We treated ourselves to two days luxury in Zurich after our flight from South Africa, before heading to the Swiss alps. The Widder combines historic Zurich with modern comfort, efficiency, luxury and convenience. Add Swiss courtesy and service levels to perfect a stay. Little touches like hot, herbal tea and lebkuchen in reception when you come in from the snow, personalised business cards "My Address in Zurich", and a handwritten welcome note from the General Manager in our room, are part of what make the Widder slogan "Welcome at home in Zurich" a reality. Switzerland is an expensive country because of the strength of the Swiss Franc but, if you are going to do a holiday there, then you may as well go the whole hog and make your time in Zurich really comfortable and luxurious.

Loved every minute we stayed there!!! Even down to their gorgeous cookies and bread rolls with "W" on them!!!

I have attended many functions at the Widder, but this was the first time I had stayed.

The hotel is a terrific combination, of traditional building, contemporary furniture and natural materials used to decorate the interior.

I'm not a fan of large generic 5 star hotels, and I love the unique look and style of this building and it's limited number of rooms (40-ish).
The staff are very friendly and efficient (Swiss German hotel is efficient- shock!). And the bar is relaxed but elegant, with a stunning collection of spirits.

So, a fantastic hotel, but be warned. I paid Chf775 a night!

Let's start with the positive - the hotel has some great design features, and really is the best of Swiss engineering and style. The staff were really polite and helpful. We took a weekend package - which meant the room was about CHF 600 per night - which is not bad - ten years ago it was CHF 500 - you just have to accept that the dollar and the pound have fallen through the floor. The restaurant was excellent - its actually very good cooking - not worth a Michelin star - but we had dinner in the package for CHF 50.
For breakfast, the buffet was fine - I ordered poached eggs and they were perfect (this is pretty rare ...)
The only slight nag was that the gym had one treadmill, one bike and one cross country ski machine, but since we never saw anyone there, it was OK.
The Whisky bar is a great experience, with the Jazz. The basic grade whiskies were fine, but you would have to be out of your mind to buy one of the premium ones (you could almost buy a bottle for the price of a 4 cl shot).
Great place for a romantic weekend - lots of old people trying to be young and cool. Probably not the place to go if you are actually young (unless someone else is paying)