The Place
‘This is the Swiss hotel of my dreams’, wrote our reporter,, a former foreign correspondent who has travelled the world. From the red carpet stretching up the glass-canopied entrance, to the heated towels at the thermal-spring fed swimming-pool, luxury at Les Sources des Alpes is always discreet and unobtrusive. Leukerbad is both a ski resort and a health spa, and some of the treatments at the hotel are complicated enough to require the in-house doctor. Most guests, however, come to be cosseted and to treat themselves to chef Peter Schetter’s delicious but low-calorie cuisine du marche which emphasizes fresh local produce from the valley of the Rhone.
Bedrooms, most of which would be called suites elsewhere, are named after flowers, fruits, wines or even flavours, such as Vanilla or Honey. Each is furnished individually in restful colours but all have bouquets of alpine flowers, bathrobes and slippers as well as writing paper embossed with the guest’s name. The fitness and indoor swimming-pool area is infused with herbal aromas, while the garden is an oasis of tranquillity that is as effective a cure for stress as any of the more exotic spa therapies.