Royal Savoy Hotel & Spa

Royal Savoy Hotel & Spa

Avenue d'Ouchy runs down to the shore of Lake Geneva, and the Royal Savoy Hotel & Spa has stood a short walk from that water since 1909, seven floors and 196 rooms now flying the flag of the Leading Hotels of the World. Rooms range from park-view deluxe doubles with private balconies to the 753-square-foot Standard Suite, built with its own kitchen and dining area rather than just a bed and a view. Downstairs there is an indoor pool and a heated outdoor pool, a spa tub, sauna and steam room, and Spa du Royal for the massage that follows a day of meetings or museums. Those meetings have real room to happen: ten function spaces, including the largest ballroom in Lausanne, cover everything from a business briefing to a full wedding, and from April to September the Jardins du Royal open for outdoor receptions of up to four hundred guests. Dinner runs from the Brasserie du Royal to the Sky rooftop's Cucina Italiana overlooking the lake, with the Lobby Bar set by the Japanese gardens for a quieter drink, and the Olympic Museum and IMD are both close enough to reach on foot. Staff work across nine languages, from Arabic to Turkish, and pets under 5kg travel for an added fee. This is not a hotel for someone chasing a small, unbranded address; it is built for guests who want the spa, the ballroom and the rooftop running at once, and still want to be near the water. What the smaller lakeside hotels in Lausanne don't have is that ballroom, the largest in the city, which keeps weddings, conferences and the odd four-hundred-guest garden party all under one address. The Royal Savoy has stood by Lake Geneva since 1909, now a 196-room Leading Hotels of the World property with the largest ballroom in Lausanne and a rooftop restaurant over the water. It suits guests wanting scale in one address, not those seeking something small and anonymous.