How the Carlton Hotel Has Stayed One of St. Moritz’s Most Iconic Hotels For Over a Century

Welcome to St. Moritz 

St. Moritz didn't become the world's most famous ski resort by accident; rather, it invented winter tourism. Before St. Moritz, Europeans went south in the cold months, and the idea of (voluntarily) heading into the Alps in December was considered, at best, wild. Then in 1864, hotelier Johannes Badrutt made a bet with a group of English summer guests: come back in winter, and if they didn't love it, he'd cover the trip. They came, they stayed until spring, and the rest is the entire history of alpine luxury travel. 

Over 160 years later, it still delivers. Winter brings polo on the frozen lake, the Cresta Run, bobsled races, and a jet-setting crowd under the long shadow of Olympic downhill runs. Walk the winding streets and old grand hotels stand their ground, Michelin-starred kitchens are tucked into unsuspecting alleys, and designer shops line Via Serlas. The calendar flips effortlessly from snow polo to summer sailing regattas. St. Moritz has hosted the Winter Olympics twice and is renowned for its Champagne climate, aka over 300 days of sunshine a year, at altitude, with powder conditions found almost nowhere else in Europe. Simply put, I went expecting something iconic, and I was not disappointed. 

The Carlton has been part of that story since 1913, making it one of the oldest hotels in St. Moritz. During the First World War, the Greek royal family lived here in exile. From there, the clientele has somehow only gotten more glamorous. This past season marked 111 years, celebrated with a complete refresh of the interiors by Swiss designer Carlo Rampazzi. Today, it reigns from one of the sunniest spots in town, overlooking the lake, and far enough from the center to feel slightly secluded while still being a short walk from everything worth doing — shops, restaurants, and yes, the iconic clubs.

A Stay at the Carlton Hotel

Sixty rooms sounds somewhat small for a five-star hotel in one of the world's most famous areas, and that's purely the point. The Carlton is St. Moritz's most intimate luxury hotel, which in practice means more attentive staff, more space, and none of the anonymity that comes with scale. It also means that every single one of those 60 rooms faces south over Lake St. Moritz and the Engadine Valley. Waking up to that view on a clear February morning, with the lake frozen solid and the Corviglia runs catching the early light across the valley, is exactly what makes a week feel too short.

It should be no surprise that the rooms are done extremely well. Suites are individually decorated in different color palettes with bespoke furnishings, marble bathrooms with double sinks, king-sized beds with Berluti leather headboards, high thread-count sheets, Venetian stucco ceilings, and Murano glass lamps. Junior suites start at 35 square meters and combine sleeping and living areas with that south-facing lake view as standard. The Carlton Suites step up to 95 square meters with roomy living space and bathrooms that qualify as a destination in their own right. The Grand Suites sit on the fifth through seventh floors at 80 square meters, with a separate bedroom and living room and a sofa bed for anyone who needs the extra space.  

Then, there's the Penthouse. The entire eighth floor, accessed by its own private elevator, has three bedrooms, each with ensuite marble bathrooms, five balconies covering a full 360-degree panorama of the lake and mountains, and a living room fireplace. It is, by most reasonable measures, one of the best rooms in St. Moritz.

Of course, what comes standard with every room is worth noting. Daily breakfast, a daily food and beverage credit, a complimentary minibar stocked with regional drinks, teas and coffee, a 24-hour shuttle and ski shuttle, a concierge, a butler on request, and full access to the 1,200 square meter Carlton Spa. 

One more thing: the Dream Butler service. While guests are in the spa at the end of the day, the Dream Butler sets the room to the optimal humidity, lighting, and temperature for sleep, along with a scented candle, pillow spray, and a bedtime book. A pillow menu follows. It sounds like a lot until it's midnight in the Alps after a full day on the mountain, and then it sounds exactly right.

Dining at the Carlton

The Carlton has two restaurants and a bar that could carry a review on its own, and between them they cover most moods a week in St. Moritz is likely to produce.

The Grand Restaurant is the more relaxed of the two — a dining room that has built its menu around the Engadine landscape itself. Chef Salvatore Frequente draws on local produce and wild ingredients from the surrounding forests, seasonally fresh and regionally rooted. The room overlooks the mountains and the lake, and dinner here has the particular quality of a meal that doesn't require an occasion to justify it.

Da Vittorio St. Moritz is a different proposition entirely. Complete with two Michelin stars, the kitchen is led by brothers Enrico and Roberto Cerea, whose family restaurant in Brusaporto has held three Michelin stars for decades. The menu takes Lombardy culinary tradition somewhere new, and the newly redesigned interior makes the room as special as the food. (Whatever you do, do not miss out on a meal here.)

The Carlton Bar and Bel Etage is the social heart of the hotel — two fireplaces, a sun terrace with one of the best views over Lake St. Moritz in the entire Engadin, and a bar that Forbes has ranked among the best in the world. Afternoon tea here is one of those alpine experiences that sounds like a cliché until it isn't. The combination of a good Darjeeling, a fire going, and the mountains sitting in the windows on a clear afternoon is hard to argue with.

Around the Area

St. Moritz has been a prestigious alpine destination for more than a century, and the variety of museums, galleries, shopping, and nightlife stands as testament to that. Carlton's outdoor butler service handles the logistics of getting on the mountain — ski school, ski shop, rentals, and transfers to Corviglia are all available through the hotel, making the gap between breakfast and first run as short as possible.

Beyond the slopes, the Cresta Run is worth watching even for those not planning to hurtle down it headfirst on a skeleton sled at 130 kilometers per hour — which, for the record, is a thing people do here voluntarily and with apparent enthusiasm. Snow polo on the frozen lake runs in January, and the Carlton offers VIP tickets to guests for the tournament, now in its 42nd year. The village itself, with Via Serlas lined with the kind of shops that don't need window displays to communicate their price point, is a walk worth taking at least once, regardless of budget.

On the mountain, Paradiso is the obvious stop for après: a glamorous club and restaurant with sheepskin sunbeds, resident DJs, and a menu that runs from fondue to côte de boeuf with grilled lobster. Day passes are available and worth planning around. Back in the village, Dal Mulin is the Michelin Bib Gourmand pick — Swiss-Italian cooking at its most precise, with a serious wine list to match. King's Social House at Badrutt's Palace is the classic late-night option: Jason Atherton's bistro menu early in the evening, international DJs from 10:30 PM onwards in what is technically the oldest nightclub in Switzerland.

And then there's the Dracula Club — which is in a category entirely its own. Founded by art collector and jet-setter Gunter Sachs in 1974, it's one of Europe's most exclusive members-only clubs, open only to life members and their guests on winter weekends. Today run by Sachs's son Rolf, it operates inside the Kulm Hotel — jazz acts, magnums of Krug, a strict jacket requirement for men, and a no-phones policy enforced by sticker. Getting in requires knowing someone, and getting in is worth it.

St. Moritz has been doing this for 160 years. The Carlton has been doing it for 111 of them. That kind of longevity, in a place this competitive, doesn't happen without getting most things right.