Hotels in Other Swiss Cities

This palatial but sterile hotel on the lake has long been considered Lucerne's premiere stop. Ownership has been in the same family since 1861 and guests have included Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Richard Wagner, Napoleon III and Kaiser Wilhelm. However, its imposing marble columns and pilasters, crystal chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, huge paintings and overstuffed, flower-patterned furniture failed to inspire us.

Beside The Hotel, the Schweizerhof seems dowdy and stuffy. Perhaps the venomous way in which a senior woman employee publicly chastised a much younger female clerk at the reception desk soured us on this Grand Dame.