We needed somewhere to stay for a couple of days before our cycling trip took a decidedly upwards turn towards the Klausenpass. While searching for hotels in Linthal on the valley floor, I came across the website for a resort called Braunwald referring to itself as the Sun terrace of the Glarnerland, 1300m up on a funicular and decided to take a chance on the Hotel Cristal.

When my (already vegetarian) partner found herself wheat intolerant a few months before we went we thought we might have a problem or two and highlighted remote places such as this as the likely nutritional low points for our trip. How wrong we were. Despite not advising the hotel until we arrived, the menu was re-arranged and after a quick call to her local baker 700m down in the valley below secured a supply of wheat free bread for our stay. (only one other hotel in 2 weeks managed the same).

As for the rest of the hotel, the welcome is warm, the food isn't fancy but it is tasty well prepared & there's lots of it (5 course dinner, bed and breakfast for approx GBP50.00) and the views from the hotel room balconies run the Lauterbrunnen close for taking your breath. The hotel decor has every Alpen cliche going but I guess it had them before they became cliche's (it's real wood not laminate).

In the rest of the resort, there's loads to do and we could have stayed a week enjoying the pollution free air and variety of cable car supported walks. We didn't though, we went up a big hill instead and now we wish we could go back.