The Alps Hotels List

Earlier this year, I started planning a road trip through Switzerland. We’d spent time driving around the St Moritz/Vals/Lucerne areas before, but we’d never been to Gstaad, Verbier, Megève, or Courmayeur—all places that seemed worthy of a visit. I figured we had 10 to 14 days max, and I started to piece a trip together. 

First step was figuring out where I could fly in with a one-way ticket, as I didn’t know our return date. Airlines into Geneva or Zurich were outrageously priced unless we bought a round-trip and threw away the return, but flying into Milan, I found good prices on one-ways with La Compagnie and Emirates. Next step was to look into car rentals—most importantly, how much would I be charged if I picked up in Milan and dropped off in Zurich? A quick search showed it would be somewhere around €1200 for the drop-off in another country, so my mind wandered to a drop-off in Venice—I’d always wanted to visit Cortina! 

With that very rough idea—flying into Milan and ending in Venice—I started plotting with my best ally, Google Maps. It’s amazing how you can look at a map of an area where you haven’t traveled and think everything is so close (it reminds me of when visitors come to New York and think they can do a weekend trip Upstate that includes the Hudson Valley, the Adirondacks and the Catskills). My lofty dream was to visit the French Alps (think Megève and Courchevel), Val d’Aosta (Courmayeur, Cervinia), and the Swiss Alps (Gstaad, Verbier), as they are all in one (sort-of) corner, then cross over to the other side of Switzerland with some stop to break it up (the Grand Hotel Belvedere in Wengen looked pretty great!). Or perhaps a stay at the Burgenstock, onward to St. Moritz, and then over to the Dolomites. 

Within moments, I realized this was too ambitious—maybe if I had a month?! I quickly cut out the French Alps, which works best if you’re flying into Geneva. I could have done the French and Swiss Alps together, or even flown into Geneva and out of Zurich, but it was too much to hit the French Alps and also make it to St. Moritz. The other section I cut out almost immediately was the Dolomites—there’s too much to do there, and also I’d wanted to see Merano, specifically the Villa Arnica, Hotel Schwarzschmeid, and 1477 Reichhalter, which aren’t open in winter. Now I was looking at a round-trip beginning at Malpensa airport in Milan. After hours and hours of research, combined with back-and-forth with various hotels about availability, I ended up with a brilliant itinerary, if I do say so myself. 

Day 1 – Arrive Malpensa 10:15am, drive 2 hours 15 to Courmayeur. Check in Auberge de la Maison for two nights

Day 3 – Drive 1 hour 35 to Verbier. Check into Experimental Verbier for one night

Day 4 – Drive 1 hour 40 to Gstaad. Check into The Alpina for two nights

Day 6 – Drive 1 hour 20 to Wengen. Check into Grand Hotel Belvedere for two nights

Day 8 – Drive 1 hour 15 to Burgenstock, just above Lucerne. Check into the Burgenstock for two nights 

Day 10 – Drive 2 hours 30 to Vals. (Okay, as a non-skier, this was definitely off piste and out of the way, but I hadn’t been to Therme Vals in over a decade, and really wanted to go back!) Check into Therme 7132 for two nights

Day 12 – Drive 2 hours to St Moritz. Check into the Suvretta House for two nights

Day 14 – Drive 2 hours 40 to Malpensa

Obviously, there are countless variations we could have done—but the goal was to see as much as possible. I know that for some people, changing hotels every two nights sounds like a nightmare, but we don’t mind. One thing my husband won’t do is drive more than 4 hours in one day, so I was mindful of that. In pulling this together, I researched the heck out of all the hotels, so below you’ll find a great list by region. I also included places that didn’t end up on our route, but I sure would have loved to go (Klosters!). 

In the end, after all that meticulous planning—for lots of boring reasons I won’t bother going into here—we pulled the plug on the trip just days before leaving. I know we’ll get there eventually. And in the meantime, I wanted to share the results of my deep dive with all of you. 

I also asked our friends, Jack Shaw and Susanna Magruder from Epic Europe, to give us the elevator pitch for each area, just to help understand the vibe—are you hardcore skiers? Like skiing but half the family doesn’t care? Care more about the après than the slopes? Want charm over glitz? Also, if you’re not into the snow but want a great summer road trip, this all works for that too! “The Alps are so convoluted, and while the distances aren’t very far—from the top of the of the cable car in Verbier [where they’re based], you can see the Matterhorn in Zermatt, which is only about 25 kilometers away, but it takes you two hours to drive there, because you have to drive all the way down one valley, up the Rhône, and then up the Mattertal valley. There are places where sometimes it’s almost faster to ski from one place to the other than it is to drive. So you have to really have a game plan,” says Jack, who says they started the business exactly for this reason—”so many people, especially Americans, really blow it when they come to the Alps and try to DIY.” 

At some point we’ll do a Part Two of this, where we cover the Dolomites and the Austrian Alps as well (in the meantime, you can consult our Italian Alps List). Hopefully, this is all helpful and doesn’t make your brain hurt!