GstaadLife

On October 22 2011 the Rialto will close for the season. This will also be the day that Piero Bigai retires after 40 years. He started in the 60's at the Gstaad Palace and for the past few years has been running the Restaurant Rialto. We wish him all the very best for his retirement. 

The Hotel Arc-en-Ciel in Gstaad is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday October 22 2011 from 11:00 till 17:00. You can have a look behind the scenes, there will be music, a lucky wheel, pony riding, face painting, a bouncy castle, the famous electric cars, and a special pizza oven for the kids.

The cranes are gone and the press office of The Alpina Gstaad is going into overdrive. So the news is that everything at the first newly-constructed 5-star hotel in Gstaad in the past 100 years seems to be going smoothly. And they have found their managing director, one Niklaus Leuenberger, a Swiss who has managed hotels over the last 30 years throughout Asia and the US. There'll be lots more on this story in the next months. The grand opening is slated for December 2012.

Gstaad Saanenland Tourism has confirmed that room nights in the region are down compared to previous years. The blame appears to lie squarely with the strong Swiss franc, which makes visiting Switzerland in general and Gstaad in particular even more expensive than it used to be. The saving grace, according to Gstaad's tourist director Martin Bachofner, was that at least the Swiss guests have stayed loyal to the region, even as Euro earners, Brits and Americans have stayed away. Andrea Scherz, the director of the Gstaad Palace, spoke at length a out this topic earlier in the season in an interview with the Tagesanzeiger, reflecting the concerns of many of the region's hoteliers. For those of you who read German click here for the interview. Or here for our previous comment on this.

As expected, Roberth Speth's Chesery was yet again rated as the top restaurant in our region by Gault Millau - well, it simply is very, very good. We are also happy that the Chalet Hotel Hornberg in Saanenmöser is new in the guide - one of our favorite spots, with possibly the most underrated terrace in the whole of Saanenland. 

by Taki Theodoracopulos

GSTAAD—It’s been very sunny and hot, with the bluest of blue skies above and the greenest of green mountains around me. It does not get any better than this. The farmers have cut their grass and packed it for the winter’s feed, soon the cows will be coming down from the hills, and the Swiss franc will continue going through the roof. Life is now so expensive in Switzerland, even the rich are starting to complain.

Bernie Ecclestone and Marco Piccinini, the two owners of the Hotel Olden want to renovate their hotel -- big time. Planned is a complete overhaul of the hotel and the restaurant area and the creation of four apartments and two chalets for long term rental - run by the hotel. The hotel itself wants to keep twelve suites. If you are asking yourself how all of this is going to be possible - well check out the poles behind the building right now. Let's just hope they don't renovate the ambiance.

For years we have waited for someone to come up with a plan and the permission to do something with that old, run-down Hotel La Gare in Saanen. Over the past decade, various architects have tried to get construction permission to rebuild the Hotel La Gare but so far no consensus could be reached. Now Fabian Reichenbach of the eponymous architecture firm based in Gstaad believes he has the answer, and is trying again with what is described as a smaller more 'Saanenlike' project. Coming in midst of the Saanen renaissance, this one feels like it has a chance, so let's hope for some sanity on the planning commission because anything is better than the current eyesore. 

The Steigenberger Hotel Gstaad-Saanenland celebrated its 30th anniversary last Thursday. If you haven't payed it much attention so far (chain hotel and all that) we can warmly suggest to give it a try - the view from its terrace is simply amazing and GstaadLife recommends as an insider tip for August 1st fireworks. 

Franz W Faeh, who was born in Gstaad and has made his name as a top chef in numerous hotels around the world, is now cooking for those of you who turn left when you get on a Swiss airliner. Now we're all for trying to liven up mealtimes on planes, but we're always at a bit of a loss when we hear of top chefs taking up mile-high cooking duties. For it doesn't really matter if Franz Faeh packs my lunchbox or if I do it -- after 6 hours on the re-heat, it's still going to taste like, well, re-heated food. So instead we'll just head over to the Le Vieux Manoir in Murten where we can savor Faeh's delicacies moments after he's finished preparing them! Seriously though, congrats: from a promo perspective, these airline gigs are a big deal.