Cheese, chocolate, cows on every hillside. Honestly, the children will never forgive you if you go anywhere else.
Switzerland doesn’t always top the list when parents start plotting a family holiday, and frankly, that’s its secret weapon. While everyone else is wrestling buggies over cobbles in Spain or surviving the plane-boat-taxi relay to a Greek island, Swiss travellers are gliding through mountain scenery on spotless trains (some with entire carriages designed for families, which is the closest thing to a miracle we’ve seen in transport). Add clean Alpine air, endless outdoor adventures and that reassuring Swiss sense of order, and you’ve got a destination built for broods.
The tricky part? Choosing. Switzerland’s grandest hotels are no strangers to small guests, and between lakeside palaces, ski-in chalets and city hideaways, it’s easy to get lost in the brochures.
Lucky, then, that our editors have done the legwork (and the cinema sessions, and the chocolate workshops, and the kids’ discos). From Belle Époque grandes dames to ski-in hideaways, thes
e are the Swiss hotels where children get treated like VIPs and parents actually get to relax. No, really.
Best family hotels in Switzerland at a glance
- Best for jaw-dropping views: Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne
- Best for a glamorous ski holiday: Badrutt’s Palace, St Moritz
- Best for old-school summer fun: Gstaad Palace
- Best kids’ club: Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa, Interlaken
- Best for space in the city: The Woodward, Geneva
- Best for ski-in, ski-out ease: Suvretta House, St Moritz
- Best for a laid-back mountain break: Valsana Hotel Arosa
How we chose
Every hotel on this list was picked by our editors and written up by someone who has been there, ideally with children in tow. We looked for genuinely thoughtful family facilities (not just a box of crayons at check-in), great locations, warm service and design worth writing home about. We’ll keep this list updated as new openings land and old favourites evolve.
Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne, Lucerne
Best for: An arrival the kids will talk about for years
Why we love it: Getting here is half the fun. You’ll cross Lake Lucerne on a private catamaran, then ride a funicular all the way up to the resort, and every age group on board will be pressed against the glass. Once you’re installed, it’s clear someone has thought very hard about small guests: our editor found sharp corners already childproofed in her room, plus a spa menu written just for kids.
The Alpine Spa pool has generous family hours, there are children’s films in the cinema every day, and then there’s the kids’ club. Free for ages three to 12, it is one of the best we’ve seen anywhere. Think a plush medieval princess castle, a play gym with a climbing wall, and a staircase dressed up as a pretend funicular leading to a mezzanine games room with a slide. We’d quite like one at home.
Don’t miss the Felsenweg walk (gentle enough for a pram) out to the Hammetschwand Lift, Europe’s highest outdoor lift, which whisks you 153 metres up the cliff in about a minute. The views? Stunning.
Badrutt’s Palace, St Moritz
Best for: Parents who want the slopes and the glamour
Why we love it: Best address in town, best lobby, best people-watching, best service. Badrutt’s Palace is one long list of superlatives, and somehow it still works brilliantly as a family hotel (for those whose budget can stretch that far, we know).
Book interconnecting rooms, ask for extra cots and cribs, and dine in restaurants where a toddler won’t shatter the candlelit, white-tablecloth mood. The Palazzino Kids Club is free for hotel guests and open daily from 9.30am to 8pm, so you can grab a proper morning on the slopes while the little ones tear around the outdoor playground (supervised, natch). Their own diary is busier than yours: ice skating, cooking classes and a kids’ disco.
Older children get the full treatment too, kitting out in high-end Kjus gear at the hotel’s ski shop and learning from top instructors in skiing, snowboarding and skating. Want to make it a family competition? The team will happily book you a round of curling or ice stock nearby. Come on, it’s Badrutt’s!
Gstaad Palace, Gstaad
Best for: A summer of pool days and St Bernards
Why we love it: You’ll spot it long before you arrive. Gstaad Palace rises over the village like a fairytale castle, and it has been the place to be seen since 1913, hosting everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to Margaret Thatcher (what an interesting dinner party that would have been!). It’s two hours by car from Geneva, or three by train with a change at Montreux.
For all the star power, this is a deeply family place. The Scherz family has run it since 1938 and, three generations on, plenty of guest families treat it as a second home. Almost 60 per cent of the 90 rooms can be connected, some have sofa beds, and there’s a two-bedroom suite if you’d rather keep everyone under one roof.
In summer, the Olympic-sized pool is the social hub, complete with traditional changing cabins, diving boards, the odd DJ and a café dishing up burgers and chips. Over at the free kids’ club, children can groom and walk St Bernards, mix their own mocktails and say hello to the resident llamas and alpacas. Hear, hear.
Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa, Interlaken
Best for: The kids’ club to end all kids’ clubs
Why we love it: Here, you’ll find a proper grande dame. The façade is pure postcard, the interiors have corners grand enough for an empress, and the multi-storey Spa Nescens (known for its Swiss anti-ageing expertise) is where you’ll be found once the children are happily occupied.
And occupied they will be. The Bee Hive, as the kids’ club is known, runs from 8am to 9pm and is included for three to 12-year-olds. The weekly line-up is ridiculously good: soap making, barefoot parkour, kids’ yoga, pizza making and flower arranging. There’s a beanbag-strewn library, an art studio, a music and gaming room and even a calm-down room with beds. The spa also offers children’s treatments, plus a daily splash hour in the main pool with inflatables.
Travelling as four? Book the Tower Suite, a 212-square-metre penthouse tucked into the hotel’s dome, which sleeps two adults and two children. It’s a tough job, etc.
The Woodward, Geneva
Best for: Big suites in the heart of the city
Why we love it: Don’t bother asking for a room here. There aren’t any. The Woodward, now part of Auberge Collection, has only suites, 26 of them, ranging from 55 to 160 square metres. That makes it Geneva’s smallest five-star with some of its biggest spaces, and families can link several suites along a corridor (or take over a whole floor, if you’re that kind of family).
Children are greeted with colouring books, puzzles and a cuddly St Bernard, plus mini bathrobes and slippers so they can match your off-duty look. Le Jardinier has its own children’s menu which, if anything can, might actually get them eating their vegetables. Babysitting and activities can be arranged whenever you need a grown-up dinner.
The Alpina Gstaad, Gstaad
Best for: Big families and Bond-level drama
Why we love it: We’ll be the ones to say it: this is the most cinematic hotel in the Bernese Alps. Carved wooden balconies, a striking circular lobby, an entrance tucked underground and mountains that look painted on. Each of the 55 rooms and suites is different, filled with commissioned art, hand-painted wooden furniture and fires that light at the flick of a switch (perfect for coffee-table-book reading under a fur throw).
Larger families should book the chalet suite, which sleeps six across three bedrooms. Children will make a beeline for the outdoor playground, the cinema room and the Tree House Club with its programme of workshops. Summer means swims in the hotel pool and nearby lakes; winter brings snowshoeing, alpaca walks and husky-pulled sled rides. Delectable.
Mandarin Oriental, Geneva
Best for: A smooth city break with small children
Why we love it: Walking into a room styled for your children with a teepee, balloons, toys and sweets? Our editor’s two little ones practically bounced off the walls when they saw it. That’s the tone at this calm, airy 1950s hotel, set a little apart from the lakeside crowds in the city of peace.
There’s a choice of family room layouts and kids’ menus in every restaurant. The concierge can line up chocolate-making sessions around the city, and guests get a complimentary visit to Bubbles Kids Sports Club nearby, which is the perfect energy-burner before a quiet dinner.
La Réserve Genève, Geneva
Best for: Outdoor play by the lake
Why we love it: Here’s a hotel that seems all grown-up at first glance, with a spa promising eternal youth, four refined restaurants (Tsé Fung, the Michelin-starred Cantonese, is the headline act) and moody interiors inspired by old-world African safari lodges, all gold, walnut and lantern light. Look closer and it’s a family playground.
The hotel sits on a generous stretch of green beside Lake Geneva, and rooms look out over sculpted gardens or the water, most with big terraces or balconies. Children can run riot on the elaborate wooden playground, cannonball into one of two pools or head out on the lake in one of the hotel’s vintage motorboats. We may have enjoyed that last part just as much.
Suvretta House, St Moritz
Best for: Ski-in, ski-out family holidays
Why we love it: What’s not to love about a hotel with its own ski lift? Suvretta House is the only hotel in St Moritz that sits directly on the slopes, so instead of herding everyone onto a shuttle with skis and boots, you simply walk out of the door and clip in. There’s a ski school and ski shop on site too, which makes the morning drop-off almost suspiciously easy.
This grand old house, run by the same company since 1911, has 181 rooms and a real sense of tradition, but children are welcome everywhere. The Kiddy Club offers professional childcare, while the Teddy Club is a dedicated children’s restaurant serving its own early dinner, leaving parents free to linger over something more grown-up in the Grand Restaurant. Families can also make use of the 25-metre pool, the outdoor whirlpool heated to 36°C and the ice rink, with curling and tennis courts for summer stays.
Trust us when we say a hot tub with mountain views, after a day of ski lessons, is the best kind of parenting.
Valsana Hotel Arosa, Arosa
Best for: A relaxed, design-led mountain escape
Why we love it: If the palaces feel a little too formal, Valsana is your answer. This modern Small Luxury Hotels of the World property sits right in the heart of Arosa at 1,800 metres, overlooking the Obersee lake and the mountains beyond, and it has a laid-back, friendly energy that families will feel straight away.
In winter, you can ski right up to the front door. In summer, the lake is on your doorstep for walks and paddling. There are family rooms as well as apartments for those who like a bit more independence, an indoor pool for rainy afternoons and free transfers from Arosa station (just let the team know your arrival time). Don’t miss a trip to the Arosa Bear Sanctuary, a short hop away, where rescued bears roam a mountainside enclosure. Children go wild for it. Grown-ups too, if we’re honest.
Planning more Alpine adventures? Take a look at our pick of the best ski hotels in Switzerland.
