes and eight other resorts in the Olympia SkiWorld Innsbruck area located within 45 minutes’ drive of the city.
SPLURGE: STAGE12
From the moment you arrive at Stage12, passing through a vaulted tunnel into a leafy courtyard where a swing invites you to hang out while you check in at reception, you start to live by its “sleep, drink, love” mantra. Granted, it’s slick and stylish, and attracts plenty of Apple-toting business travellers, but Stage12’s informal, sociable attitude means that skiers feel equally at home here, relaxing in the spa, storing their skis in the basement and washing down freshly-popped popcorn with cocktails in the lively bar. Breakfast is a winner, complete with homemade Bircher muesli and excellent coffee.
Doubles from €124 / £112, room only
SAVE: NALA INDIVIDUELL HOTEL
Set in the heart of Innsbruck’s Old Town, a 10-minute walk from the railway station, the NALA is a quirky little oasis with its lush garden and playful interiors. The way in which the hotel categorises its 57 rooms – birdwatchers, mountain views, zen, bath lovers – gives an indication of its laidback personality as well as the benefits of each unique room, all of which offer Nespresso machines, carafes of fresh mountain water and spoiling toiletries. The breakfast buffet will set you up for a day’s skiing, exploring or travelling with a mass of pastries, strudels, breads and homemade granola bars as well as eggs, salmon and cold meats.
Doubles from €100 / £90, room only
OFF-PISTE: PARK HOTEL IGLS
Set on a plateau high above Innsbruck, the Park Hotel Igls boasts a long and eminent history as a sanatorium and medical spa. Guests are encouraged to stay here for a week to reap the full health benefits of a tailored nutrition, exercise and treatment programme but you can just pop in for a night or two. As you’d expect, the spa is superb with a mind-boggling array of saunas, steam rooms and pools; a huge choice of daily activities like yoga and spinning; and treatments that range from relaxing seaweed wraps and facials to manual abdominal therapy and micro-needling.
Doubles from €152 / £136, room only
ZÜRICH
With its charming Old Town, straddling the Limmat River where it feeds into Lake Zürich, the glossy boutiques of the Bahnhofstrasse and beautifully-tended lakeside parks and promenades, Zürich is a classically sophisticated Swiss city. However, thanks largely to the regeneration of the industrial quarter, Zürich-West, it’s now heralded as Switzerland’s edgiest destination, home to quirky vintage shops, designer boutiques, food markets and eclectic bars galore. Add to this the fact that resorts including Flims LAAX, Engelberg, Andermatt and Klosters are located within two hours’ drive or train ride and Zürich deserves to be on every skier’s urban bucket list.
SPLURGE: WIDDER
Never rush a stay at the Widder hotel – take your time exploring the intriguing maze of nine connected medieval townhouses in the bustling heart of Zürich and you’ll be richly rewarded. Not only is the hotel’s architecture a work of art, with medieval cobbled alleyways transformed into hotel corridors and cantilevered chrome balconies supporting 700-year-old oak beams, but it boasts a private art collection with works from Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Alberto Giacometti, to name but a few. For all the Widder’s art, history and designer furniture, it’s still a liveable, relaxing and inviting spot, with deeply indulgent bedrooms and probably the best breakfasts in town
Doubles from CHF428 / £350, including breakfast
SAVE: HOTEL HELVETIA
This welcoming spot in the heart of town somehow combines designer interiors and slick service with a homely feel. Comprising 35 bedrooms across two interconnected houses overlooking the Sihl river, the hotel is a short stroll from the railway station and Lake Zürich. While the rates aren’t quite rock bottom, luxury touches such as the supremely comfy handcrafted Hästens beds, smart Kiehl’s toiletries and an excellent restaurant make this a great property in terms of value for money.
Doubles from CHF180 / £145, room only
OFF-PISTE: 25HOURS HOTEL
Fancy train spotting from the sauna, observing up-and-coming artists at work in an on-site atelier and paying for your hotel room by pawning some of your possessions? Then 25hours Hotel Langstrasse is for you. Overlooking Zürich’s busy railway station, this quirky hotel taps into nostalgia for the bygone analogue age with décor in the form of polaroid cameras, arcade games and artworks crafted from cassette tapes. Contact the hotel curator with a snapshot and description of an item you’re happy to part with in return for an overnight stay and you’ll hear back from him within 25 hours with your options.
Doubles from CHF200 / £153, room only
MILAN
Ruled over the centuries by Caesar, Napoléon, Austro-Hungarian emperors and Mussolini, Milan has been home to Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Miuccia Bianchi Prada and Silvio Berlusconi. This rich history, together with a striking blend of ancient and cutting-edge architecture, superb foodie scene and a global reputation for design and fashion make it a truly captivating city. Ski resorts including Champoluc, Courmayeur and Andermatt are located just over two hours’ drive away, making Milan an ideal spot for a pre-or post-ski culture fix: enjoy the opera at La Scala, admire Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ at the Basilica di Santa Maria delle Grazie, take a tour of the towering Duomo and get lost in the Quadrilatero d'Oro’s tangle of boutique-lined streets.
SPLURGE: SENATO HOTEL MILANO
The Senato positively oozes luxury, from the handmade chandeliers that glint above solid marble floors to the bespoke brass and leather furniture that dots the hotel’s stylish bedrooms and the fragrant Tonatto Profumi toiletries in the Carrara marble bathrooms. There’s a soft sound of water, rippling in the breeze in the interior courtyard; light floods into the 43 crisp white bedrooms through floor-to-ceiling windows; and Italians chat animatedly with the hotel’s owners, the fourth generation of the Ranzo family. It’s a quintessentially Italian experience, best topped off with an aperitivo in the sultry bar or on the heated patio.
Doubles from €286 / £255, including breakfast
SAVE: OSTELLO BELLO MILAN
The Ostello Bello hostel brand was launched in 2011 with this property on Via Medici, bang in the heart of Milan’s medieval old town, renovated and run by a group of enterprising, well-travelled friends. So popular has it proven that the award-winning brand now boasts three further hostels in Italy and four in Mandalay. The original Milan hostel offers mixed and same-sex dorms, family rooms and double/twin en-suite bedrooms (there are only two of the last, so advance booking is crucial!). As with every good hostel, Ostello Bello encourages guests to mingle and share experiences in the bustling café, where generous, wholesome and free dinners and breakfasts are served, in the bright and breezy communal kitchen and in the cosy television lounge.
Doubles from €39 / £35, including breakfast and dinner
OFF-PISTE: LAFAVIA FOUR ROOMS
This four-bedroom B&B is set in Milan’s Garibaldi district, placing the city’s key sites within 20 minutes’ walk. Owners Marco and Fabio extend a warm welcome to their guests in the 19th-century apartment they have lovingly restored with an eclectic mix of Art Deco and vintage furniture and artwork, as well as pieces gathered from their extensive globetrotting adventures. Two of the bedrooms boast small kitchens and private terraces. Breakfast, served on the veranda, is a homemade feast of organic and local produce – the marmalade is made using oranges from Marco and Fabio’s very own citrus grove.
Doubles from €105 / £94, including breakfast.
