After several years of traveling to St. Moritz to another hotel we love, The Waldhaus, in Sils Maria, the upper Engadin Valley, we decided we'd try the Paradies the lower Engadin, for a change of mountain scenery-- and because a friend who writes for Travel and Leisure said the Paradies is a superb hotel. Because the lower Engadin was locked away (with no easy access until a tunnel was made) it feels more remote, agrarian, but like the upper Engadin, the older architecture is full of charm. The Valley is gorgeous The elegant Paradies in fairly high on a Mountain, and you have splendid views from every elegant, cozy, hotel room. It's not a large hotel-- it used to be a rather remarkable, modernist private home of an artist. The several different (gourmet) restaurants in the hotel are simply divine. At the same time, the restaurant staff found ways to accommodate for my picky 12 year-old son. The hotel management is probably the best and most personable I've ever seen, anywhere. The hotel lives up to its name.

This hotel is very great in all aspects, Architecture, Location,Rooms, Restatutant, Staff. It's above Swiss or International hotel standard. We had been stay in many 5 stars International hotels which are so perfect and thoughful for guests. but this hotel can make it beyond that expectation.

At frist we can not find the parking space and the reception entrace, but they can turn my feeling upside down by upgrading us to the suite. We looking for having dinner at the Gourmet restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed when I got there. But the existing restaurant was serving us a memorable dinner.

The staff are so helpful and polite. The manager are so nice by greeting us. They treated every customer like they are VIP.

The location of the hotel is outside ftan village. The view from our room are so great overlooking small village and Tarasp castle. It will be ok for traveller with private car.

We are looking forward to be back there.

After a recent management change, the property has been slightly refurbished, making the interiors of this place very appealing. Unfortunately, some aspects got overlooked, particularly the quality of beds (hard mattresses, separate beds that are so light that they move easily on the hardwood floor, no down feather beds) .

What struck us most is that during the entire stay we did not feel we were in the Swiss alps but instead in a Hamburg town hotel, which is where most of the staff was imported from very recently. With one exception, none of the staff was able to understand or speak any of the two local languages, which we found rather striking.

The biggest disappointment however, was the cuisine. Announced with 18 Gault Millau points, we obviously arrived with high expectations. We joined the 'festive' Christmas dinner, which was nothing but a bland and uninspired combination of rather standard fare (a lot of foie gras but nothing else on one plate, hard-and-dry-cooked duck together with various pieces of vegetable that we could only distinguish by color on another one. The next day, we were treated to Raclette, a Swiss dish. The cheese was simply without taste, as were the accompanying pickles. An absolute disappointment.

And finally, after we had shed out a significant amount of money without asking for a discount, the hotel manager, who happened to be in the reception area during our checkout, avoided to even say goodbye to the guests who had dared to complain a day ago and instead rushed away into her office.

My husband and I have stayed in the Engadine previously (in Ardez, at the Schorta's Alvatern, a perfectly adequate property with excellent food). We were so happy we decided to upgrade, however -- the Paradies transformed our trip from a practical hiking holiday into an amazingly romantic weekend.

By the way, we made all our reservations by contacting the hotel directly by email, in English, and received immediate replies. The staff was all very kind in speaking English to us when things got too complext for our German. We enjoyed our first visit so much, we went back two weekends later, and had similarly positive email experiences. I wonder if there has been a staffing change since the review which complained issues with email response.

We splurged and got a suite with a living room -- we had two terraces and each room had the same amazing, amazing view. If you were too tired to hike or otherwise be out and about, just laying on the chaise lounge absorbing the view was a worthy day's activity. The bed was standard Swiss (two twins pushed together) but very comfortable, with heavenly cloud-like duvets. Very nice, large bathroom. Large walk-in closet perfect for year-round use (lots of room to sort out wet/snowy things). The pine that they used in constructing much of the room gave the place a lovely smell.

Although all the rooms are supposed to have great views, if you are sad at the lack of a terrace in your room, just go and enjoy lounging in the elegant indoor and outdoor terrace areas, where you can get a drink or lunch or laze on one of the couches. Breakfast is a hearty buffet that caters to both European and American tastes. They will make you anything you like for lunch -- we requested something not on the menu (salad with broiled chicken on top) and they made it taste out of this world. We ate in the "middle" fancy restaurant one night (good food, a bit too high brow for us) and the tradiational Engadine restaurant one night (much more our speed). We never had the chance to try the gastronomic restaurant but I'm sure it would have been a show-stopper. A few of the nights we didn't dine at the hotel, we either ate at our hike's end-point, or went back to Schorta's Alvetern via the alarming half-paved road, and tucked into their simple and hearty fare.