My personal highlight: Staying in the Engadine in luxury and informal surroundings offering the best comfort you need for body & soul

Here is where you find a tranquil & intimate winter escape only a five-minute stroll away from St. Moritz. Welcome to Champfèr close to nature and far away from everyday life. Giardino Mountain is a modern luxury hotel with a homely touch. The architecture is traditional from Engadine, the sgraffitos (typical wall paintings from Engadine) on the walls made by the local artist Steivan Könz combined with wood elements add a particularly romantic touch! It has undergone an extensive transformation, preserving the local Engadine charm and fusing it with clean interior design.

Why choose 5 Star Hotel Giardino Mountain for your trip

Staying at Giardino Mountain feels like visiting a friend’s chalet with a luxury touch and excellent service. The interior design is modern, colourful, and arty. The view from the balcony over the Engadine Mountain is giving you the needed portion of tranquillity every time you slide the curtain!

Walking through the corridors you notice vibrant fuchsia and lime velvets that bring to mind a huge bouquet of wildflowers cascading down a snowy mountain. I absolutely love the wall of roses on the way to the fine dining restaurant Ecco by Chef Rolf Fliegauf.

Accommodation

The rooms are decorated with warm colours and delicate fabrics and provide soul-nourishing spaces, including a restful state-of-the-art wellness spa. I really loved the earthy tones that give to the 78 rooms and suites a feeling of warmth and pure cosiness.
The size of the rooms starts from an 18-square-meter Double Room Small to 60-square-meter Mountain Suite, each of the 78 rooms offers mountain views and either a king-size bed or twin beds. All rooms offer a shower or a bathtub—apart from the 32-square-meter Small Suite South, the 50-square-meter Suite, and the 60-square-meter Mountain Suite, which offer both—while some also boast a lounge or balcony.
The Mountain Suite also plays host to a wonderful fireplace to enjoy the best post-piste relaxation moment. Check their actual rates here.

Wellness & SPA, Gym or Yoga

Discover the brand “dipiù” – a declaration of love of Ticino’s nature and its efficacy at Giardino Mountain. Choose the program of Ayurveda or beauty you need out of their offer here. For all yoga lovers: go for the weekly yoga sessions! They help to relax and let go! The sauna world offers various dry and steam saunas. Use the indoor pool for some swimming and don’t miss their modern gym equipment from Technogym for your training practice.

Are you into short getaways in St. Moritz: choose the day pass to the dipiù Spa at the Hotel Giardino Mountain, there’s no need to be a hotel guest to enjoy a short relaxing break? Whether it’s summer or winter, spend a restorative day of wellness in the pool and sauna area of Switzerland’s largest dipiù Spa.
One treatment, such as a massage, is included. Including 60 min. treatment – CHF 220 p.p., Including 90 min. treatment – CHF 260 p.p.

Restaurants

The hotel features 4 restaurants. Restaurant Hide & Seek and the Stüva provide culinary delights throughout the year. Ecco Restaurant is probably the best 2-star Michelin-rated restaurant in the Engadine run by Chef Rolf Fliegauf. They prepare amazing dishes with regional products combined with flair and imagination. I had the opportunity to experience the Menu prepared with the Guest Chef Renu Homsombat from Bangkok during the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival. Go for a romantic Fondue & Champagne in their new pop-up restaurant RSRV (pronounced “reservé”) on the hotel terrace. It’s a transparent dome, for an outdoor feeling with an indoor temperature! Get more here! Prices are from CHF 85 (with the Engadine fondue), CHF 96 (with the truffle fondue) to CHF 116 (with the champagne fondue).
The pop-up restaurant will be open from 20 December 2019 to 8 March 2020.

Note: From May 29 to November 1, 2020, when many Alpine hotels close down, Giardino Mountain transforms into a casual bed-and-breakfast, offering its normal five-star ambience, but without its restaurant and spa—perfect for those who seek a high-style luxury setting in the Alps during summer.

A warm thank you goes to all of the Giardino Mountain Staff and Woehrle Pirola AG that made this press trip possible

www.giardinohotels.ch/

Address: Hotel Giardino Mountain – Via alla Maistra 3 – 7512 Champfèr-St. Moritz – Schweiz

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My personal highlight: Admiring the wooden wall shelves with books from 120 years of Badrutt’s Palace-history & the unique Sistine Madonna from the easel of the famous Raphael took my breath away!

Badrutt’s Palace is located in the beautiful upper Engadine. Experience an authentic and calming vibe from the moment you enter the Hotel. Dive into a space where you get surrounded by high quality service and an ambience that relaxes your senses. The kindness of the staff is the first thing I noticed and appreciated every moment of my stay. They read every wish from your lips and make a guest feel comfortable in every situation.

The authentic and historical heritage goes back to 1856 when the family Badrutt started this project. Johannes Badrutt bought a small guesthouse in St. Moritz and gave birth to that fairytale that is still alive today. During my stay I had the pleasure to be guided through the house and understand much about the values and thoughts that the family Badrutt put into this pearl. It’s the perfect hideaway for families and couples that appreciate high luxury and aim to discover the upper Engadine Alps in Winter or autumn for skiing, hiking or simply enjoy time off.

The view to the lake of St. Moritz is the cherry on the top. 

Explore the wellness area at Badrutt’s Palace with endless time. Find a multifaceted centre to enhance the state of wellbeing. You enjoy a high class service from a lovely staff that feels what you need. Overlooking the snowy landscape while swimming in the heated outdoor pool (Winter 38 °C / Summer 37°C) is absolute relaxation.

Find an Aroma Steam Room 45°C / 100%, a Salt Steam Room with Himalayan salt 40°C / 100% f

My personal highlights

The kitchen party at Badrutt’s Palace is legendary. The explosion of different flavors and sounds around the stoves is a memorable moment I take home.

Get fascinated by the history at Badrutt’s. The warm infrastructure including lot of wood and sooting colors reminds me a bit to a sacrosanct place. It’s a place I recommend to escape to feel complete tranquility with high class service.

www.badruttspalace.com

My personal highlight: Getting to know the Val del Maggia in Ticino where among other delicacies risotto rice LOTO is cultivated. Be woken up by birds twittering facing rice paddies and feeling in a natural paradise not fare from home.

Get a Yoga and nutrition coach, enjoy their outdoor/indoor pool or subscribe your kids to an entertainment program. The Piccolo Circo Castello del Sole featuring Aline Del Torre who trained at the famous Scuola Dimitri is the highlight for your kids learning juggling or acrobatics. Water lover must do a boat ride with the hotel owned Frauscher boat.
Experience an unforgettable helicopter ride to the close by Ristorante Rustico del Sole up on 1000 m. A breathtaking moment overlooking Lago Maggiore and the alps. The ideal surrounding to enjoy best homemade dishes from the Hotel Castello staff.

My personal highlights

The hotel is surrounded by an incredible green park and garden. All flowers found in my room are some of the most beautiful ever seen. An in-house garden center makes this possible. It’s the love they put in the decoration of the whole house making it a shiny jewel.

Waking up in the morning by singing birds, spending a moment on the terrace admiring rice fields cultivated in Switzerland, is something I never thought to experience in my life. The ample untouched fields are pure peace and joy for heart and soul.

My personal highlights: 1. Feeling princess for a day. Flying over Lago Maggiore by Helicopter, landing under the garden terrace of the restaurant Rustico del Sole where we got spoiled with fresh cooked polenta al ragù. 2. Sleeping in a castle ambience facing a rice field where bird rarities play and sing you into the day.

Pure nature is a luxury nobody can resist

Having this value in mind the creators of “The Living Circle – Luxury Hotels fed by nature” introduced us to their new brand philosophy. It’s the union of goods and services that already exist. They are now made available to people that appreciate values combined with quality and luxury. These resources are created and maintained with plenty of efforts by all involved living circle partners. Because they care about the multifaceted demand of their guests.

What means luxury to us today?

Luxury is a word defined by different meanings today. It gives a variety of feelings to people. For some it may be related to money, for some to a rare drop of good wine or a selected piece of meat.
We may also agree, that traditions can throw us back in time. They make us sensitive towards simple things that got lost with the years.
A natural surrounding has great potential to make us feel happy and in balance again.

My heart goes bum

Experiencing these two days around the partners of  “The living Circle” I could understand best, what this philosophy means.
Seeing with my own eyes how giant spaces of hectares of land are cultivated with care and passion is inspiring and of course a lot of work. Unpredictable happenings steered by mother nature included.
The Terreni alla Maggia is located in the so called Delta of the Maggia between Locarno and Ascona. This is one of the property belonging to The Living Circle.

The agricultural fields stretch over ca. 130 hectares. The agronomist Fabio Del Pietro introduced us to production of goods as wine, grappa, rice, pasta, polenta and even some rice whisky. I have a complete new involvement with their risotto rice called Loto today. This rice cultivation is a rarity made in Switzerland only. The rice is harvested on dry fields. Several years of testing were necessary to get to this high quality gourmet food today.

The Living Circle partners in a brief

• 2 5 star hotels
• 2 farms and agricultural plants with production of own resources as wine, rice, milk products including own shops/selling channels
• several restaurants where the farm to table concept is lived day by day close to natural surrounding
• Located in Zurich/Zurich Oberland area & Ascona/Ticino area

Hotel Storchen, Zurich

Located in the heart of Zurich and established back in 1357 it is a hotel with a heritage of traditions. Today it is a charming house for guests that love to spend their night overlooking the Limmat river and the beautiful scenery of the Swiss Alps and get spoiled by a culinary menu prepared from Chef Cyrille Anzian.
The hotel offers 66 rooms and suites with a modern and stylish design. Hotel Director Jörg Arnold and his team welcome you to get involved into the Storchen lifestyle.
Farm to table is an important topic lived day by day by offering best fresh products at the breakfast buffet from the farm Schlattgut in Herrliberg for example. Get a risotto or polenta for lunch from the Terreni alla Maggia plants in Ascona. More details about the Hotel Storchen here.

Farm Schlattgut, Herrliberg

When looking at the family Ledergerber that manages the farm you feel the passion and love they put in the cultivation of these over 30 hectares of land. It’s their home, all animals are part of their family.
This is the home of 160 chickens, 40 cows, donkeys, flower fields, several vegetable and fruit fields.
The farm has a shop where local products as eggs, pasta and hand made jams are available. Its scenery and location over Zurich is great to celebrate family parties, weddings or have a brunch.
The Schlattgut delivers a variety of products to the Hotel Storchen. A great sustainable project is their photovoltaic installation that creates over 95.735 KWh per year.
More about the Schlattgut Herrliberg here.

Restaurant Buech, Herrliberg

Admire the Lake Zurich from up here and high peaks of the Glarner and Central Swiss Alps all the way to the Jungfrau Joch. This view is unique.
It’s more than 70 years that this restaurant is serving guests with a magnificent view and high level food. Get to feel a gentle countryside style in one of their private dining rooms. The spot is recommendable for family events or weddings, too. Restaurant Director Marc Wyss and his team take their guests into a world where time seems to have stood still. Get spoiled with local food delights. The arrangement and decoration of flower is a passion of Marc Wyss. His artistic vein is perfectly integrated in the ambience.

Hotel Castello del Sole, Ascona

“Your rendezvous with happiness”

This is a sentence found on their website before arriving here. Yes, it is a feeling of joy walking through that immense green park or the wide medieval corridors of the hotel. Feel calmness and inner peace and forget everything around you. The beach area is very inviting to relax on a chair and enjoy the sunset.
The hotel was built back in 1532, today it kept that antique touch added with classy and modern elements. Simon V. Jenni and his wife Gabriela manage the house with their staff since 2003.

Hotel del Castello offers 40 Junior Suites and 38 double/single rooms. Find a beauty oasis with a special Vino-Aqua therapy treatment using their own grapes. More than that, a Yoga and nutrition coach, an outdoor/indoor pool or a nice entertainment program for kids complete the services.
There are several restaurants within the hotel. The culinary section offers a variety of local recipes paired with a good mediterranean touch. In summer it is lovely to enjoy a barbecue outside. Chef Mattias Roock invites you to try the actual menu called “i sapori del nostro orto“. Products cultivated in the Terreni alla Maggia are used as well following the farm to table philosophy.

Ristorante Rustico del Sole, Ascona

Fly up here at 800 m. by helicopter, or take a hike. The scenery and the silence are enchanting. Antonio Ferrioli is the host. Together with the staff from the Castello del Sole they prepare delicious lunch up to 7 courses.
By the way, a rustico is a typical house from Ticino, where as the word says you feel a rustic warm ambience. Can you imagine how winter days are up here? Reading a book at the chimney breathing in pure calmness.

In 2018 sleeping facilities for 6 person will be constructed to offer a hideaway for a romantic weekend, a tranquil friends trip or even for company meetings. Find more details here.

Terreni alla Maggia

This land stretches over 15o hectares. 130 of it are agricultural land, the rest is where the Hotel Castello del Sole has its facilities and garden. As mentioned before, this natural heritage allows The Living Circle lifestyle with the own production of rice, pasta, polenta, wine and other delicacies delivered to different partners of the circle. Some of the goods are also distributed via Coop and Migros today. Additional details are available here.

Some facts to review

• The famous Tessin grape Merlot is cultivated on 9 hectares of land. Every year around 120’000 bottles are produced.
• The rise cultivated here is called Loto. The plants stretch on 80 hectares of land. Ca. 430 tons of rice resulted last year.
  This rice has the property to absorb water slowly. This makes it easier to cook al dente and difficult to overcook. The Maggiadelta and Magadino are the only locations of Switzerland cultivating rice.
• The polenta covers other 10 hectares of land, rarities as red or black polenta can be found.

Find additional details here.

Alls of these precious goods put together create the living circle of nature offered to guests that love to spoil themselves with best quality services, genuine products and enchanting surroundings.

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