Backstage Hotel Serviced Apartments

Backstage Hotel Serviced Apartments

In the centre of car-free Zermatt, a few minutes' walk from the Matterhorn Express and Zermatt-Furi ski lifts, Backstage Hotel Serviced Apartments occupies part of what its owners call Backstage Zermatt, a cluster of hotel, chalets and apartments built around the work of artist and hotelier Heinz Julen. The four rooms and apartments are individually decorated, with fireplaces, flat-screen televisions, down comforters and private balconies, and the larger apartments come with full kitchens for anyone cooking after a day on the slopes. What sets it apart from the usual alpine four-star is the programme running underneath: a Michelin-starred restaurant, After Seven, led by chef Florian Neubauer, two floors above Diner's Club, and Vernissage, the venue that has hosted the Zermatt Unplugged festival and has been the village's only cinema for more than fifty years. Add an art gallery with rotating exhibitions and a spa built around a Genesis-themed sauna, steam room and outdoor pool, and the hotel reads more like a small cultural complex than a place to simply sleep between runs. Skiers get storage, equipment rental, pass sales and a free shuttle to the lifts and train station; summer brings hiking trails, cycling and the same pool. Couples wanting a lively base with dinner and a late bar downstairs will find the hotel side suits them, while the apartments, set slightly apart and quieter, work better for families who want to close the door on the nightclub crowd. It is not for travellers chasing a hushed, traditional chalet feel; the energy here is urban, and it says so itself. Pets are welcome for a small fee, and staff speak English, German and French. In car-free Zermatt, steps from the Matterhorn lifts, Backstage pairs individually decorated rooms and apartments with a Michelin-starred restaurant, an art gallery and the village's only cinema. Lively downstairs, quieter in the apartments, it suits travellers who want alpine days and urban nights, not those after a hushed traditional chalet.