The Alpina Hotel - Gstaad, Switzerland

Gstaad is no stranger to luxury and glamour, in fact it’s synonymous with both. It has always been the ski resort of choice for high-class society and the international jet set. Elizabeth Taylor, Valentino, Roger Moore, Roman Polanski, Julie Andrews, Grace Kelly and Formula One’s Bernie Ecclestone have all owned homes here. This is the place where you can pay 30,000 Swiss Francs to join the Eagle Ski Club: a members club accessed via a private ski lift.

So it’s somewhat surprising that The Alpina Gstaad is the first newly built five-star luxury hotel to open in Gstaad in 100 years. A cool 300 million Swiss Francs luxury development set in five acres in the picturesque hilltop area of Oberbort. The hotel overlooks this most charming of Swiss Alpine chocolate box villages, in the region known as Saanenland, nestled in the Bernese Alps.

And conveniently located just five minutes from the centre of town and the world-famous shopping street named the Promenade, almost a London Bond Street on ice – think Louis Vuitton, Prada, Hermes, Chopard and Cartier – it’s set to be Gstaad’s new word for luxury.

It’s 56 spacious rooms and suites – all with balconies – are contemporary style in hues of brown and cream with state-of-the art fixtures and fittings: remote-controlled mood lighting and curtains, flat screen TVs in bathrooms, huge rain head showers, Nespresso machines and trendy Taschen books. But for all the modern amenities, the rooms still manage to retain the warmth and cosiness of a traditional Swiss chalet due to an abundance of handsome natural wood.

A typical morning’s view from our balcony.

All restaurants, public areas and rooms have been designed by Hirsch Bedner Associates London, and the Alpina’s contemporary art collection is an enviable one with works by the likes of Tracey Emin. The hotel also features a wine tasting room, cigar room, private cinema and two further restaurants offering traditional Swiss or modern European menus.

Its Six Senses Spa offers a wide range of signature treatments including Ayurveda and colonic hydrotherapy. Body sculpt, yoga and Pilates are also on offer. There’s also a salt room (fantastic for respiratory conditions)  a flotation room, a Hammam, a 25-metre indoor lap pool, outdoor heated pool, fitness centre equipped with the latest cardiovascular, strength and eight training equipment, including the innovative Kinesis apparatus. The juice bar is a real triumph with exquisitely framed indoor garden artwork, and there’s even a Kids Spa menu. And there was no better way to unwind after a hard day on the slopes, then to luxuriate in the beautiful heated outdoor pool.

Without a doubt, The Alpina Gstaad will offer its guests the very best insider access to this famously exclusive, glamorous and yet still authentically Swiss, hilltop village.

For further information please visit: http://www.thealpinagstaad.ch/

All images by CELLOPHANELAND*.

CELLOPHANELAND* were guests of The Alpina Gstaad.