07:30
The pools open
At 7.30am, every day of the year, the brine pool and the sports pool open. At the same hour, in the Brunnenstube, where breakfast is taken in bathrobes, bread, fruit and yoghurt are already out.
Ermitage, a spa hotel in the Alps above Gstaad with an outdoor brine pool
The Ermitage in Schönried is a spa hotel in the Alps with a warm brine pool that crosses the glass wall and carries on outdoors. Between a soak there and a few lengths of the sports pool, cake arrives at 3pm. Three-quarter board comes with every room except the Plani Compact, which is sold with breakfast only.
Who the Ermitage’s spa is for
Why choose it
You want 35°C water even under snow, a proper pool for lengths and your meals included, 10 minutes from Gstaad in any month.
What is includedWhen to look elsewhere
You want more square metres or the Dolomites: Tschuggen, Lefay and STOCK each claim 5,000 m², and in Ortisei ADLER heats its brine pool to 36°C.
Other spa hotels in the AlpsFrom a 1955 golf hotel to a 1979 brine pool
2 pools, 2 temperaments: one slips from indoors to out, towards the mountains; the other wants proper lengths. And then there is the cake table.
It began in 1955 as Schönried’s golf hotel. 2 hoteliers bought it in 1977, and in 1979 they opened Switzerland’s first Alpine brine pool, indoors and out, the hotel’s history says; a year later came the Badhaus, with 37 rooms and suites. The 2025 brochure raises the stakes and calls it the first in the Alps.
Then the hotel grew in layers: in 1987 the main building, with 39 rooms, and the first sauna park; in 1996 the Vitalità, for massages and treatments; in 2005 the large outdoor pool and a lawn for sunbathing. In 2011 it closed for 8 months, built the Saanen and Résidence buildings and reopened on 21 December under the name it has today.
In 2019 the spa reached 3,700 m², and since then nobody has added chlorine to the brine: electrolysis makes it from the salt itself. In 2022 came the aroma steam room, the herbal sauna and the Swiss stone pine sanarium. And since 2014 the hotel has belonged to the brother and nephews of one of its 2 founders, so it is still a family affair.
There is music too: since 2011 the Ermitage has been the official hotel of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and its guests buy tickets before public sale and have a lounge in the concert tent. On Tripadvisor it ranks first of Schönried’s 3 hotels, with the Travellers’ Choice 2026, and HolidayCheck gave it its Gold Award 2026.
At the Ermitage we read 18 of the hotel’s pages and price lists, watched the 3 clips filmed in its brine pool and saunas, and searched the 520 Google reviews with text, written since 2012, for how guests take to saunas without swimwear. 6 bring it up, and some flag it for newcomers in 5-star reviews, among them a couple who had never tried it and went home very pleased. Anyone who would sooner keep covered has the pools, which are a separate area, and women have the Ladies’ Spa, with its bio sauna and steam room.
7.30am to 9pm at the Ermitage spa
Start with a soak in the brine pool and move on to lengths in the sports pool; the afternoon brings cake, the evening dinner in the Stuben. Lunch, cake and dinner come with three-quarter board, except in the Plani Compact.
09:00
The day’s programme
Between 9am and 10am in the Bärgblick the hotel sets out the day’s programme: aqua fitness, back care, a little relaxation. From Monday to Friday the guided walks leave too, and none of it costs extra, the hotel says.
12:00
The saunas open
At noon the saunas open: 4 of them, plus 3 steam rooms, a tepidarium, an ice fountain and a terrace for cooling off in the snow. Men and women together, and no swimwear. Until 2pm the Orangerie serves soup and salad for lunch.
15:00
Cake and a pianist
From 3pm to 5pm the Bärgblick fills with cakes while a pianist plays live; the bar with its million crystals keeps going until midnight.
16:30
The first infusion
At 4.30pm and 6.30pm there is an infusion in the 90°C panorama sauna, and a scrub at 5pm. Women who would rather be among women have the Ladies’ Spa, with its own bio sauna and steam room.
18:00
Visitors arrive
On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays anyone not staying gets in from 6pm, unless they bought a morning ticket; on weekdays from 9.30am. The 2023 price list, which the site still links to, charges CHF 30 in summer and CHF 40 in winter for 2 hours in the pools.
19:00
Dinner in the Stuben
From 7pm to 9pm dinner is in one of the 8 Stuben, between the salad and cheese buffets and the dishes of the day; drinks are extra. At 9pm the pools and saunas close too.
The Ermitage and the Alps’ other spa hotels
From Schönried all the way to Val Gardena: the Ermitage, the 2 Gstaad palaces and the other spa hotels we compared, in Switzerland, the Dolomites and Tyrol.
Loading map…
Recommended for you
- ERMITAGE Wellness- & Spa-HotelInside the hotel: 3,700 m² of spa, pools from 7.30am to 9pm
- Schönried station299 metres, a 4-minute walk; from there Gstaad is 10 minutes by train
- Gstaad Palace and Le Grand Bellevue10 minutes by car; open only in winter and summer
The wellness package, from the hotel’s own pages
The room brings the spa with it and, nearly always, your meals. What the price includes and what costs extra, from the hotel’s pages as read on 27 September 2026.
In the room rate
- The indoor and outdoor brine pool and the outdoor sports pool, from 7.30am to 9pm
- The sauna world, the Ladies’ Spa and the relaxation rooms, from noon to 9pm
- The gym, from 6am to 10pm, the daily exercise programme and guided walks from Monday to Friday
- The spa on the day you arrive, before check-in, and on the day you leave, after check-out
- Three-quarter board: breakfast, soup and salad at lunch, afternoon cake and dinner, drinks excluded
The Ermitage spa’s pools, saunas and rules
From the spa pages, the treatment price list and the hotel’s terms, read on 27 September 2026.
| Size | 3,700 m²; the largest spa in the Saanenland, according to the hotel |
|---|---|
| The brine pool | 35°C, indoors and out, with jets, a standing whirlpool and bubble loungers; the brine comes from Schweizerhalle, drawn from as deep as 400 metres |
| The sports pool | Outdoors, 17 metres by 10, Schönried spring water at 28–29°C in summer and 31°C in winter |
| The saunas | Panorama at 90°C, Schnapsbrennerei at 75°C, herbal with infrared, Swiss stone pine sanarium at 50–60°C; an aroma steam room and quartzite and amethyst grottoes |
| Swimwear-free | The saunas are a mixed, nude area; 16 to 18-year-olds with an adult. The women-only Ladies’ Spa has a bio sauna and a steam room |
| Opening hours | Pools 7.30am to 9pm, saunas noon to 9pm, treatments 9am to 7pm, gym 6am to 10pm |
| Visitors | On weekdays the pools from 9.30am and the saunas from noon; at weekends and on public holidays from 6pm, or with online tickets for 9am, 11am and 1pm |
| Treatments | Classic massage CHF 120 for 50 minutes, CHF 170 for 80; the Bergwellness treatment for 2 CHF 390; Alpienne, Alpeor, Cellcosmet and Yon-Ka products |
| Cancellation | Treatments can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead; after that they are charged in full |
The brine pool in the snow, the sauna and summer in the mountains
The outdoor brine pool in the snow and in summer, the sports pool and the sauna, then a suite, the pools lit up at night from a room, the grill on the terrace, the breakfast buffet, and the mountain meadows by e-bike and on foot.
YouTube
0:02
YouTube
0:01
YouTube
0:05
The suites with a spa in the bathroom
2 suites bring the spa up to your room: a whirlpool and a steam shower in the bathroom.
The Wellness Suite, 65 m² for up to 4, has a small spa of its own, with a whirlpool and a steam shower, a sitting room separate from the bedroom and a large balcony over the park. The Saane Senior Suite, 58 m², has a natural stone wall, a dressing room and the same bathroom with whirlpool and steam shower, and its balcony also looks over the park. The Gstaad junior suites, 39–40 m², have a bath and a shower, without a whirlpool.
The rooms and suites, with photographsOther spa hotels in the Alps, from Switzerland to the Dolomites
The spas and pools as their own sites describe them, the board, the months they open and the drive from Zurich Airport.
Search for a spa hotel in the Alps and the first results are lists: Leading Spa Resorts, which opens with the STOCK resort and ADLER Dolomiti, then the Guardian, Booking.com and Premium Europe’s Swiss Alps page, which names the Gstaad Palace, Le Grand Bellevue and the Tschuggen. Beside the Ermitage we set those, the Vals thermal baths, Lefay in Pinzolo and the Pfeldererhof in Val Passiria, each read on its own hotel’s pages.
| Hotel | Spa and pools, from its own page | Board, season and price | By car from Zurich Airport |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ermitage | Schönried: 3,700 m²; a 35°C brine pool indoors and out, a 17-metre outdoor sports pool at 28–31°C all year | Three-quarter board included, except in the Plani Compact; open all year; €420 for 2 on 14 October, breakfast only | 2 hr 37 min · 201 km |
| Gstaad Palace | Gstaad: 1,800 m²; indoor pool at 29°C, outdoor hot tub at 36.5°C, the 50-metre 1928 pool in summer only | Breakfast and a CHF 100 daily dining credit per person; open 15 December to 7 March, then in summer; winter rooms from CHF 1,150 a night | 2 hr 48 min · 209 km |
| Le Grand Bellevue | Gstaad: 3,000 m²; 15-metre indoor pool with a whirlpool and an outdoor pool with jets, no temperatures given | Half board in winter rates; open 18 December to 29 March; winter rooms from CHF 950 a night | 2 hr 45 min · 207 km |
| 7132 Hotel, Vals | Vals: mineral-water thermal baths, 36°C outdoors in winter and 32°C indoors; spa area not published | Breakfast; open all year; doubles from CHF 680 | 2 hr 23 min · 179 km |
| Tschuggen Grand Hotel | Arosa: 5,000 m²; indoor and outdoor pools at 34°C and a 15-metre indoor lap pool at 28°C | Half board on request, a CHF 90 daily credit; open 27 November to 29 March; no prices published | 2 hr 09 min · 158 km |
| ADLER Spa Resort Dolomiti | Ortisei, Italy: 4,000 m²; a 36°C brine pool indoors and out, and a heated outdoor pool | Half board in the package; closed mid-April to mid-May; from €915 per person for 3 nights | 4 hr 50 min · 394 km |
| Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti | Pinzolo, Italy: 5,000 m²; indoor-outdoor pool at 33–34°C, a 20-metre indoor lap pool; the 35–36°C salt-water pool is booked separately, from €50 per person | Breakfast; season not published on its site; from €330 per person for one night with a massage | 5 hr 58 min · 381 km |
| Hotel Pfeldererhof | Val Passiria, Italy: 439 m²; an outdoor pool at 32°C and an indoor pool with a whirlpool | Three-quarter board or bed and breakfast; season not published; from €549 per person for 5 nights | 4 hr 32 min · 336 km |
| STOCK resort | Zillertal, Austria: 5,000 m²; a 25-metre lap pool, a brine pool and a heated outdoor pool, no temperatures given | Full board; closed a week in late November and 4 weeks after Easter; from €924 per person for 3 nights | 4 hr 27 min · 359 km |
Hours and kilometres by car from Zurich Airport’s departures to each hotel, calculated on 28 September 2026 with OSRM on OpenStreetMap’s roads, without traffic; Valhalla, which takes other roads, gives up to 2 hours more for the Pfeldererhof, and some passes close in winter. The hotels’ pages were read on 28 September 2026, and each name links to its own; prices are as each hotel publishes them, per room or per person.
- What guests say about the spa
On 27 September 2026 the Ermitage had 4.7 out of 5 on Google from 892 reviews, and in Google’s summary the spa drew 38 positive mentions and no negative ones. Guests praise the 2 pools, the saunas and the guided walks. The sauna area is mixed and swimwear is not allowed.
Questions about the spa and the hotel
The pool outdoors in winter, visitors, children, swimwear-free saunas and the other spa hotels.
Is the brine pool outdoors in winter too?
Yes, all year, from 7.30am to 9pm: the 35°C brine pool starts indoors and runs outside, and beside it the sports pool is kept at 31°C in winter. You swim in the mountain air whatever the weather, the hotel says on its pool page, and from the sauna terrace you can cool off in the snow.
What is the difference between the brine pool and the sports pool?
One is for soaking, the other for swimming. The brine pool is 35°C, about as salty as the Mediterranean, with jets and bubble loungers; the sports pool, 17 metres by 10, holds spring water at 28–29°C in summer and 31°C in winter. Hotel guests have both included, and so do visitors with a pool ticket.
Can you use the spa without staying?
Yes. On weekdays visitors can use the pools from 9.30am to 9pm and the saunas from noon to 9pm; on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 6pm, or with one of the few online tickets for 9am, 11am or 1pm, also sold for Fridays. The 2023 price list charges CHF 30 in summer and CHF 40 in winter for 2 hours in the pools, CHF 45 and 55 for 3 hours with the saunas; Day Spa packages run from CHF 60 to CHF 155.
Can children use the spa?
In the pools, yes, as far as the hotel says: it publishes no age limit there. The saunas are open from 16, with an adult until 18, and the gym from 12 with an adult. For younger children there are a playroom and the family suites, of 80 and 87 m², one with a kitchen.
How do you get there from Zurich or Geneva?
By train, in under 3 hours from Zürich HB: 2 hours 46 to 53 minutes, or 3 hours to 3 hours 15 from Zurich Airport, with 2 changes. From Geneva Airport it is 3 hours 10 to 20 minutes, changing at Montreux onto the panoramic line; those times come from the Swiss timetable for Tuesday 13 October 2026. By car, OSRM gives 201 km and 2 hours 37 minutes from Zurich Airport without traffic, and 155 km, 2 hours, from Geneva Airport.
Which other Alpine hotel has an outdoor brine pool?
ADLER Dolomiti in Ortisei, among those we compared: a 36°C brine pool, indoors and out, in a 4,000 m² spa, with half board in the package. STOCK in the Zillertal has a brine pool but gives no temperature; at Lefay in Pinzolo the 35–36°C salt-water pool is booked separately, from €50 per person for 40 minutes.
How much is a night, and what does it include?
From €401 to €420 a night for 2 in the simplest room, CHF 538 with three-quarter board. On 27 September 2026 the official site on Google Hotels asked €420 for Wednesday 14 October, €412 for 4 November and €401 for 9 December: that is the Plani Compact, with breakfast only. On Google’s Swiss site, in francs, a Rellerli Classic room with three-quarter board cost CHF 538 for 13 October. The spa is always included; Saturday nights had no prices.
Are the saunas really swimwear-free?
Yes. The sauna page says so: the area is mixed and nude, and swimwear is not allowed, for reasons of hygiene. The pools are a separate area, and women have the Ladies’ Spa, with a bio sauna, a steam room and showers of their own.
The spa is included for Ermitage guests; at weekends visitors get in from 6pm
The pools on the official site
Written and checked by Lumina, independently of ERMITAGE Wellness- & Spa-Hotel. Lumina sells no rooms or tickets: every link leads to its source.
Sources
- ERMITAGE, the pools: the 35°C brine pool and the sports pool, hours (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the saunas: 3,700 m², the steam rooms, the nude area, the Ladies’ Spa (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the spa for day guests: hours and tickets (official site)
- ERMITAGE, Day Spa packages (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the 2023 pool and sauna price list, still linked from the site
- ERMITAGE, Vitalità massages and treatments (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the December 2025 treatment price list
- ERMITAGE, gym, daily programme and guides (official site)
- ERMITAGE, three-quarter board: breakfast, lunch, cake and dinner (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the 8 Stuben (official site)
- ERMITAGE, One Million Stars Bar (official site)
- ERMITAGE, what the rate includes and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival (official site)
- ERMITAGE, prices, cancellation and parking in the package terms (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the Wellness Suite (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the Saane Senior Suite (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the history since 1955 (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the hotel: the Saanenland’s largest spa, brine without added chlorine (official site)
- ERMITAGE, the 2025 brochure: «the first indoor and outdoor salt-water pool in the Alps»
- Tripadvisor, the Ermitage: 4.6 out of 5, first of Schönried’s 3 hotels
- HolidayCheck, the Ermitage: 5.8 out of 6 and the Gold Award 2026
- Google, the Ermitage’s reviews: 892, including the 169 with text written since 2024
- Google Hotels, the Ermitage’s prices read on 27 September 2026
- OSRM, car profile on OpenStreetMap’s roads: the routes from Zurich Airport to the hotels
- Leading Spa Resorts, spa hotels in the mountains
- Premium Europe, luxury spa hotels in the Swiss Alps
- Gstaad Palace, the spa: 1,800 m², the pools, their temperatures
- Le Grand Bellevue, the spa’s pools
- 7132 Hotel, 2026 press kit: the Vals thermal baths, temperatures, prices
- Tschuggen Grand Hotel, the Bergoase: 5,000 m² and the pools
- ADLER Spa Resort Dolomiti, what is included: the 36°C brine pool
- Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti, saunas and pools: temperatures and the bookable salt-water pool
- Hotel Pfeldererhof, the spa and pools
- STOCK resort, the facts: 5,000 m², board, closing weeks
