Huus Gstaad
How do two hoteliers who seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum manage to find a meeting point and create something extraordinary?
From the balconies here you can spot private jets beetling down to the airstrip below, but they’re missing a trick: to embrace the contours and roll with the terrain, you really need to arrive by train, cranking upwards in a Grand Budapest Hotel-style carriage from Montreux. This hotel landed with a soft whumpf recently above Gstaad’s neighboring village, Saanen, with the sort of chalet-style timbers that have been around since the Matterhorn was a wee lad.
It’s hard to call it a home away from home, because HUUS Gstaad is the sort of place you’d like to call ‘home’ forever. Located in a spectacular Alpine setting between Saanen and Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland, it’s warm, welcoming, gracious and cosy. And did we mention luxurious?
Under a pale blue alpine sky, we laughed together in the open air. Slowly at first and then faster and completely, we forgot about work and school and all the technological tethers of our daily lives. We lived wild and free, building fires, hiking, and rafting, climbing to the summit, biking through the woods.
Erik Nissen Johansen – the Norwegian founder of Swedish design studio Stylt Trampoli – seems to be carving out a niche for himself reinventing Alpine-hotel style.
Tried & Tested by Mummy in the Mountains
Parents looking for a good value, designer, boutique style hotel, in the Swiss Alps with AMAZING service and facilities for kids HUUS is for you.
The HUUS Hotel, is a new design hotel that is great for families thanks to three different playrooms for table football, billiards, skittles, and cinema and disco evenings. It even has a dedicated kids’ spa with an ice cave shower, sauna and climbing wall.
As you probably saw on my Instagram, I spent my Christmas holidays in Gstaad. But for the very first time, I chose the Huus Gstaad to stay for the celebrations. And I have much to say on this beautiful and so welcoming Hotel…
“The Living Room at Huus, Gstaad-Saanen, Switzerland, which won best bar, club or lounge. The space was commended for its thoughtful design, creating a relaxed, luxurious bar with a dynamic and youthful vibe.”
“A perfect marriage between Alpine hut and luxury design hotel. HUUS Gstaad melds an unmatched package of outdoor activities with a well appointed family-friendly spa and “the world’s best beds”. Two Range Rover convertibles for complimentary hire top off the visionary concept.”
9/10 Telegraph expert rating.
“Mis huus, dis huus – mis Herz isch es Hotel” (“My house, your house – my heart is a hotel.” ) Even though the song by Switzerland’s award-winnning rap duo Lo & Leduc (they rap in the Swiss German dialect) has absolutely no connection to the Hotel HUUS in Gstaad, I couldn’t get the catchy tune out of my mind during the drive there. Maybe it was that Latino groove?
This was our first winter while living in Europe, and trips to the mountains were a high priority for us. Compared to the U.S., winters here just feel different — there’s something magical about the quaint cobblestone streets, lit-up towns and the Swiss Alps in the snow.
Feeling the call of the mountains? Then Huus Gstaad is the place for you.
Architect Erik Nissen Johansen – founder of Swedish design agency Stylt Trampoli – has reinvented the former Steigenberger Hotel, transforming it into a 136-room chalet.
Opening in December 2016, Huus Hotel is set to invigorate Gstaad’s hospitality landscape with its unique concept of intimate mountain hideaway underlined by a firm familial flair. Set 1,111 meters above sea level in the Bernese Oberland, the spectacular surroundings of the 131-room Design Hotels™ member permeate every aspect of the hotel.