Baur au Lac
A five-star Zurich grande dame blending Art Deco and English Regency, with a private rooftop terrace and the Michelin-starred Pavillon restaurant.
Baur au Lac has held its five-star rating in Zurich for long enough to have nothing left to prove, and yet the hotel keeps reaching for more. Its current ambition is to redefine what traditional luxury looks like, merging Art Deco with English Regency into something deliberately eclectic.
It will not suit the committed minimalist. The style here is maximal in the best sense: escapist, faintly fairytale, a hotel that wants a stay to feel like a step out of ordinary life rather than a polished version of it.
A few things are worth asking for. Request to be shown up to the private rooftop terrace, where the sunsets are genuinely scintillating and the view runs out across Zurich’s lakes. And when it is time to eat, the hotel offers a choice that captures its dual character. There is the casual dining room (amethyst pinks, pastel greens, Murano glass chandeliers overhead) and there is the Pavillon, the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant, for a dinner with rather more ceremony.
The honest recommendation is to try all of it, which means a stay here tends to want an extra night or two to do it properly.
For a traveller who wants Zurich’s grande dame experience (historic, theatrical, and unembarrassed about its own glamour) Baur au Lac delivers it with conviction. Book the longer stay; the hotel gives you reasons to.
