The 1896 turreted grand hotel that invented alpine winter tourism, Badrutt-family ownership since the first stone, 157 rooms above the frozen lake, eleven restaurants, the new Serlas Wing, and the GaultMillau Hotel of the Year 2026.
"The hotel that wrote the rules every other alpine grand still follows, the Badrutts' four-tower silhouette above the frozen lake is the closing line of European luxury hospitality, not the opening."
Badrutt's Palace Hotel opened on Via Serlas on 27 July 1896, on a piece of high lakeside land that the Badrutt family had been quietly assembling since the 1860s. The patriarch, Johannes Badrutt, had already become Engadine folklore by then, in the autumn of 1864 he famously bet four of his English summer guests that if they returned to St Moritz at Christmas they would not only find the valley sunny but could ski home in shirtsleeves; they did, and Alpine winter tourism began. His son Caspar Badrutt commissioned the Palace from architect Chiodera and Tschudy as the destination property a town like St Moritz now required. The hotel has remained in continuous Badrutt-family ownership through six generations, one of the very few European grand hotels still held by the family that founded it.
The building's four-tower silhouette above the frozen lake is among the most recognised in Switzerland. Behind the historic envelope, the property has been quietly and continuously renovated for thirty years. The most recent major addition is the Serlas Wing, a contemporary architectural extension completed in stages between 2019 and 2024 that added a new restaurant, a residential-style suite cluster, and a modern convention floor while leaving every original façade intact. The 157 rooms now span the original Palace, the 1980s annex, and the Serlas Wing, with twenty named suites, the King's Suite, the Hans Badrutt Suite, the Lago Suite, at the top of the inventory. Suites at the high end have reached CHF 40,000 per night during the Olympic and World Economic Forum spillover weeks.
There are eleven restaurants and bars in the building, the most of any hotel in Switzerland. Le Restaurant, the gilded Belle Époque dining room, is the formal address. IGNIV by Andreas Caminada (a three-Michelin-star chef) runs the most decorated kitchen in the building. Other restaurants include Chesa Veglia (the 1658 farmhouse on the slope above the hotel that hosts La Stüva pizzeria, La Patrick's Bar, and the Polo Stube grill), the Matsuhisa Nobu outpost, and the Renaissance Bar, the most consistently booked late-evening room in the Engadine valley. Eleven kitchens means a guest can stay a week and dine in a different room every night.
Service is the hotel's central proposition and the line that defines its position. The staff-to-room ratio is reportedly the highest of any winter resort in continental Europe; the concierge team holds standing arrangements with the St Moritz Tobogganing Club, Cresta Run, the polo organisers, and the Snow Polo World Cup. The hotel was named GaultMillau Hotel of the Year 2026, the first time a St Moritz property has received the award in over a decade. The position, the southern end of Via Serlas at the head of the lake, opposite the funicular and the ice rink, is the address that every Engadine winter narrative still pivots around.
For a St Moritz honeymoon the Palace is the conventional and correct answer. Lake-facing suites in the original building (the Lago Suite, the Hans Badrutt Suite) deliver the iconic frozen-lake view; the Serlas Wing suites offer the contemporary alternative. Eleven restaurants on site means dinner is never logistically complicated; the spa and the in-house couples treatment rooms handle the daytime pacing. Chesa Veglia on the last night is part of the script.
For milestone anniversaries the Palace handles every variant, the King's Suite for the major year, IGNIV by Caminada for the dinner, a private box at the Snow Polo World Cup if the timing is right, and the ice-tobogganing trip with a Cresta Club introduction if the appetite is there. Few hotels in the Alps execute a milestone celebration as reflexively.
For a proposal at the Palace the brief writes itself, a Lago Suite at sunset over the frozen lake, the IGNIV tasting menu with a private side table, the concierge handles the rest. The hotel hosts somewhere in the region of forty staged proposals each season; the operating playbook is well-rehearsed without being formulaic.
Via Serlas 27
7500 St Moritz
Switzerland
Head of Lake St Moritz; opposite the Corviglia funicular; two-hour scenic train from Zurich
157 rooms (incl. ~50 suites)
Classic doubles from CHF 950/night
Junior Suites from CHF 1,600/night
Lago Suite from CHF 6,500/night
King's Suite from CHF 18,000/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Founded 1896; Badrutt-family ownership six generations; Serlas Wing 2024
Eleven restaurants & bars
IGNIV by Andreas Caminada (3 Michelin)
Matsuhisa Nobu outpost
Chesa Veglia historic farmhouse
Palace Wellness spa
660 staff / 157 rooms
Hotel of the Year 2026 (GaultMillau)
From CHF 950/night. Winter season (mid-December to mid-March) books eight to twelve months ahead; New Year's, Snow Polo (late January), and World Economic Forum spillover are typically allocated a year out.
Book This Hotel →The 1856 hotel where Johannes Badrutt made the winter-tourism bet, 150 rooms above the Kulm Park ice rink.
The 1912 family-owned grand on the wooded slope above the lake, ski-in/ski-out from the Suvretta lift.
Sixty south-facing suites looking across the lake to the Engadine mountains, St Moritz's most intimate five-star.