Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa

The Victoria-Jungfrau grew from two mid-nineteenth-century hotels merged in 1895 into the palace that now stretches along Interlaken's Höheweg, its domed clock tower a landmark of the Bernese Oberland. The site is the point: across the protected Höhematte meadow, the snow pyramid of the Jungfrau fills the view exactly as it did for the first alpine tourists a century and a half ago.

The hotel's modern reputation rests on the Spa Nescens, one of Switzerland's largest and most serious wellness operations, combining extensive pools, saunas and treatment suites with better-aging programmes developed with Genevan specialists. It gives the grande dame a second identity as a genuine destination spa between excursions.

And the excursions are the Oberland's best: trains climb from Interlaken towards Wengen, Grindelwald and the Jungfraujoch railway, while lakes Thun and Brienz bracket the town with steamer services. Rooms range from classical to crisply contemporary, dining from an elegant main restaurant to an Italian bistro. For travellers pairing serious mountains with serious pampering, the Victoria-Jungfrau remains the region's obvious base.