One of the real joys of travel is that you get a chance to go somewhere and experience some totally unexpected and unplanned moments of an almost transcendental nature that you'll remember for the rest of your life. I had one such magical moment on my balcony at this luxurious hotel in beautiful Vitznau, Switerland. It was eight o'clock on a Sunday morning and I was sitting out on my deck facing the water. The lake was absolutely still with the exception of a boat or two that went by just offshore. The sun was just beginning to rise over the mountains and the air was perfectly quiet. That in itself was a special feeling but suddenly, from the nearby town, church bells began to ring. It was just a few notes at first but then the pealing of the bells intensified in a cascade of notes. I assumed it was the call to church, but the bells continued to ring for almost five minutes. The sound carried across the water and echoed back from the mountain across the lake. It was an absolutely stunning moment and, when it was over, the sound faded away back to a perfect silence. I stood up and quietly clapped my hands in a one-man standing ovation of sorts.
The Park Hotel Vitznau is a stately, statuesque and absolutely stunning property on gorgeous Lake Lucerne. (Getting a lake side view is an absolute must!) My family and I stayed here for three nights on the home-run recommendation of a Virtuoso travel agent. Staying here may have been the highlight of our trip. We had two adjoining and connecting rooms (including #130) each with their own deck. I often found myself unable to tear myself away from the incredible view and the endless parade of lake tour boats that came and went. Vitznau is a terrific hub location to enjoy the Lucerne, Mount Rigi and all of the surrounding lakeside villages and towns. The rooms were both quiet large and nicely appointed. One big problem was that they weren't air conditioned and got extremely hot and stuffy during the day which lingered inside far into the night. (The hotel is in a transitional phase of only being open seasonally to staying open all year long. One third of the rooms have been air conditioned when we stayed there and the others are slowly being hooked up to a ventilation system.) There were mechanized shutters that helped shield the rooms from the sun and thick draperies helped somewhat. But this was probably the most expensive hotel I had ever stayed in, and air conditioning would have been nice. The bathrooms were huge, spacious and modern although the light switches for the bathroom in one of our two connecting rooms was actually on the wall next to the bed outside the bathroom, which made for some inconvenient and awkward moments fumbling around for the light switch in the dark! In one of our two rooms, a writing desk completely blocked one of the two windows that opened out onto the deck, which was a bit of an inconvenience as well.
Food: we enjoyed three of the best breakfast buffets I've ever seen in the Panorama restaurant. The well trained and efficient staff works hard to make sure you have an incredible meal. We did not experience either of the two dinner restaurants. The Quatre Cantons appeared far too formal for a family that had been on the go for several weeks before arriving here. Although it had a "jacket suggested" policy for men, it didn't seem like that policy was strictly enforced. But I didn't have a shirt in my suitcase that wasn't already badly wrinkled, much less a sport coat so we walked the short distance into town on two nights for dinner. On our last night, we enjoyed the waterfront terrace area. Travler's tip: although it is intended mainly as an area to have drinks before going into one of the hotel restaurants, a limited food service menu is available here. At sunset, it's an incredible combination! There is food service available next to the hotel's pool, as well as some of the best ice cream we'd ever tasted. At the lake, there is a large grassy area with reclining lawnchairs and attentive attendants. A few dozen meters offshore you can swim to a floating dock with a slide and platform dive. In early June, the lake water was quite chilly at first but very refreshing.
The Park Vitznau also offers the free use of two cars for guests. One is a luxury BMW sedan, the other a turbocharged Mini Cooper. There is no charge for the use of these vehicles, all they ask is to supply drivers' insurance information, schedule the car use in advance, and replenish the gas tank with whatever you use. What a bargain! We borrowed the mini Cooper twice and had a great time.
There is a Spa on the property and each member of my family enjoyed having a different treatment. Although I liked the spa very much, I found the massage here a little wimpy. Apparently "deep tissue" is not a massage technique commonly practiced in Europe.
One other thing I found slightly annoying was the in-room safe. Most hotel safes have combinations that guests can change, but this particular in-room safe had an old style key. I didn't want to store something valuable in there and then lose the key! I'd never encountered a room safe quite like this one. There was one other problem with both of our rooms: the doors and locks often stuck closed. They were difficult to open from the hallway and almost impossible to open from inside the rooms. You had to really twist the knob and push on the door with great force to get them to budge. That could have been a real problem during a fire! Hotel management blamed the problem on recent renovations and painting, but during the three days we were there, the doors were never easy to open.
The hotel also makes a motorboat (with driver) available to guests. My wife booked a thirty minute cruise for our family as a surprise, but the driver somehow got confused and thought we had booked an hour and a half so we were on the water in the late afternoon a lot longer than we thought we had planned. We settled on splitting the difference and paying for a hour, which was still 280 chf, an expensive outing to be sure. However, the overall feeling of this wonderful place overcame all of the small problems (except the lack of air conditioning!)
The front desk staff was a pleasure to interact with. Each concierge was extremely helpful and friendly. In fact, every hotel employee we interacted with was the same way: polite and friendly, and very efficient.
I titled this review (Almost Perfect) Lakeside Luxury because of a number of flaws and inconveniences. But the pros of this wonderful place far and away exceeded the cons. We stayed at a number of fine hotels during our family vacation in France and Switzerland, but this is a Five Star spot to be sure. We wish we could have stayed longer and look forward to coming back.
One other caveat unrelated to this hotel: when we were driving through Lucerne on the way from Spiez to Vitznau, I must have been driving a little fast. Three weeks after we returned home, I received an Offense Notification from the Traffic Police in Lucerne. My rental car had been caught on radar going slightly over the speed limit. The speeding ticket cost 40 swiss francs, but probably could have been a lot more. I found getting through and around Lucerne's streets and freeways were a little confusing, even with GPS maps in my rental car. And I know that I was eager to arrive at the Park Hotel Vitznau, so I was probably a little more leadfooted than I should have been. But drivers beware: there are radar detection devices that will record your offense and the Traffic Police will track you down!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
