The Dolder Grand

The Hotel

The Dolder Grand opened in 1899 on the Adlisberg above Zurich — a turreted Belle Époque resort hotel built by the architect Jacques Gros to capitalise on the 19th-century European fashion for hilltop "Kurhaus" sanatoria. The Dolderbahn cog railway, which still operates, was built simultaneously to connect the city to the resort. The original hotel operated as a sanatorium and grand hotel through the inter-war and post-war decades but began declining in the 1980s; by the late 1990s it was tired, structurally compromised, and at risk of demolition. The Swiss philanthropist Urs Schwarzenbach acquired the property in the late 1990s, commissioned Lord Norman Foster's London practice to lead a complete restoration, and reopened it in April 2008 after an eight-year, billion-Swiss-franc reconstruction.

The Foster intervention was distinctive: rather than restore the historic envelope as a single Belle Époque whole, Foster preserved the original turreted central building (rooms now called the "Historic Wing"), demolished the unfortunate 1960s additions, and built two contemporary curved wings (the "Spa Wing" and the "Golf Wing") that frame the historic core in a controlled-glass-and-steel architectural language. The result is a hotel that reads architecturally as one continuous historic building from the front but operates internally as three connected zones — the Historic Wing (75 rooms in restored period rooms), the Spa Wing (50 rooms with direct spa access), and the Golf Wing (50 rooms with views over the Dolder Golf Course). The 175-room total includes 39 suites in nine categories.

The 4,000-square-metre Spa at the Dolder Grand is the central proposition and the largest urban spa in Europe. The facility includes a 25-metre indoor pool, a heated outdoor pool with city views, a terrace jacuzzi, a hammam, a sanarium, a mixed sauna, a women-only sauna, a snow paradise (an indoor snow chamber), and 18 treatment rooms. The treatment programme combines a global wellness vocabulary (signature Dolder treatments, Asian-influenced rituals, Alpine herbal protocols) with the most ambitious medical-and-cosmetic offering in any Swiss hotel. The Spa is the property's hardest-working asset and the reason a substantial number of guests book multi-night stays without ever leaving the building.

The Restaurant — the property's flagship — holds two Michelin stars and 19 GaultMillau points under chef Heiko Nieder, who has cooked here continuously since 2008. The kitchen runs a contemporary international tasting menu in the round, glass-roofed pavilion adjacent to the Spa Wing. Saltz — the second restaurant — runs a more relaxed Mediterranean-Asian menu in a Rolf Sachs-designed dining room (Rolf Sachs, the German artist and son of Gunter Sachs and Brigitte Bardot, designed the entire Saltz interior). The Cigar Lounge holds the largest cigar selection at any Zurich hotel; the Garden Restaurant is the seasonal outdoor option from May through October. The art collection — installed permanently throughout the hotel and renewed periodically — includes major Andy Warhol portraits, Picasso ceramics, Henry Moore bronzes, Salvador Dalí lithographs, and Damien Hirst spot paintings, and operates as a private museum during the day with guided tours available to overnight guests.

Best Occasion Fit

Practical Information

Also Great in Zurich