Grand Hotel Kronenhof Pontresina. I can’t believe why I’ve never visited Switzerland before. Therefore, I was more than excited for this trip to the Engadin on the occasion of the gourmet summit, which I will tell you more about in a separate post. We stayed a the beautiful Grand Hotel Kronenhof in Pontresina which is a 10 minutes ride away from St. Moritz. Apparently the quieter village and perfect for hiking and outdoor activities compared to the livelier St. Moritz.

The hotel comes with an old and long history dating back to 1848. In fact, it is the oldest hotel in Pontresina which was bought and re-laid from the Gredig family as Gasthaus zur Post. Within the time the Engadin area became a famous tourist destination and was renamed as Grand Hotel Kronenhof. After around 140 years in the ownership of the Gredig family it was sold and finally bought from the Grand-Hotels Engadinerkulm AG in 2004.

Kulm Hotel DAS RESTAURANT

The Kronenhof has 66 rooms and 46 suites. The luxury hotel is built into the slope. Therefore the ground floor starts at the 3rd floor which is quite confusing at first. The rooms are decorated in a Belle Epoque design with light materials and golden elements. I fell madly in love with the chandeliers in the whole hotel. The rooms are fully equipped with everything you’ll need – minibar, safe, TV and free WIFI for all guests (I hate the fact that more luxurious hotels always charge extra fees for the internet).

I love the buffets in hotels but the last times I was quite disappointed. But breakfast at the Kronenhof was great and I woke up earlier in order to have enough time to eat. The choice is great – fresh bread and croissaints, everything for cereal lovers, fresh fruits and a delicious variety of cold cuts and cheese. Moreover scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon. A personal highligt was the honey comb – it couldn’t be fresher. As you can see I quite ate a lot each time. The service is also very friendly. As a matter of fact Sergio Ciccarone has been recently nominated as the Maître d’hôtel 2015 from the Swiss economics magazine BILANZ. Congratulations!

The spa area is located in the lower floors with a large pool area, whirlpoor, fitness and a big sauna area. Especially the sauna area is great and you can relax starting in the floathing bath to the Kneipp cure to the sauna. Best is to cool down outside in the mountain area. I also tested a spa treatment and got a Body Wrap treatmant – 25 minutes of pure relaxation.

Being a luxury hotel it has everything what the heart desires – a spacious lounge area, hotelbar up to their own bowling alley. I absolutely loved the coziness of the hotel and now I am dreaming of a white holiday there…

The Gredig family started their business with selling wine. Luckily the old cave still exists and it was very interesting to have a glance at it.

One more highlight was our dinner at the Kronenstübli, the second restaurant of the hotel. While you’ll get a menu in the dining room you can order here à la carte.

They still serve an old traditional French dish – the Canard à la Presse, celebrated with the silver duck press. It was served on the neighbour’s table and we could see how it was prepared.