Mountaintop grandeur: Bürgenstock Hotel review

Vast and opulent, it’s not hard to feel as though you’ve been catapulted into a James Bond film

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Lake Lucerne in November and December is a flawless pane of icy glass, still and calm. Nothing stirs in the crisp, chilly air. As your gaze travels up towards the mountains which frame the lake, the amber leaves of the trees abruptly turn white, touched by the first frosty snowfalls of winter. And above the snowy trees, towering 500 metres above the lake into the clouds, is a hotel like no other. Welcome to Bürgenstock Hotels and Resort, the legendary luxury Swiss retreat.

If you’re after a small, cosy hotel, this isn’t it. The magnificent mountaintop resort is the epitome of grandeur, boasting 383 rooms across four hotels, 67 private residences, 12 restaurants and bars, a labyrinthine 10,000sq m Alpine Spa, championship tennis courts, and a Lakeview Ballroom. There are also shops, three wine cellars, and a 66-seat cinema. Recently reopened, it’s all part of a £440 million revamp, thanks to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, with the aim of restoring it to its former glory.

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