Beau-Rivage Palace

Beau-Rivage Palace has stood in its own gardens on the Lausanne lakefront since 1861, and it remains the definitive Lake Geneva grand hotel. The setting is what distinguishes it from city palaces: four hectares of mature parkland running down to the water at Ouchy, with the Savoy Alps rising on the French side of the lake directly opposite. The 1908 Belle Epoque wing, ballroom and all, is largely intact.

Rooms and suites are traditionally decorated and vary considerably in size and outlook, with lake-facing rooms in the historic wing the ones to ask for. The hotel has a genuine place in European history, having hosted the negotiations that produced the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, and it still handles a good deal of diplomatic and Olympic business given the IOC's presence in the city.

The Guerlain Spa covers treatment rooms, a pool and thermal facilities. Food is an unusual strength for a hotel of this vintage: Anne-Sophie Pic holds a restaurant here, alongside a Japanese room, a brasserie and a lakeside terrace that is one of the best places in Switzerland to spend a summer evening. Lausanne's old town, the Olympic Museum and the Lavaux vineyard terraces are all within easy reach, and the hotel is open year-round.