Crans-Montana sits on a south facing shelf and is one of the one of the sunniest ski resorts in Europe

Crans-Montana was one of the destinations for skiers in the 1980s looking for Swiss chic, extensive pistes, high quality dining and spectacular views. It was overtaken in the fashion stakes by the likes of Courchevel, but is now coming back with a bang into the consciousness of high-end winter sports visitors. Darius Sanai visits, and likes what he sees

7:30 am at the LeCrans hotel in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Wandering the considerable distance in our wood panelled room between the bed and the glass door to the balcony, past the living area, I draw back the curtains. A sea of white and blue floods in. We are on a south-facing shelf high above a broad valley far below. In front of me, far away on the other side of the valley, is a jagged range of peaks. The view extends for 40 km in either direction.

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I step onto the balcony. It snowed all night, before clearing at dawn. My bare feet crunch through the powder. I wonder about spending the day in the spa, pool and jacuzzi. I could admire the view, go for a walk, progress effortlessly from lunch through dinner in the classy, intimate dining spaces in this uber-chic boutique luxury hotel in a forest above Crans, the old-new (more on that shortly) swanky destination in Switzerland.

Terrace with a view at the hotel, Le Crans

But that would be wrong. I order room service: some home made Bircher muesli, green juice, an oat latte, taken inside with a view onto the whole of Switzerland, so it seems. So many resorts in the Alps are buried deep in valleys: you need to take the lift up for the views. Or they have featureless views of anonymous mountainsides with endless motorway pistes. Here I am gazing from Mont Blanc to the St Bernard Pass, through the Zermatt valley and the sabre-tooth shaped Weisshorn, to the peaks above Andermatt, looking at the full range of the highest peaks in Switzerland, the focus of Alpinists through the generations, without moving from my room. Below (way below) are the vineyards of the Valais.

Le Crans hotel sits in a forrest above a village

I have to move. I squeeze on my boots, walk out of the ski room and across a snow covered lane, and clip on my skis. There is a shuttle to the lift station in Crans, visible below through the woods. But where’s the fun in that. Skis on, I follow a track made by a couple of other skiers across the woods, gently downwards, close to the trees, and shoot down a little vertical section, turning smartly onto the piste. I am on the main run into the resort, before anyone has had the chance to explore it.

Contemporary alpine chic at Le Crans 

It’s an old-fashioned piste, in the nicest way. It weaves and turns and flattens through real scenery, forests and glades and past lakes. Not a motorway with slip roads and parallel pistes leading to the same place. There’s a fun chicane near the new Six Senses Resort, and then the lift station appears.

Le Crans spa has a heated outdoor pool

Crans-Montana is having a moment. Prominent in the 20th century as a ski/golf resort, a year round destination before that was fashionable, it lost social kudos to places like Verbier (across the broad Rhône valley) and Courchevel more recently. Now, it has rediscovered its own qualities. Its sunshine and views are exceptional, as it is on a high shelf above the deep Rhône valley, facing south. It has a good, if not exceptional, vertical drop for skiing and both high and tree-lined pistes. Being less than a kilometre (vertically) from some of the best vineyards in Switzerland guarantees excellent wine and, not coincidentally, some very gourmet focussed resort and mountain restaurants – it has four Michelin-starred restaurants.

The top slopes at Crans-Montana are at around 3000m altitude

It also has good snow: at 1550m, it is at a good altitude, with top station at just under 3000m. On the one hand, the south facing, sunny aspect means warm spring days create early melt, but being high above a deep valley in the west of the Alps means relatively high snowfall during the winter, when fronts come in either from the west or the southwest, as a counterpoint. When it snows in Switzerland, it really snows in Crans.

The Michelin starred restaurant Le Mont Blanc at Le Crans

The last couple of years have reflected this revival: where previously it was the domain of smart middle class families from northern Europe, Crans is now seeing more LUX-type people move in. The Six Senses opens this February, with Residences being snapped up by ultra high net worths. We hear of the Swiss elite snapping up apartments near the resort centre. It’s not as expensive to buy property in Crans as in Verbier or Gstaad, and it may lack the ski breadth of the former and the social kudos of the latter, but it is sunnier and less hectic than Verbier and higher than Gstaad. Locals say prices are heading up: but as a counterpoint, there is a lot of property in Crans and its neighbour, Montana, and parts of the resort are a bit 20th century modern for some tastes.

Sunset with a view of Mont Blanc

I ponder all this while in the gondola up to the top station. I spend the day shooting down an array of high and low runs, all of them interesting in a classic kind of way. I don’t know enough about ski resort design to analyse why Crans, like Lech or Klosters, seems classic in the way you ski. There’s something about the shape of the pistes, shaped to the mountain rather than trying to conquer the mountain; compromised but interesting, unpredictable. It seems organic and classical, somehow, compared to skiing at Courchevel or Val d’Isere, which have bigger ski areas, but also many runs that look like each other. The runs below the tree line here are gorgeous, wide and curving through the forest.

Winter morning view from the hotel Le Crans

Getting back to the hotel from the main run down, you have to know which section of trees to turn off at, and then whiz along a flattish forest path which finishes at the hotel’s doorstep. It’s not officially a piste, but it’s a lot of fun. (You can always ski down to the end of the piste and the hotel will collect you).

Read more: The serene beauty of little-known Alpine resort Drei Zinnen

That evening, I dine at Le Crans. The hotel is snuggled in the forest above the resort. There are a few other chalets dotted around, otherwise only trees. The design, a reworking of a 1960s hotel in contemporary wood and stone, is both relaxing and striking. The restaurant, with its Michelin star, is quite minimalist and relaxed in feel, with plenty of space and broad views. The menu is poetry: dishes called They Flutter in the Light Wind (Jerusalem artichoke, fig, hay, lime and shimeji) or Like A Melancholic Garden (chestnuts, chanterelles, salsify, broccoli). The wine is also poetic: I try a Cornalin, made from a Swiss red grape, from a vineyard in the valley below. It is spicy, with autumn berries and a soft, velvet length. The best Swiss wines are worthy of shining on the international stage, but are prevented from doing so by the Swiss, who know that and have the means to buy them all themselves.

Views extend over the deep Rhône valley to the mountains above Zermatt

The next evening, after skiing the length of the resorts runs to above Montana, a considerable horizontal and vertical distance, I go for room service along with a bottle of Heida, made with another Swiss grape, from a terraced vineyard below Montana. The Heida is full of lemon-herb creaminess, and stands up to a very high quality grilled chicken salad. I sip the last glass on the balcony; the snow has melted a little during the day and now refrozen under the stars. A gentle wind blows the scent of pine cones from the woods and the silhouette of 100 kilometres of Alps stands out in the moonlight in front of me. Whether or not Crans’s new moment has truly come, I, like many others, will certainly be coming back.

Find out more: https://lecrans.com/

The Alpine village of St. Moritz offers more than just an exclusive social scene; the winter sports are first rate too, say Darius Sanai

With snow already falling in the Swiss Alps, LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai looks forward to another first-class ski season in St Mortiz

The first Alpine snowfall of the season has already happened – there is up to 30cm of fresh powder across Switzerland, particularly in the south of the country, due to a weather system recently pushing up from Italy. So naturally our thoughts are turning to St Moritz. Think St Moritz, and you probably think lavish New Year’s Eve parties, long evenings drinking Masseto in friends’ houses, and early evening aperitifs at Pavarotti’s.

It’s easy to overlook the winter sports when you’re so familiar with the social element – and St Moritz has such an engrossing social, cultural and artistic life that you’d be forgiven for never having snapped on a pair of Rossignols while there. Forgiven, but mistaken.

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So here’s a snapshot of what you could, and should, be doing as soon as the lifts open in a few days: it’s our perfect day in St Moritz. We started our day on the slopes at Piz Nair, the top station on the Corviglia mountain, one of three big ski mountains in the area, and the one directly above the village.

It was snowing lightly when we entered the funicular station in St Moritz; we travelled through a layer of thick cloud, fearing a whiteout day, and then, suddenly, we emerged upwards into a blue and white high mountain peaky wonderland.

The Signal cable car is the first stage of the journey towards Piz Nair, the peak at the top of Corviglia, the most celebrated of the many ski mountains around St Moritz

At Piz Nair I shuffled over to a snow shelf to look at the view properly. In every direction, triangular peaks were poking out of a soft, uniform blanket of cloud below us. There was no end to the sea of peaks: St Moritz is famous for its “champagne air”, supposedly the purest in the Alps, as it is so well surrounded by high peaks on every side.

Read more: Why now is the time to book into the Bulgari Resort Dubai

The mountain has a superb selection of mainly red runs, suited to good intermediates; we particularly liked the long run all the way from Piz Nair down to Celerina, below St Moritz, which ran through two valleys and finally descended through the trees, with fantastic views of the Piz Bernina mountains, higher than 4000m, opposite. The clouds melted away during the morning, with more panoramas revealing themselves.

The White Marmot restaurant with panoramic views of the mountains

And then – lunch. Lunch on the slopes in St Moritz is almost a religion: you are judged by where you go, and where you sit, so here’s some advice: book a table, as soon as you know when you’re going, at White Marmot. This is the restaurant at the Corviglia mountain station, three quarters of the way up the slopes and directly above the town itself. You can easily access White Marmot without skis, by taking the funicular train up, and many people do. Huge picture windows give you an unremitting panorama, and the decor – bare wooden tables fully dressed with huge Riedel wine glasses, 20th century modern design elements, colourful throws, magnums of Dom Perignon sitting on ice – makes White Marmot look like there’s a party going on even before the party has started. The cuisine is beautiful too, varying from Swiss mountain specialities with a contemporary twist to modern Italian haute cuisine.

The Suvretta House is a palace hotel overlooking forests and lakes, with its own ski lift

After lunch, we took a final lift up to Piz Nair to take in the view of what seemed like all of Switzerland again, and headed down, via a series of lifts, to Suvretta House. One of St Moritz’s classic luxury palace hotels, it sits amid a forest on its own ski slope, with its own ski lift. Having skied to the door, we sat in its grand drawing room, looking out over the forest and the valley, sipping on local Pinot Noir, and preparing for the second feast of the day, at Suvretta House’s celebrated Stube restaurant.

The Stube has an informal atmosphere, plenty of Alpine pine, and serves a perfected selection of Swiss, Asian and contemporary American specialities. The chicken wrap is to die for. And all you have to do after dinner is wander up to your room, with a view over the forests and frozen lakes, and prepare for a reprise the next day. Book for early December, and you’ll have fresh snow this year and no crowds.

For more information visit: engadin.ch
Book your stay: suvrettahouse.ch

An explorer sets out on Day 6 of the recent A&K South Pole expedition. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

At the age of 76, LUX contributor and founder of luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent Geoffrey Kent is still adventuring. Here he recalls one of his most recent and challenging expeditions into the South Pole

For the last three years, I have been occupied with a desire to go on a journey to Antarctica. Like my hero of heroes, Sir Ernest Shackleton, I dreamed of getting to the South Pole. Unlike Shackleton, who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, I wanted to do it in comfort and five-star style.

Adventure is in my genes, and since my parents and I founded A&K in 1962, I’ve packed a lot in. I’ve climbed Kilimanjaro, hiked to Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan, and circled the earth along the equator. I’ve journeyed from the source of the Upper Amazon to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean and been to Iraq with some special forces’ guys. I have been to the edge of space in an English Electric Lightning, travelling Mach 2.2 at 21 kilometres up, and hiked to Base Camp Everest. I was officially the last person in the twentieth century to stand on the North Pole.

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My recent expedition to the South Pole is my latest and perhaps most challenging adventure. Like all dedicated travellers, my wanderlust constantly drives me. I’m obsessed with the app Been, which reveals that I have visited 70 per cent of the world’s countries (I travel approximately 270 days each year). In the next few years, I want it to be 100 per cent. The desire to see the whole world is the driving force behind Inspiring Expeditions by Geoffrey Kent.

In December 2018, seven intrepid guests and I spent the latter part of December in the vast wilderness that is Antarctica. Another continent ticked off – a personal dream fulfilled.

Day 12: arriving by private jet into Whichaway Camp. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

When most people speak of having been to Antarctica, they have travelled by cruise ship from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula, a 1,300-kilometre chain of mountains and volcanoes that juts north towards South America. My expedition was to a dramatically different destination. The Antarctica that I’m talking about can’t be accessed by cruise ship. To get to the South Pole, you need a plane and skis or snowmobiles. Antarctica is vast – mind-bogglingly big. To put it in perspective, from our base inside the Antarctic Circle to get to the South Pole required an eight-hour flight, a re-fuelling stop and the crossing of a time-zone.

Our group – consisting of one couple and their two sons, a father and son, and me – set off from sunny Cape Town in mid-December. We landed on the first of three ice runways (or more aptly iceways) that A&K constructed in Antarctica for this journey and got our first glimpse of the land of snow and ice at a place dramatically named ‘Wolf’s Fang’.

Day 8: ice climbing. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

There are no wolves for thousands of kilometres, just the occasional snow petrel flying overhead. Antarctica is a high desolate white desert where temperatures in summer rarely get above minus 20 degrees Celsius and the winter average is minus 60. It never rains here and the snow that falls is sparse. With less than 20cm of snowfall a year, Antarctica is technically a desert. It is so dry that with the correct kit on, you feel colder on London’s streets on a particularly grim day.

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It’s the last true wilderness on our planet. The last frontier – the final place on the planet where a traveller can feel genuinely remote and know that your footprints may be the first, that no other human may have walked here before. And if they have… what a club to be part of.

From our basecamp in an oasis – a series of rocky outcrops amongst the ice – over the course of eight days, our group flew to Atka Bay to view the large colony of Emperor penguins. There, we also learned essential winter skills, explored ice caves, visited both Russian and American research stations, summitted (and earned the right to name) a peak in the Drygalski mountain range, and ventured to the Geographic South Pole.

Day 4: visiting the Emperor penguins. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

From the top of ‘Mount Inspiring’ – the virgin mountain which our group summited in the company of Marko Prezelj, four-time Piolet d’Or winner – staring over this vast expanse of white in awe of nature at its most elemental, it’s hard to imagine the flux that this continent is undergoing. Sadly, Antarctica has experienced an air temperature increase of three degrees Celsius. This rise in temperature is causing change – perennial snow and ice cover are melting, glaciers are retreating, and some ice shelves have collapsed completely. In the last 60 years, there has been a loss of 25,000 square kilometres of ice shelf. The flora and fauna are facing a threat too. Emperor penguin numbers have declined by up to half in some places and the number of breeding pairs may fall by 80 per cent by 2100.

Read more: The poetic beauty of the Swiss Engadine

One of the greatest, yet least seen, wildlife spectacles on the planet, the colony of 6,000 breeding pairs at Atka Bay is extraordinary. Two and a half hours by airplane away from basecamp, thousands of adolescents were finding their feet and snow bathing to cool off in strong sun, while their parents fished. These animals are under threat from human action from thousands of kilometres away.

We reached the Pole two days and one hundred and seven years after Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer who won the race to the South Pole, just ahead of Scott. Standing at the designated marker at the lowest point on earth, you are able to walk around the world in a few steps. Surrounding the marker are flags from the twelve signatories of the Antarctic Treaty that sets aside the continent as a scientific preserve. It was a good place to reflect on the adventure of getting here and wondering about what’s going to become of this white desert… and what we all can do about it.

Discover Abercombie & Kent’s portfolio of luxury travel tours: abercrombiekent.co.uk

Night time skiing on Corvatsch Mountain, St. Mortiz

It’s been another winter of fantastic snowfall, and Darius Sanai is dreaming of his favourite location in the Alps, and the vibe at the Kulm hotel in St Moritz

It’s been another early winter of record snowfalls in the Alps, particularly in the eastern and northern tranches of the range. So it’s a perfect time to plan your impromptu visit to the mountains, and January and early February will be beyond perfect this year, with excellent snow and the customary lack of crowds that this part of the season brings, before the school holidays in mid-February change the tone.

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One of the saddest sights is to see couples and families split for ski weekends, with non-skiers staying at home. If you’re going heli-skiing in Canada, there may be nothing for your other half to do, but take a trip to one of our favourite hotels in one of the most wonderful parts of the Alps, and it might be that, at this time of year, as the events diary bristles, it’s the non-skier who makes the skier in the party jealous.

St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow, 2013

The hotel is the Kulm, the fabulous contemporary-classic grande dame of St Moritz’s. The area is famed for its range of activities for both skiers and non-skiers. This weekend sees the legendary Snow Polo on the lake of St Moritz (where the Kulm, has its own special stand where you can graze on gourmet delicacies and sip champagne all day). Happening simultaneously nearby are the Engadin Art Talks and the Snow Golf Championships, followed next week by the horse races in the snow, and the Grand National Cresta Run…

Read more: The history of TAG Heuer’s motorsport romance

All of that combined with the usual glories of the St Moritz-Pontresina area, including several challenging ski mountains, and the fur-lined nightlife.

The indoor pool at Kulm’s spa

Kulm’s style is old-world elegance meets contemporary

But what we love particularly about staying at the Kulm is its sense of old-world grace – and its facilities. The spectacular pool has picture windows looking out over the forest and valley, rooms have a similar view. The classic restaurant and bar areas make you convinced that David Niven is going to pop out from around the corner. The rooms, meanwhile, have a very contemporary vibe, while not letting up on the rich Swiss luxe. You feel like a traveller in the mountains, taken care of at a real grand hotel, with options of everything from cross-country skiing to spectacular black runs, from watching the horses to chilling in the vast spa. The hotel is just a whisker above the crowded part of St Moritz (and a three minute walk from Pavarotti’s, our favourite spot for an après-ski Franciacorta) …and did we mention, the snow is fantastic this year?

Book your stay: kulm.com

A decadent Junior Suite at the Saint James Hotel, Paris

Paris is by no means a new luxury destination – the international city of love is home to the world’s best restaurants, haute couture and the avant-garde art scene – and yet its charm never gets old. Digital Editor Millie Walton ventures into one of the city’s lesser known neighbourhoods, alongside the Bois de Boulogne, to re-discover Le Corbusier, Monet and the lasting allure of authentic French decadence 

It hasn’t felt much like Spring the last few weeks in London and when we arrive in Paris, it seems Spring hasn’t arrived there yet either. It’s lightly, prettily snowing, in a way that’s so picturesque, it feels as if we’ve stepped inside a snow globe, but still it’s cold, bitterly so and we’re pleased to cocoon ourselves in the warmth of Saint James’ hotel for lunch at the one Michelin star, The Restaurant. However, in Paris, Michelin stars are scattered so densely across the city that it’s not really the accolade that stands out, but rather – and rightly so – the service, the atmosphere, that irresistible aura of je ne sais quoi.

The Restaurant, headed by Chef Jean-Luc Rocha

It helps, on a day like this, that The Restaurant, like the rest of the hotel, is snugly grand as opposed to cool minimalist with dark walls, warm bulbs, velvets, silks and portraits of buxom ladies hanging on the wall. It feels oh so Parisian and decadent, and even without dining it would be an experience to sit and observe the well dressed guests arriving to be seated with their Chanel handbags perched on their own cushioned stalls alongside the table. Lunch is hotel guests only, so it’s quieter, more relaxed; we’re greeted by Chef Jean-Luc Rocha who recommends the escargots with souffléd crepes as his favourite dish (it happens to be ours too), along with the lobster and chestnut ravioli to start followed by scallops cooked in saffron-flavoured risotto and the filet of turbot. Each mouthful is bursting with flavour, rich, delicate and precisely the right portion sizes so that we’re satisfied rather than overwhelmed. Halfway through the meal, we’re joined by Pilou, the hotel’s resident black cat, who swirls round our legs and then curls up on a velvet bench in a corner. An enviable life he must lead – we’re almost tempted to do the same, to retreat to the spa then to our suite, but later, later, we’re here to explore.

Pilou, the hotel’s resident feline roams freely throughout the property. Image by James Houston

Le Corbusier’s Villa La Roche was designed in 1925 as a resident for Swiss banker Raoul La Roche, who was also a collector of avant-garde artwork and the residence was designed as both gallery and home. It’s located in a lesser-known – or at least lesser to tourists – neighbourhood and it takes us a few loops to find our way, down an alleyway and through the door at which we’re stopped to pull plastic slips over our shoes, like at the Taj Mahal, which might seem like an odd comparison but to many architects and aesthete’s this villa is one of the ultimate monuments to modern housing. The interiors are playful and flowing with a curved sweeping walkway leading to an upper gallery, dark grey, lucid blue and pale sienna walls and cut out sections that serve as platforms and frames. The house leads you through a very particular kind of spatial experience, culminating in the rooftop terrace from which we gaze over the Parisian rooftops, puffing clouds of breath like a line of small human chimneys.

Close by too is Musée Marmottan Monet, which houses the greatest collection of Monet’s paintings worldwide – from his earlier years to the development of his signature style, the famous water lily scenes – as well as various temporary exhibitions. There’s something particularly special about standing in front of a Monet in a 19th century mansion in Paris, it feels right and proper and yet, we’re disappointed by the lighting (a mistake by the museum) which casts an usual glare over some of the more delicate pieces, slightly disturbing their enchanting atmosphere.

A curious visitor inside Villa La Roche. Image by James Houston

Outside the snow has settled – nature’s art-  so we wander back to the hotel on foot; about a 30 minute brisk walk that takes us by the Eiffel Tower and whilst many French artists and aestheticians of the late 19th century – including writer Guy de Maupassant who reportedly at lunch in the tower’s restaurant every day for years so that he didn’t have to see the structure itself – despised the monument, it’s always a delight to see and I’m filled with a childish kind of excitement. ‘Can we come back at night?’ I beg my travelling companion who agrees no trip to Paris is complete without seeing the tower at least a handful of times day and night, even if it is freezing and the snow has turned to sleet.

We thaw our frozen limbs back in the hotel’s library bar with a glass of Bailey’s before disappearing into the fairy-tale romance of our royal red and gold suite. Springtime in Paris, snow or not, is brimming with aesthetic delights and real decadence; we’re thirsty for more.

Stay at Saint James Paris from €390 per night (approx. £ 350 /$ 500) for a Boudoir Room. 

The Waldhaus Sils sits above Lake Sils, in the Upper Engadine of Switzerland. Image by Gian Giovanoli

The Waldhaus Sils sits on a rock amid a forest in the heart of the Engadine, Switzerland’s legendary high mountain valley; and is a cultural inspiration to artists and writers. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai on why he’s tempted to make a spontaneous visit to his favourite Swiss hotel

One of the greatest sources of social media FOMO (fear of missing out) in the LUX offices currently emanates from the unlikely source of tourist office Instagram feeds. Normally, these are full of the usual platitudes about activities for all the family and new dine-around packages, and adorned with images of improbably physically superhuman and beautiful families gazing out over vistas in perfectly styled hiking gear.

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But this has been a near-record-breaking winter for snowfall in the Alps. The same bands of cloud sweeping in from the Atlantic that have caused floods in Paris and anxiety in France have dropped their load as snow as they hit higher altitudes. Many resorts have had more snow than they know what to do with, literally in some cases, as poor Zermatt, ringed by some of the highest Alps, was cut off from the world a couple of times.

A table is prepared for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Image by Stefan Pielow

While you wouldn’t wish to be skiing during a snowstorm, the weather has calmed down now, and those resort Instagrams are brimming with images of deep snow, chalets peeking out from drifts, silver woodlands, vistas of powder. The fact that the biggest snowfalls happened after the peak Christmas season means there is plenty of fresh stuff around still, also.

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A ski trip in the next few weeks seems inevitable, but LUX is not tempted by the fleshpots of Courchevel or Verbier. Instead, we are thinking of heading to our favourite, semi-secret hotel in the Alps. A place that does no self-publicising, doesn’t market itself to a market of billionaires, is not interested in whether you are a celebrity (A list or Z list), has no ski-in-ski-out facilities, and yet is, quite possibly, the most entrancing destination we have discovered.

Is it a photograph? No, it’s a view from a window at the Waldhaus Sils. Image by Stefan Pielow

The Waldhaus, Sils, sits on a rock above the tiny but culturally significant village of Sils-Maria near the head of a broad, high, sunny valley in southeast Switzerland. Sils-Maria was the home of Friedrich Nietzsche, and it has been a gathering point of the European cultural aristocracy for more than a century: Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter have all visited for inspiration. Views from the Waldhaus stretch south, along Lake Sils, frozen in winter and surrounded by forest, and north, past St Moritz (just 10 minutes away) and along either side of the Engadine valley.

Image Mart Engelen

The Waldhaus is a family-run hotel that has an other-worldly feeling of design harmony: not ultra-contemporary, not classic, but a perfectly curated collection of modern 20th century design. It’s there in the details – the chairs, the tables, the wood flooring, the lights – above all, the lights – and also in the fundamental layout: a window view from a reading room that looks like a perfectly framed Thomas Ruff image; the way the staircase is lit, and the stair rails designed; the way the keys hang at reception.

There is nowhere we have found that has this encompassing, and inspiring, depth of modern-classic design beauty: the Waldhaus Sils has not been consciously designed, just put together and maintained by its family owners.

There is everything you would expect from a five-star Swiss hotel, including excellent, not over-fussy, cuisine; an indoor pool; and a service to take you to and from all the ski lifts of the St Moritz area to enjoy that snow. But we will be just as happy walking down through the snowdrifts to the wooded promontory on Lake Sils where the Romantic poets took inspiration, or to drink a hot chocolate laced with rum next to Nietzsche’s house in Sils itself. And walking back up to the hotel, crunching deeply through the white, and reflecting that the Waldhaus and its aura will still be with us long after the greatest literary figures of the 21st century have come and gone.

waldhaus-sils.ch/en