Gstaad Palace, the hotel on the hill, and Gstaad’s other luxury hotels compared

Of all the Gstaad hotels, Gstaad Palace is the one with the towers, up on the hill the village looks up to. It opens only in season, winter and summer, and the next one starts on 15 December 2026.

Updated 13 October 202615 min readHow we write the guide

The palace and its towers in winter, seen past a snow-laden fir and the snowy roofs of chalets under a blue sky

Who the Gstaad Palace is for

Why choose it

You want Gstaad at full tilt, winter or summer, and a hotel where dinner, the spa and dancing all happen under one roof, 7 minutes’ walk above the Promenade.

What is included

When to look elsewhere

You want to come in the quiet months, or spend less: the Palace is shut from 7 September to 14 December and a winter night starts at €1,419; the Bernerhof in the village and the Ermitage in Schönried stay open all year.

Gstaad’s other hotels

From a schoolteacher in 1905 to the third generation of the Scherz family

First came the railway, then a schoolteacher with his eye on the hill. More than a century on, the towers still keep watch over Gstaad, and an evening changes key from one room to the next.

The first train from Montreux pulled into Gstaad on 20 December 1904. A year later Robert Steffen, who taught at the village’s secondary school, was buying the first plots on the Oberbort. He found his investors in Lausanne, where the hotel company was set up in 1911, and building began in April 1912 to designs by Adrien van Dorsser and Charles-François Bonjour, the hotel’s history says.

The Palace opened on 8 December 1913 with 165 rooms, 70 of them with their own bathroom. The Scherz family came to run it in 1938 and has owned it since 1947; the third generation has been in charge since 2001.

The GreenGo opened on 22 January 1971, and Teo Jakob’s interior is still in place. In 1975 the indoor pool had its film moment in «The Return of the Pink Panther», when Inspector Clouseau falls in. The Penthouse followed in 2000, the tower suites a year later, and in 2007 the spa was rebuilt and enlarged to 1,800 m².

Today there are 90 rooms and suites. Tripadvisor ranks the Palace fourth of Gstaad’s 18 hotels, with a Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best 2026, and the MICHELIN Guide gives it Two Keys.

What does sleeping on the hill give you? We went through 15 of the Palace’s official pages, the sites of 9 nearby hotels, the 8 videos in this guide and the 541 Google reviews with a text. The view fills 45 of those reviews: when guests say what they see, it is the mountains 19 times and the village below just twice. 7 picture the Palace perched high above Gstaad. Only 2 describe the way up: a 4-minute shuttle from the station, a 5-minute taxi, or an 8-minute walk from the high street.

The palace above Gstaad, in winter and in summer

Arriving in the snow, the palace from above among snowy roofs and a summer flight towards its towers, then the spa’s indoor pool, a wood-panelled room, a flambé at Le Grill, a leap into the 1928 PISCINE and a log fire in winter.

**The palace above the snowy village, then the arrival: the doorman at the revolving door, the red carpet between the Christmas trees, the key at reception**ULTIMEDIA · 25 March 2026Watch on YouTube

**The 1913 palace from a drone in winter: its turrets, façade and wings among the snow-covered chalet roofs**from 2:14 · WeLove Switzerland · 23 January 2021Watch on YouTube

**In summer: a drone skims the PISCINE’s cabins and the tennis courts towards the palace, then loungers on the lawn facing the mountains and the lounge under its painted ceiling**Gstaad Palace · 23 July 2025Watch on YouTube

A winter day at the Palace, hour by hour

A winter day here is a choice between snow and warm water, and nobody minds if you have both. La Fromagerie opens in winter only, and out of season the whole hotel closes, spa and restaurants included.