Last Saturday night, on our way through to Megeve, we decided we'd break the trip to spend a night in Montreux, a place neither of us had been. Montreux is the home of the amazing Jazz Festival which will be held from 29th June - 14 July this year.
We used the fabulous Trip Advisor to find ourselves a hotel and, after a bit of research, decided on Hotel Splendid which reviewed well as a middle of the road (read "not too extortionately priced" - it is in Switzerland after all!) and comfortable.
It's one street back from the waterfront, but there is a large park in front of it, so you have uninterrupted views of the water and the Alps beyond - the view is quite breathtaking. There is no parking at the hotel, but there is parking directly out the front, and 200m further on there is an underground carpark for several hundred cars where we slotted our car in.
Check in is on the first floor and there is a lift or stairs for access. The gentleman working Reception was friendly and spoke English. After registration we were given the key for room 51 and headed up in the lift to the 3rd floor.
This is where we discovered the faded glory of the Hotel Splendid. It was obviously a very luxurious hotel back in the day and now it's looking a bit aged, and worn around the edges. The hallways are very grand, but there is random old furniture along them - we had a baby cot outside our door and there was a gorgeous, but very battered and bald sofa next to our door. The doors from the lift area into the hallways are huge, madly ornate and very gorgeous.
We used our large old fashioned key (on a big key fob, no electronic entry here) to open the door to our room and it was just what we needed. Large, king sized bed, glassed in balcony with two chairs and a small table looking out onto the lake (the windows opened which made it feel very open and airy). The beds are new, and have controllers which make the head and feet ends go up and down, and they have single duvets (one for each person) which is normal in Europe.
The bathroom had been done up and it seems that they'd had a discussion that must have gone something like this:-
"Do you think we should put shower heads at head height, or put them at knee height and make the shower head change colour all the time, so it's like a disco shower for dwarves? I'm not really sure, but let's go with knee height and those pretty lights!"
You might have guessed from the above, that it's not really fabulous for washing your hair unless you want to sit down in the tub ...
We had made a dinner reservation for dinner at La Rouvenaz which is just down the street, and it was great but you have to be aware that in Switzerland nothing is cheap.
Breakfast was included in the room rate at Hotel Splendid and we enjoyed a continental buffet on Sunday morning, with good coffee and friendly staff.
Whilst we were only in Montreux for a short time, it's breathtakingly beautiful and we'll certainly be back.
- Splendid Hotel Montreux
