The centrepiece of a dazzling reinvention of a Swiss ski town long famed to the in-the-know as a gnarly downhilling destination, The Chedi Andermatt delivers a thoroughly modern twist on Swiss high-altitude living.
When, as 007, Sean Connery filmed Goldfinger’s famous Alpine car chase through Switzerland’s Furka Pass in his silver Aston Martin back in 1964, he stayed in the spartan Room 21 in the Hotel Bergidyll in Andermatt, a remote army garrison town at the pass’ base. Sixty years on, today’s Bond would surely raise a sardonic groomed eyebrow at the Bergidyll’s ‘Riders Haven’ before quickly stepping across the street to check into suave, sophisticated The Chedi Andermatt.
The Alpine town of Andermatt has boasted almost as many identities as Bond over the centuries, hosting everyone from Roman settlers, Benedictine monks and Swiss army recruits to William Tell, Queen Victoria and Elvis in its various roles as a fertile farming valley, spa town and an army base. The result is an eclectic mix that today sets the stage for an Alpine-Asian luxury hotel built by an Egyptian property tycoon in a flourishing Swiss ski resort that’s partly owned by the American winter tourism behemoth Vail Resorts.
Confused? The short story is that The Chedi Andermatt is the lynchpin in the revitalisation of a small community perched high in the Swiss Alps, at the heart of a large and diverse ski area. Offering high-scale Alpine luxury at a snip of the price of lesser hotels in better-known resorts, The Chedi excels on virtually every level.
From the moment you enter this softly lit hotel, which now spans nine buildings, passing through towering 5.5m-/18ft-high glass doors to discover a slate check-in desk of equally monumental proportions, you have to discard any preconceptions (or hang-ups) about size. Everything here is vast. Sipping a refreshing cup of house blend tea on check-in, we glimpsed the swimming pool, encased in a steel framed glasshouse and stretching out invitingly for 35 m/114 ft before ducking beneath a glass wall to reappear outdoors, sending steam curling over the surrounding snow.
The bedrooms, of which there are 118, start at 52 sqm/560 sqft – that’s just shy of the average size of an Amsterdam apartment. If size really matters, plump for the five-bedroom Gotthard Suite, which spans 350 sqm/3,770 sqft across two floors, throwing in a kitchen and hand-crafted cherrywood bath for good measure. Every sprawling Chedi room and suite features mountain views, cloud-like Hästens beds, indulgent baths as well as rain showers, and generous supplies of Acqua di Parma toiletries. After initially baulking at the techy iPad room controls, we quickly came around to the ease with which we could manage the lights, blackout blinds and room service requests from the comfort of our bed.
Remarkably for its size, The Chedi Andermatt retains a seductive sense of intimacy, largely through the lavish use of organic materials such as petrified wood, slate, granite, leather, fur and wool. These mostly local materials, together with contemporary nods to traditional Alpine architecture, also give the hotel a definitive if very modern ‘Swissness’, as does the presence of no fewer than 206 wood-burning fires. These burn in every room, from the Bar and seasonal fondue chalet in the fairy light-bestrewn Winter Garden to the Ski Lounge, where charming ski butlers fitted us out with ski rentals and eased us into pre-heated ski boots each morning.
| Perfect for | Fly into | Right on time |
| The Sophisticate | ZRH | GMT +1 |
| While you’re Out There |
| Hail a cab to the Fondue-Burg restaurant in Hospental, a picturesque hamlet six minutes’ drive along the Furka Pass from The Chedi. The charismatic Sacha Ercolani owns and runs the intimate restaurant (named after the castle towering above it), also preparing and serving the four dishes on the menu – paper-thin air-dried beef, traditional cheese fondue, truffle champagne fondue and pot au feu (the fact that Ercolani serves more types of Champagne than food speaks volumes.) Each dish is simple yet superb and the restaurant’s rustic-chic interiors complete the delicious sense of Alpine suspended reality. |
The Chedi’s Asian heritage is invoked by interior details like delicate latticework panels, Japanese paper lamps, Balinese art and low tables with floor cushions, as well as its world-class spa and acclaimed Japanese restaurants. As we discovered after a refreshing dip in the main pool, the spa extends downstairs to a labyrinthine network of hydrothermal areas, baths, pools, saunas and steam rooms. Suitably soaked, we settled into one of the spa’s 12 treatment suites for a restorative Balinese massage. At a punchy CHF200 for 50 minutes (at the time of writing), it’s worth mentioning that the treatments, while heavenly, don’t reflect quite the same value for money as The Chedi’s rooms.
Unsurprisingly, the hotel’s guests are thoroughly spoiled when it comes to dining options. The Restaurant, another monumental space with four open kitchens, each with its own distinct cuisine, and a 5.5 m/18 ft-tall glass-encased cheese tower, serves breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is a marathon of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, homemade granolas and local yoghurts, mountains of breads and pastries, ready-made and made-to-order cooked dishes (with some menu options charged extra). Thanks to an international kitchen team that offers Eastern and Western interpretations of each lunch and dinner dish, the menu runs the global culinary gamut from Thai beef salad and tandoori chicken to bison entrecôte with Bearnaise sauce, each one exquisite.
For a real foodie blowout, bag a table at the intimate two Michelin-starred Japanese Restaurant, where twin brothers Dominik Sato and Fabio Toffolon serve an artful Omakase tasting menu showcasing their creative Japanese-inspired cuisine. Alternatively, sample the twins’ signature dishes and sushi at the hotel’s high-altitude outpost, the Michelin-starred mountaintop The Japanese at Gütsch.
A true melting pot of cultures, The Chedi Andermatt isn’t merely an exceptional luxury hotel where you can enjoy dim sum or a club sandwich at midnight should you wish, it’s the ultimate indication of Andermatt’s shiny new reincarnation. Unlike many fellow guests, we were here to ski and capitalised on the hotel being a two-minute walk from the gondola to Gütsch, accessing Andermatt’s largest ski area, and a five-minute shuttle ride from its other ski area, Gemsstock. Now we look forward to returning in summer, when the hotel transforms into a hub for hiking, biking, foraging and ragging vintage cars up the Furka Pass, James Bond-style.
Photography courtesy of GHM Hotels
