SKI PRESS WORLD, NEWS & FEATURES
11 December 2006

Still Stylish Europe
Story by Peter Oliver

As a recent visit to Switzerland and Italy reconfirmed, the mood fluctuations of weather and monetary uncertainty can do nothing to shift the bedrock of old-world refinement that has long been Europe’s principal calling card. It is comforting to report, in times of unscheduled warmth and undesirable expense, that the grand hotels of Europe remain as grand as ever.

Put another way, when snow is scant, there is no better place in the world of skiing to be than in Europe. That reality might reveal itself most pleasingly as a journey into hedonistic decadence for the palate. The rare flavors of a delicate fish in fig sauce at the four-star Eden au Lac in Zurich or wild-pork fillet in a radish and curry sauce at the five-star St. Antoner Hof in St. Anton make clear that, as Dorothy could tell you, this is most certainly not Kansas.

Yet no place better spans the complete gamut of European cultivation and polish than Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz.

Arriving at the hotel to be greeted by bellmen in gold-brocade-trimmed overcoats, you must pass two Rolls Royce limos parked in front, available to shuttle guests around town or to and from private jets at the St. Moritz airport. You enter into the hotel’s lobby and adjoining sitting rooms, where artwork, including an 8x10 Raphael original, is worth countless millions.

The dining room, with its white-clothed tables, its high-windowed alcoves overlooking the lake and valley, its abundant floral arrangements, and its chandeliers is all a grand-hotel dining room ought to be. Waiters serve breakfast in white waistcoats and black bow ties.

Hotel valets iron morning newspapers, so that guests’ fingers are never besmudged by half-dried ink. In guest bathrooms, the complimentary toiletries come in quarter-liter containers, embellished with gold cords. The hotel’s gallery of shops includes Cartier, Gucci, Boucheron, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and others of that ilk. Price tags are rarely displayed, on the assumption that if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

The hotel includes the obligatory accoutrements of modernization, including high-def, flat-screen TVs in all rooms. But the Palace is – as is the entire continent, for that matter – above all about the renewal of tradition. In that vein this holiday season, guests will be treated to what has become a staple attraction of the hotel throughout its 105-year history: the evening promenade of the rich and famous.

In a hotel where the featured suite goes for $16,000 a night – and was booked well in advance for the entire Christmas-New Year’s week, for anyone contemplating a reservation – the wealthy come like bees to honey. This can make for great entertainment for those guests who are the hotel’s equivalent of commoners, relegated to slumming it in rooms that during the holiday season start at around $500 a night.

What they are treated to as they fill the hotel’s lobby in the evening is an approximation of the red-carpet walk on Oscar night. Celebs and royals and those confident enough to carry themselves like celebs and royals stroll past into the dining room for dinner. This is a tradition that reaches back to the days of Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, extends through Alfred Hitchcock, John Lennon, and Brigitte Bardot, and continues into the present with the likes of George Clooney, Elizabeth Taylor, and myriad European luminaries.

Snow will come to Europe eventually. It always does. Meanwhile, for anyone staying in one of Europe’s grand hotels, waiting for snow can be almost as satisfying as playing on snow when it does arrive.

Baobab Expeditions specializes in creating custom skiing itineraries, featuring accommodations in luxury hotels, for travelers to Europe. For more details, go to www.baobabexpeditions.com