Press Quotes
"Rooms with wrought iron terraces have Alpine views, but the beds are a little hard for some. Choose from French, Swiss, and Italian dishes - and 12,000 bottles from the wine cellar - or healthy alternatives from the spa menu. Night owls retire to Intermezzo for cigars and whiskey."Conde Nast 05
Independent Reviews
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Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa
By Matthew BarkerLarge chateau that brings a contemporary sensibility to old world Swiss charm, the traditional furnishings in the room coming with plenty of tecchie appliances, while outside the mountains of Jungfrau provide an impressive backdrop. Heidi could well walk past at any moment, but chances are she’ll be on her way for a revitalisation treatment at the spa – or maybe she’s off to the Smokers’ Lounge for a Davidoff and a single malt…
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"Swish Swiss old school charmer; more Grande Dame than jungfrau"
Large chateau that brings a contemporary sensibility to old world Swiss charm. Outside the mountains of Jungfrau provide an impressive backdrop.
Grand Hotel Victoria Jungfrau
By Gemma Pitcher
Affectionately known to locals as the ‘VJ’ (Jungfrau is the Swiss word for the Virgin Mary), the Grand Hotel Victoria Jungfrau towers over Interlaken’s main street like a magnificent spinster aunt, as monolithic and dependable as its mountain namesake, the glittering snow capped peak that shimmers above the town’s rooftops. The two huge buildings that make up the modern day hotel were joined together as one hotel in 1899, and the establishment once had no less than 500 rooms – today just 212. No major restoration was needed – the buildings have always been preserved with loving care – but the modern-day glass atrium that forms the reception was added eleven years ago, and general upgrading is an ongoing project. The glass lets the magnificence of the surrounding mountain scenery into the interior and goes a long way to prevent stuffiness. The décor verges on the overblown and is dramatic – flying gold angels, indoor fountains, enormous chandeliers, sweeping marble staircases and ornately carved ceilings – full-on period features. There’s a pillared swimming pool, two very grand restaurants, a Cinderella-esque ballroom and a superb art deco bar. The rooms themselves are huge, grand, but with curiously blank walls – few pictures -and rather dated television sets (no CD players either). It feels stately and traditional, comfortingly oblivious to modern fads. Bathrooms are predictably massive and marbled. Chambermaids seem almost over-zealous in their job, rattling the doors early every morning and then retreating, mortified, when they discover the room is occupied. Other than that slight lapse, however, the staff are impeccably deferential, the waitresses for the most part ladies d’un certain age clad in full-scale Edwardian outfits, frilly collars, long skirts etc, in the formal ‘La Terrasse’ restaurant at least. Guests for the most part match them – if not in sartorial elegance, at least in manners, and are mostly European, with elderly gents and younger bloods swimming in measured – and not so measured - strokes up and down the pool, and lacquered ladies in pastel trouser suits sipping champagne for breakfast. It is this elegance and timelessness that draws them back year after year, but it is, unhappily, a dying breed of hotel.
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Condé Nast Traveller 2008 Gold List
