Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern – the lake's Belle Époque crown

On Lucerne's Nationalquai, where the lake narrows below the first slopes of the Alps, a six-storey Belle Époque palace has looked out over the water since opening its doors on 7 May 1906, a building that stood as one of Switzerland's most celebrated hotels from its first season. It was built for the hotel pioneer Franz Josef Bucher, who bought the lakeside plot in 1903, to designs by architect Heinrich Meili-Wapf, with construction starting the following year. After a five-year, root-and-branch renovation, the palace reopened in September 2022 as Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern, its 136 rooms including 45 of the largest suites in the city. Two restaurants inside now carry MICHELIN stars of their own, and the MICHELIN Guide gives the hotel as a whole Two Keys, placing it among the handful of properties in Switzerland judged exceptional on every count.

01The house

Franz Josef Bucher was no ordinary developer: by the time he bought his lakeside plot in 1903 he already controlled one of Europe's largest hotel groups, and his Lucerne flagship was built to outclass every grand hotel already standing on the water. The finished building is today protected as a cultural asset of national importance. It survived closure during both world wars, served as a medical centre and supply depot in the Second World War, and reopened in 1946 after a two-year renovation. A 1993/94 campaign rebuilt the top two floors, adding a further 48 rooms and suites, before the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection took over management in 1997 and a Credit Suisse property fund bought the building outright in a 2011 sale-and-leaseback deal.

The hotel closed again in 2019 for a renovation that lasted almost five years, carried out by local heritage specialists Iwan Bühler Architekten working alongside London-based interior designers Jestico + Whiles, who were tasked with honouring the palace's Belle Époque legacy while bringing the building into the present. Chequerboard marble floors, pink-hued scagliola pillars and pale stucco walls were restored to their original state, set off by a new contemporary art collection and bespoke Italian furniture. One room was left almost untouched: the Salon Alpine still carries its original 1906 décor, a private pocket of the old Palace inside the new Mandarin Oriental.

02Rooms and suites

All 136 rooms and suites favour the view, and most come with their own balcony over the lake and the Alps beyond. Forty-five of them rank among the largest suites in Lucerne. The designers kept the generous proportions of the original Belle Époque building but softened its formality: panelled walls in a quiet grey, oak parquet floors, brass chandeliers and hand-woven Tisca wool rugs replace the heavier fittings of the old Palace, while the hotel's own art collection runs through the corridors and suites, chosen specifically to trace the building's history and its Swiss Alpine setting.

Insider tip

Old town ten minutes on foot; hotel's own lake pontoon; Pilatus rack railway fifteen minutes away.

03Where to eat

Four restaurants operate under the culinary direction of Executive Chef Gilad Peled. The flagship, Colonnade, holds Two MICHELIN Stars for modern French cuisine built on seasonal Swiss produce, served beneath a glazed cabinet holding more than 500 wine labels. Peled trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London and worked with Clare Smyth and Gordon Ramsay before taking the helm of Ramsay's Le Pressoir d'Argent in Bordeaux, where he won his first Michelin star within four months of opening.

Minamo, an intimate counter restaurant, holds One MICHELIN Star for an omakase menu built by chef Yutaka Kobayashi, who split his career between Switzerland and his native Japan, working most recently in St Moritz before joining the hotel in March 2024 and earning the star the following year. MOzern, the all-day dining room, looks onto the lake through wall-to-wall glazing, while the hotel's signature afternoon tea is served in a Belle Époque veranda with its own view of water and mountains.

04The bar

Quai 10 anchors the hotel's bar scene with lakeside terrace seating. Through 2026 it has been pouring a cocktail menu created specially to mark the Palace's 120th anniversary, alongside guided tours of the building for guests who want the history behind the glass in hand.

05Spa and wellbeing

The spa operates as Ambassade Biologique Recherche, offering bespoke facial and body treatments built around the French skincare house's personalised diagnostics, alongside a 24-hour fitness centre and a sauna and steam bath. In October 2026 the hotel listed treatment hours from 10am to 7pm, sauna and steam access from 10am to 8pm, and a day pass covering gym, sauna and steam bath at CHF 50.

06The neighbourhood

The old town is a ten-minute walk along the quayside, and the Pilatus rack railway, the steepest in the world, climbs from a station fifteen minutes further on. The hotel keeps its own boat pontoon on the lake, and both the Lion Monument and Chapel Bridge are within easy reach, the latter around thirteen minutes on foot. Jean Nouvel's KKL concert and convention hall, one of the city's architectural landmarks, stands a short distance further along the water.

07Making the most of a stay

The concierge arranges excursions that lean into the region's cinematic history: a snowmobile run along the mountain road used for the car chase in Goldfinger, or a submarine dive beneath Lake Lucerne to see its sunken wrecks. Through 2026 the hotel is marking the 120th anniversary of the original Palace with guided tours of the building's history and a dedicated anniversary merchandise line displayed in the lobby.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.