Heritage Reimagined
Glitzy St. Moritz didn’t have to work particularly hard on convincing the world that winter could mean fashionable opulence rather than bone-chilling inconvenience. The Grand Hotel des Bains Kempinski was built in 1864—coincidentally the very same year a hotelier wagered his departing English guests that the resort town’s winter sun, coupled with its dry, crisp “champagne” climate, would be just as agreeable as its summer sun. With 322 days of sunlight a year, who could possibly disagree, and so development began in earnest. This hotel rose beside the effervescently iron-rich Mauritius Spring that drew the town’s earliest visitors, predating the ski lift, the Cresta Run, and much of Europe’s “grand hotel” tradition itself.
The hotel’s history, like St. Moritz’s, is lengthy although not without setbacks. Two Mediterranean palazzo-style floors constructed in 1864, its now-signature corner towers added in 1905, then a lengthy vacancy from 1914 to 1958, interrupted only for the Olympic Winter Games of 1928 and 1948, of course. Then in 2001, Viennese architect Franz Schnabel oversaw the fourteen-month renovation that gave the hotel its present appearance, and the work has continued in earnest ever since — a 26-room wing reimagined in 2023, 62 units reborn as 51 suites in 2024, and, most recently, the transformation of the storied Cà d’Oro dining room into NEORA, introducing the valley’s first Greek restaurant. All in all, a steady approach, to continually improve upon itself to create a winter wonderland, clearly emulating the town’s tagline: Always evolving, always unforgettable.
Rooms With A Literal View
Staying in two suites on the fourth floor, both facing the front park, provided a view that, come morning, delivers random sights like guests arriving in a horse drawn carriage or a cross-country skier gliding by before breakfast. The property’s 205 rooms and suites span six floors now, but it’s the 44 Alpine Suites (100 to 545 m² one- to five-bedrooms) and the two hallmark Tower Suites each with a private rooftop terrace and 360 degree views over the Engadin Valley — that make the case for settling in rather than just breezing through. Our suites, true to the category, were obviously spacious — as we found with the public spaces as well as spotless, stylish, and offering a functional layout. This particularly grand Grand Hotel remains the only internationally branded five-star luxury address in town, and the interiors, which artfully blend its original Belle Époque bones with contemporary Alpine details and furnishings, earn that distinction while still remaining understated.
The Spa, at Length
The 2,800 m² Alpine Spa is less an amenity than an institution, built around the same carbonated Mauritius Spring water that has drawn visitors here since the Bronze Age. Four saunas, a laconium, a steam bath, an indoor pool and a heated outdoor one, plus a separate ladies’ spa with its Aroma Grotto, cover the traditional end of things; a Peloton Bike+ studio, SENSOPRO training, and a Life Cube cryotherapy chamber plunging to -110°C cover the rest. It is, by any measure, one of the more comprehensive wellness spaces in the Alps.
Dinner, Then Considerably More
Gastronomy at The Grand is by no means a casual afterthought. NEORA, the hotel’s newly minted contemporary Greek restaurant, brings a modern spin on one of the world’s oldest cuisines to a dining room whose walls are still clad in original 19th-century murals. Our experience here was exceptional and we have included a review in this issue. Les Saisons offers more typical alpine fare, including its famous rack of lamb. In the mornings, the venue houses the hotel’s breakfast buffet with custom stations. There is also an impressively (or exhaustingly, depending on whether one is a night owl) An impressively long à la carte menu is also available. Crazy Pizza, the international brand, turns dough and acrobatic “spinning pizza” theater with DJ into the area’s most reliably fun table. The Quintessence Bar & Lounge runs its own distinctly quieter act, anchored by a serious Macallan tasting program and, as we can confirm, genuinely excellent live piano in the evenings. Finally, the 2024 addition to the lineup, BILLIONAIRE St. Moritz, folds a full dinner show into a nightclub. Winter guests should not skip the Igloo Experience: private dining under the stars, Beluga caviar and vodka at the ready.
Location and the Long Game
The five-star property sits directly at the foot of the Signalbahn, placing guests just a three-minute walk from the lift line. While the morning starts with a brief stroll, the return is seamless with ski-in access via the Hahnensee run — making it the only five-star in town with that distinction. Downtown St. Moritz is a pleasant twenty-minute stroll, close enough for dinner reservations, far enough to keep the property’s own grounds genuinely serene. That balance — plus an EarthCheck Silver sustainability certification and a polished, gracious staff that we, as well as other guest reviews repeatedly note, flagged as exceptional — rounds out a stay that, on value and service alone, was excellent.
The Final Score
We returned from St. Moritz, NAVIS Curated Collection’s lengthy checklist in hand, with an overall score of 4.98 out of 5, a total of 324 points, and almost nothing but perfect fives across the board for design, service, cleanliness, wellness, sustainability, and safety. All cleared the highest bar the NAVIS Curated Collection’s strict criteria could set. A 4.98 is not a score we hand out casually, and it reflects what a week on the ground confirmed: this is a hotel that has had a hundred and sixty years to get the details right, and has spent most of that century and a half doing exactly that. Like the motto of the legendary town itself, the Grand Hotel des Bains Kempinski is “Top of the World.”
