Carlton Hotel St. Moritz – built for a tsar who never came

On the Via J. Badrutt, high above Lake St. Moritz, the Carlton Hotel has looked down on the resort since 1913, when the doors of this impressive building were opened for the first time, and at Christmas of that year it welcomed its first guests as the fifth five-star hotel in an already fashionable alpine resort. Legend holds that the property was originally planned as a summer residence for Tsar Nicholas II, a story most historians doubt, yet one that later shaped the hotel's entire aesthetic. The First World War emptied St. Moritz within a year of opening, though during the First World War the Greek royal family lived here in exile. Today the Carlton is the smallest of the large five-star hotels in St. Moritz, an all-suite property where all 60 rooms and suites face south and look across the lake to the Engadine peaks. The MICHELIN Guide recognises it with Three MICHELIN Keys, and its restaurant, Da Vittorio, run by Enrico and Roberto Cerea, whose family restaurant in Brusaporto has held three Michelin stars for decades, carries two stars of its own.

01The house

In the 1930s the hotel experienced its first real glorious years, with articles in the Engadin Express & Alpine Post announcing Afternoon Tea Times with celebrity guests from London, Amsterdam and Paris. The Second World War brought those successful times to an end and the hotel was closed again in September 1939, re-opening its doors after the war for the winter season 1947/1948. Alfred Koch, son of the engineer Valentin Koch-Robbi who built the hotel in cooperation with the Swiss hotel architect Emil Vogt, became General Manager of a house that then passed through a string of owners, including Niarchos interests and a Parisian bank, before the Tschuggen group bought the Carlton in 1988.

The hotel has belonged ever since to the family-owned Tschuggen Collection, founded by Karl-Heinz Kipp and chaired since 2016 by his daughter, Ursula Bechtolsheimer-Kipp. For the eighteen-month renovation of 2006/07, designer Carlo Rampazzi took the tsarist legend at face value: everything from the colour palette to the art on the walls to the tea service has a connection to Russia, and the new logo features a double-headed eagle, with art depicting the jewellery of Russian Czars lining the walls of the hotel.

02Rooms and suites

What differentiates the Carlton from the other five-star hotels in St. Moritz — aside from its Russian-influenced opulence — is that it is an all-suite hotel. Categories run from 35–45 sqm Deluxe Rooms through Junior Suites, Grand Suites and the 160 sqm Carlton Two Bedroom Suite, every one with a south-facing balcony over the lake and all refreshed within the last three years. At the top sits the Carlton Penthouse, 386 square metres occupying the entire top floor with its own butler and 360-degree views — the largest penthouse suite in St. Moritz and one of the largest in the Swiss Alps. Direct bookings include a daily CHF 100 food and beverage credit per guest, and staff uniforms are cut from Bündnertuch, a fabric whose recipe survives from a Graubünden cloth factory founded in 1912.

Insider tip

Seasonal, winter-only hotel; closest to the railway station and the lake, minutes from Corviglia.

03Where to eat

At the Michelin-starred restaurant Da Vittorio, brothers Enrico and Roberto Cerea pamper guests with top-class cuisine, bringing Lombard technique from their family's three-starred dining room in Brusaporto to the Engadine; the restaurant holds Two MICHELIN Stars and 18 GaultMillau points, open Wednesday to Sunday evenings, and was redesigned around layered colour and refined materials by Carlo Rampazzi. Executive Chef Salvatore Frequente, Sicilian by birth and ten years with the Tschuggen group between 2009 and 2019, returned to the kitchen in June 2023 and now oversees the Grand Restaurant, whose cooking turns to local produce and wild ingredients foraged from the surrounding forests, earning 16 GaultMillau points.

The Sun Terrace is where guests breathe in the mountain panorama and the lake vista over a coffee or a light lunch, served from midday into the afternoon with what the hotel calls the best view in St. Moritz.

04The bar

The Bel Etage is the heart and soul of the Carlton: an opulent floor with two historic open fireplaces that serves as the hotel's main lobby and its pièce de résistance. Guests gather here for the Carlton's celebrated afternoon tea by the fire, and later for drinks before or after dinner at Da Vittorio.

05Spa

The award-winning Carlton Spa is set out over three floors and more than 1,200 m² of pure luxury, including an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, wellness and spa areas, a fitness centre, hair salon and multiple massage and treatment rooms. On the lowermost floor sits the sauna area with steam bath, caldarium, Finnish sauna and a separate ladies' sauna. An exclusive spa area offers six treatment rooms and a private spa suite, and the fitness centre stays open around the clock for hotel guests.

06The neighbourhood

St. Moritz's reputation as a winter resort began with a wager: in 1864, hotelier Johannes Badrutt made a bet with a group of English summer guests, promising to cover their trip if they returned in winter and didn't love it; they stayed until spring, and the rest became the history of alpine luxury travel. The Carlton has been part of that story since 1913, making it one of the oldest hotels in St. Moritz. The lake is a short walk downhill and the railway station closer still, while the resort's winter calendar runs past the hotel's door: the Snow Polo World Cup on the frozen lake in January, the White Turf horse races and the vintage-car gathering of The ICE in February, and the Engadin Skimarathon each March.

07Making the most of a stay

The hotel's outdoor butler handles the logistics of getting onto the mountain — ski school, ski shop, rentals and transfers to Corviglia are all arranged through the hotel — shortening the gap between breakfast and the first run. The Carlton keeps strictly to the snow, opening only for winter; this season runs from 11 December 2026 to 21 March 2027. Children from the age of three are looked after in a kids' club built around Schellen-Ursli, the Engadine's best-loved storybook character, while cosy gondola cabins set up in the snow outside the hotel serve fondue on winter evenings.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.