Where to stay in St. Moritz: the five grand hotels compared

St. Moritz has three of Switzerland's ten hotels with three MICHELIN Keys, and two more with two, all within a few kilometres of each other. They are all grand, all seasonal and all expensive, so the useful differences are smaller ones: where each stands, how you get to the lifts, and who you will be having breakfast with.

The Corviglia, the main ski area, has 155 km of slopes and is reached from St. Moritz Dorf by the Chantarella funicular; it runs from 28 November 2026 to 4 April 2027. Across the Upper Engadin there are about 350 km: the Corvatsch has 120 km and a floodlit 4.2 km run on Friday nights, and Diavolezza, near Pontresina, stays open until 2 May 2027.

The five, side by side

Keys from the 2026 MICHELIN selection; the rest from each hotel's own page.

Badrutt's Palace: the stage

Caspar Badrutt opened Badrutt's Palace in 1896 as the first hotel to call itself a Palace, and his family still runs it. It is the most theatrical hotel in the Alps and knows it: the tower, Le Grand Hall with its view across the lake, a Rolls-Royce at the door, more than ten restaurants and bars in and around the hotel, among them La Coupole-Matsuhisa, and a winter calendar of polo, racing and cars on the frozen lake. February is the busiest and most social month; March brings the most sun.

The Kulm: where it began

Johannes Badrutt founded the Kulm in 1856 and, in 1864, made the bet that started winter tourism: his English summer guests could come back in December, and he would refund them if they did not like it. In 1879 its dining room had the first electric light in Switzerland. It sits at the top of the village beside the start of the Cresta Run and the Olympia Bob Run, with the natural ice rink below; the Kulm Country Club pavilion was renovated by Norman Foster. It is the sporting choice, and many rooms face south over the lake.

The Carlton: the quiet one

The Carlton is a palace of 1913 on the hillside above the lake, turned into sixty junior suites and suites that all face the same way: across Lake St. Moritz to the Engadin peaks. It is the quietest of the three three-Key hotels and the one where every guest has the view. Da Vittorio St. Moritz, run by the Cerea family, holds two MICHELIN Stars; book it for the first night rather than the last, and ask for a corner suite on a high floor.

Suvretta House: for skiing

Suvretta House stands on its own plateau, the Chasellas, about ten minutes from the station, with the forest behind it and the whole of the Upper Engadin in front. It has a lift from the hotel into the Corviglia, its own two mountain restaurants on the slopes above, a children's club and about 180 rooms. It keeps the old rhythm of half board in the Grand Restaurant, and is the hotel for skiers who would rather not be seen. Two MICHELIN Keys; open from early December to early April.

The Kronenhof: the calmer village

Pontresina is eight kilometres from St. Moritz and much quieter. The Kronenhof, grown from a five-room inn bought in 1848 into a neo-baroque palace in the 1890s, faces the Roseg valley, with painted ceilings and a spa of more than 2,000 m². Diavolezza and the Corvatsch are the nearest ski areas, and the Roseg valley is for cross-country skiing and walking to the glacier restaurant at its end. It shares an owner with the Kulm and holds two MICHELIN Keys.