3100 Kulmhotel Gornergrat, Switzerland
3100 Kulmhotel, located in Gornergrat, is the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps. The hotel offers minimalist rooms with fantastic view of no less than 29 of the 34 Swiss four thousand meter high mountains. The vantage point platform can be comfortably reached by rack-railroad, which takes visitors from Zermatt to Gornergrat via Riffelalp. [www.gornergrat-kulm.ch]
Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe Vermont
The von Trapp family, largely fictionalized in The Sound of Music (based loosely on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp), left Austria shortly before its annexation by Germany in 1938 and ended up in Vermont in 1942. In 1950, a 27-room ski lodge was opened. The lodge was destroyed by a fire on December 20, 1980, that forced 45 people, including Baroness Maria Von Trapp, to flee in their nightclothes. The body of a 30 year old guest was found later in the rubble. In 1983 a new, Austrian-style lodge with 93 rooms was opened. By the time Maria von Trapp died in 1987, 32 family members owned stock in the lodge. Johannes von Trapp bought their shares in 1994. The Trapp Family Lodge now has 23 rooms and 100 guesthouses. [www.trappfamily.com]
Hotel Jested, Czech Republic
In the north of the Czech Republic, sitting atop the highest mountain peak of the Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, is Hotel Jested. The hotel was built between 1966 and 1973 in a futuristic style by the architect, Karel Hubacek. The modern building acts as a lookout tower, transmission tower, hotel and restaurant with views into Germany and Poland. [jested.cz/en]
Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood
Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Oregon, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Portland. Built in the late 1930s, this National Historic Landmark sits at an elevation of 5,960 feet (1,817 m), within the Mount Hood National Forest and is accessible through the Mount Hood Scenic Byway. It is a popular tourist attraction, drawing more than a million visitors annually. It is noted in film for serving as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. [www.timberlinelodge.com]
Suvretta House Hotel, Switzerland
Suvretta House is a 5-star hotel in St. Moritz in the Upper Engadine in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It was built in 1912 in the style of late historicism. The hotel is one of the Leading Hotels of the World and is in it’s 6th Generation of family ownership. It offers 171 guest rooms and 10 suites. The name means Suvretta on Ladin “above the grove.” [www.suvrettahouse.ch]
Portillo, Chile
Plans to build the ski area in the Andes mountains outside of Santiago, Chile were drawn up in the 1930s. Construction began on Portillo in 1942 and the ski area was opened in 1949. Several of the ski lifts on the west side of the valley were destroyed by avalanches in 1965 and were rebuilt in time for Portillo to host the alpine skiing World Championships in 1966. Portillo has since become one of the principal destinations for ski racers to train during the Northern Hemisphere summer and hosts the ski teams of Austria, Italy, and the USA. [www.skiportillo.com]
The Everest Hotel, Nepal
Located on the world’s highest piece of land at 3,600 meters, The Everest Hotel has, unsurprisingly, some of the best views of the Himalayas available from the comfort of a five-star hotel. Nestled between three medieval cities in the heart of the Kathmandu Valley, the stunning resort has 160 suites, a restaurant, gym, shopping arcade, health club, beauty salon, and disco. It also boasts a guest book crammed with celebrities, royals and dignitaries. [www.theeveresthotel.com]
Llao Llao, Argentina
The Llao Llao Hotel is located in the tourist resort of San Carlos de Bariloche within the province of Río Negro, Argentina. This famous hotel is situated in the foothills of the Andes on a hill between the Moreno Lake and Nahuel Huapi lakes. The original hotel, designed by Alejandro Bustillo, made almost entirely of wood and furnished by Jean-Michel Frank and Casa Comte, was destroyed by fire soon after its completion in 1939. A year later Bustillo built a new hotel out of reinforced concrete and stone which was renovated in 1993, after being closed in 1976 due to lack of funds for maintenance. During more than 15 years before its reopening in 1993, the hotel was exposed to robbery, vandalism and overall neglect. [www.llaollao.com]
Hotel Salzburgerhof
Hotel Salzburger Hof is located in Bad Gastein, Austria. Built in 1889 – 1907 by the Italian architect Angelo Comini. The hotel, which is located 1,100 m above sea level, is one of the Alps’ major hotel facilities and owned since 1989 by the Swedish mission group STS Alpresor. The hotel is also the Ritz Restaurant, where many well-known chefs such as Fredrik Eriksson, Melker Andersson, Erik Lallerstedt and Ulf Wagner makes guest appearances every winter. The hotel has lyxrenoverats and since 2008 built together with the neighboring property Hotel Wildbad, built in 1892, also built by Angelo Comini. The hotels, with a total of about 500 beds, is open year round and offers skiers in winter and hiking in summer. [www.salzburgerhof.at]
Banff Springs Hotel, Canada
The Banff Springs Hotel is a luxury hotel that was built during the nineteenth century as one of Canada’s grand railway hotels, being constructed in Scottish Baronial style and located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The hotel was opened to the public on June 1, 1888. Presently, the hotel is owned and operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and is called the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. The original building was designed by American architect, Bruce Price. It was built between the Spring of 1887 and that of 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway at the instigation of its president, William Cornelius Van Horne. The hotel is located within a spectacular setting in the Rocky Mountains, just above the Bow Falls, close to thermal springs. The main view from the hotel is across the valley and toward Mount Rundle, which frequently is cited in geology books for its exposed and tilted ancient seabeds. The hotel is within walking distance of the resort community of Banff. Starting in 1911, a wholly new structure was built in stages to replace the 1888 hotel. Price’s Shingle style-influenced wooden structure would be replaced with a new building of concrete and faced with stone. The new building was designed by another American architect, Walter S. Painter. Halfway up the internal staircase closest to the Bow Falls may be found a noted painting of William Davidson felling trees on the Miramichi River during colonial times. Davidson, who had grown up in Moray, close to Banff, Scotland, was the first European settler in that area of Canada. The name born by the Canadian city and the national park is derived from his native country. The painting of the pioneer is by the war artist, Cyrus Cunoe (1879-1916), who executed a series of paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway. [www.fairmont.com/banff-springs]
