Diamonds, Dior and the great outdoors — where the super-rich spend summer

Times

6 hours ago

It's mid-afternoon and the revolving wooden door into the orchid-scented lobby spins relentlessly. A young bellboy in the Giorgio Armani livery of Badrutt's Palace Hotel staggers in, laden with Dior shopping bags, followed by two giggling women in hijabs. A Brazilian woman with a Celine baseball cap pulled down over her eyes — who may not be a supermodel but certainly resembles one — begs her toddlers, dressed in sailor suits evoking the 'before' scenes from The Sound of Music, not to climb on their pile of LV monogram Louis Vuitton luggage. A thirtysomething man with teeth like glaciers and the textbook Eurotrash uniform of chinos, loafers and no socks interrogates the patient concierge about which hiking trail has the most Instagram-worthy views.
In Victorian times, Switzerland was a renowned summer destination where aristocracy inhaled pure air and admired lightly snow-frosted peaks. But in 1864 the local hotelier Johannes Badrutt bet some English tourists they'd love the region even more in winter; if not he'd reimburse them. Thirty-two years later his son, Caspar, opened Badrutt's, since when the hotel and the Swiss Alps in general have been the winter hotspot for the jet set — JFK, John Lennon, Alfred Hitchcock (you can stay in the suite where he is said to have been inspired to make The Birds) all wintered here.
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With characteristic Swiss discretion the hotel won't disclose the identities of any present-day guests, but Hugh Grant, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell — not to mention assorted royals, including the King — have been spotted on the pistes here. In summer, natürlich, everyone would traditionally decamp to St Tropez, Mykonos and the Costa Smeralda.
Yet in recent years, with resorts such as these becoming increasingly sweltering (and their beaches more and more packed), the glitterati are shunning their familiar summer getaways and instead choosing to embrace the trend for 'coolcations' in the Alps. Last year Switzerland Tourism reported a 3.9 per cent increase in international tourism on 2023 levels. This summer numbers are forecast to rise another 2 per cent, with even sharper rises in non-European visitors, including an 11 per cent spike from the US.
When I arrive in St Moritz — where the travel adviser Virtuoso reported a 153 per cent year-on-year increase in summer bookings in 2024 — it's 33C in London and 46C in Spain and forest fires are raging in Turkey. More and more friends are returning from Greek villas forswearing the high-summer Med for ever after having to stay indoors between 10am and 5pm to avoid the rays.
Yet here in the Alps it's a pleasant 24C. The mountain sun bounces off glacial particles in Lake St Moritz, making the sapphire water sparkle like Elizabeth Taylor's bejewelled décolleté (another former Badrutt's regular).
On the terrace of Le Relais restaurant (the hotel has five others), I'm immediately served the first of what will be many glasses of fizz ('In St Moritz champagne is like water,' one local tells me). Below, I spot four Indian children running on the jade lawns, pursued by their bodyguard. Their parents lounge, Aperols in hand, against the massage jets of the heated water in the 200 sq m outdoor pool. Finishing touches are being put to brand-new padel courts.
The recent transformation of Badrutt's garden into a playground for adults and children is a response to demand for a resort hotel at altitude, with all the upsides of the Med but none of the stickiness. At 1,856m (6,089ft) above sea level, you can sleep with your windows open and — although the heat from the sun is deceptively powerful — sit outside at midday.
'When I first came here in 2008 the summer season was super-slow — it was just European visitors, maybe the odd American,' Richard Leuenberger, the hotel's managing director, says in Le Grand Hall. The restaurant is all antler-bedecked wood panelling and even what is thought to be a Raphael Madonna, though you'd barely notice it, distracted by views of the snow-frosted Engadin mountains. 'But in the past three years the summer has become super-international — they're coming from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, from Brazil, from India, a lot from both US coasts, who are often 'doing' Europe and want to relax.'
Leuenberger has also noted a shift in how guests — especially the younger generation of crypto bros — spend summer. 'Previously people just wanted to sit on the terrace — the Middle East clientele in particular really love it when it rains,' he says. 'But now people want to get out there. They play tennis, they hike, they ride, they ebike — some doing the hard, steep trails but others just going around the lake for an hour, enjoying being in nature. They sail, windsurf, kitesurf and paddleboard, they go whitewater rafting …'
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To the paranoid one-percenters, the huge plus point of St Moritz is that all this can be done in absolute safety. 'People can walk around the lake in their diamonds and not worry,' one staff member tells me.
I'd long been deterred from visiting St Moritz, not only because my non-designer wardrobe would mark me out as someone Elizabeth Hurley might describe as 'civilian', but also by the three-and-a-half-hour train journey from Zurich airport, involving at least two changes. But since the final leg is on the clean and uncrowded Bernina Express, which runs on part of a Unesco world heritage railway, this enhances the trip — there are views of crags, glaciers, gorges and mint-fresh streams more dramatic than an episode of Succession. It also doesn't hurt that from St Moritz station hotel guests enjoy a transfer in a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, a present to Badrutt's Palace from Queen Elizabeth II (she never stayed there, but her eldest son has been a regular).
Still, that's not enough enticement for most of the hotel's guests, 80 per cent of whom arrive at nearby Samedan airport, the only non-Schengen international airport in the Alps accommodating private aircraft. 'Big planes from Sao Paulo can travel here in ten hours,' Leuenberger says. 'You can drive straight to the plane [for the return leg]. In terms of convenience it's very, very different to other airports.' He points to an Afghan hound with a party from Los Angeles that is stretched like a rug across the chequerboard floor. 'We'll often get six dogs on a plane with 30 people.'
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Guests also frequently bring along their cars. 'Middle Eastern visitors will fly in their Bentleys and Ferraris,' a hotel driver tells me. They rarely use them during their stay — rather, the attraction appears to be the garage, which offers a complimentary valet service, allowing them to return home with their supercar spotless.
Another lure is the shopping. Across the street from the hotel's lobby is its luxury mall (the highest above sea level in the world), featuring Prada, Hermès, LV and Dior. It is connected to the hotel via an underground passageway. 'I love the tunnel, it's so discreet,' a Korean-American man tells me in the lift.
'If you want, say, a selection of clothes from Celine brought to your suite at midnight, we can do that,' Leuenberger says. 'And often brands like Cartier have pieces you can only buy here. So even when your girlfriend has everything you can still buy her something.'
A Badrutt's Palace holiday habit is passed down. Generations of European aristos have tasted their first caviar and lobster in its restaurants (even Chesa Veglia, the hotel pizzeria, in a converted cow barn, offers optional truffle shavings on everything). The old guard are profoundly attached to the Wes Anderson-like vibe of the 156-room main hotel, complaining if there is the merest of tweaks to the pattern of the bone china teacups, according to Leuenberger.
Last year the hotel opened its 25-room Serlas Wing, aimed at a younger crowd, with wallpaper, headboards and curtains by Loro Piana and design by Antonio Citterio (their families own local chalets). 'Grandparents stay in the main wing; their grandchildren are here [in Serlas] — everyone's happy,' a staff member tells me.
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The extravagance of Badrutt's Palace may sound vulgar, but what sets it apart from most other White Lotus-style establishments (though, frankly, the hotels featured in the popular TV series seem downmarket in comparison) is its joie de vivre. Many of the staff have worked here for decades and other visitors are utterly relaxed by this cocoon of opulence. The tiny Renaissance Bar is packed with bankers and entrepreneurs, laughing uproariously while waving their Cuban cigars (in this canton smoking is permitted indoors with the correct ventilation). The head barman, Matteo Oddo, remembers everybody's name and cocktail order — mine is a St Moritzino, comprising vodka, Cointreau, orgeat syrup and champagne and a mere £32, compared with the £446 stardust bellini, which includes gold powder and Dom Pérignon 2008. 'Officially we close at midnight,' Oddo tells me, winking. 'That maybe happens four times a year.' In winter guests usually move on from Renaissance to the basement nightclub.
Daytimes are frequently spent raving too, to big-name DJs at Paradiso, the hotel's club a cable car ride up the mountain. 'Everyone's in here clubbing; the slopes are empty,' says the manager, Benedict Schempf.
In summer, though, the DJs are all in Ibiza. We walk to Paradiso, past meadows where cows are being released from lorries after their winter hibernation, bells clanging as they dash about the buttercup-strewn grass. Our lunch of Swiss cheeses, cured meats, fondue (off menu, after I decide to shun the lobster and chips option) and — obviously — champagne is only partially burnt off on the downward descent.
'Winter is so crazy. Most people prefer St Moritz in summer — it's more relaxed,' Schempf says. With its growing popularity among the beau monde, I doubt it will stay that way for long.Julia Llewellyn Smith was a guest of Badrutt's Palace Hotel, which has B&B doubles from £1,020 (badruttspalace.com). Fly to Zurich and take a train to St Moritz (travelswitzerland.com)
This ultra-chic yet cosy, family-run, 51-room hotel stands below the Sassongher Mountain, east of Bolzano in northeast Italy. It has long been a jet-set favourite, with Tom Cruise and George Clooney having stayed here. With an emphasis on the region's vibrant Ladin culture, the hotel has five superb restaurants — one is Michelin-starred and features local produce in dishes such as gelato made from cows' milk expressed that morning and ravioli with nettles foraged in the surrounding meadows. There's an in-house guide for hikes, ebikes can be hired and the revamped spa offers massages with Alpine flower oils.Details B&B doubles from £780 (laperlacorvara.it). Fly to Bolzano
In a pristine valley an hour and a half's drive from Munich, Schloss Elmau is the only hotel to have hosted two G7 summits, in 2015 and 2022. Built in 1916 by the theologian Dr Johannes Müller to offer 'a vacation from the ego', the hotel — now run by Müller's grandson — features a concert hall where world-class musicians regularly perform in return for their board and lodging. The hotel also has nine restaurants (two with Michelin stars), seven swimming pools and two spas. There's a network of hiking trails, ebiking, use of the hotel's fleet of electric BMWs to explore surrounding villages and a kids' club with IT and philosophy workshops.Details B&B doubles from £243 (schloss-elmau.de). Fly to Munich
Long one of the top Alpine aristo ski haunts, with princes and princesses from Sweden, Monaco, Spain and Jordan all regulars, Hotel Alberg is where Diana taught the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex their first snowploughs. The 50-room, family-run hotel is fully geared up for summer, with hiking, mountain biking, trail running and fly-fishing on offer. At the newly created Arlberg Club House nearby you can browse the latest Belgian and Japanese designer wear in the shop and enjoy one-percenter delights such as gnocchi with caviar and lobster bisque at the restaurant, before boogying the night away in its basement club, Margo's. Details B&B doubles from £485 (arlberghotel.at). Fly to Innsbruck
My Arbor is the biggest tree hotel in Italy. Standing on 112ft stilts on the forested slopes of Mount Plose, overlooking the South Tyrol peaks and Eisack Valley, it is designed to appear as though it is growing out of the hillside. In summer it offers guided sunrise hikes, forest bathing and meditation sessions as part of its wellness programme. It has a two-storey spa with heated infinity pools, five saunas and steam rooms (although, be warned, swimsuits are actively discouraged, and the glossy European clientele embrace this with gusto). The 104 suites are lined with characterful wood and have deep soaking tubs.Details Half-board doubles from £212 (my-arbor.com). Fly to Bolzano
Perched 1,350m (4,430ft) above sea level in the Pindus Mountains in northern Greece, Metsovo is a popular winter ski destination for affluent Athenians. It is also attracting an increasing number of summer visitors, with holidaymakers keen to avoid the steamy islands in favour of the climate here, with temperatures topping out at 27C. Activites at the family-run Grand Forest Metsovo Resort include off-road tours around Valia Calda National Park, horse riding, canyoning, mountain biking, hiking and paddleboarding on Aoos Springs Lake. The hotel has 62 suites designed to blend into the mountain, three gourmet restaurants specialising in local cuisine, an infinity pool with heart-lurching views over the mountains and a spa that uses organic Greek products.Details B&B doubles from £240 (grand-forest.gr). Fly to Preveza