After flying through the night, then driving six long hours to Interlaken, Switzerland, my wife and I were — to put it mildly — cooked. Not too cooked to be wowed by our hotel’s pillared atrium of an entrance, or our elegant suite in the new $13 million spa wing. But we were jet-lagged to the point where I worried we wouldn’t do justice to the ski slopes at Wengen, Mürren, and Grindelwald the next day.
Silly me. We had come to the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel and Spa (+41 33 828 28 28), where they take care of little things like soul-crushing fatigue. Between the pampering accommodations, the stellar cuisine, and the state-of-the-art spa — the first in this part of Europe to combine holistic approaches and ancient Eastern techniques with cutting-edge Western medical philosophy — my wife and I were soon put to rights.
The Grand Vic, as its legions of admirers know it, has a long and distinguished history. The 1865 hotel is nestled in one of the most beautiful spots on Earth, between two postcard-perfect lakes fed by the glaciers of the famed Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains. The Romance artists first stumbled onto the area in the 1700s; their representations were judged by critics in the cities as too exaggerated to pass for accurate landscapes. The Lauterbrunnen Valley still stuns even the most world-weary visitors with its imposing rock walls, plunging waterfalls, and soaring peaks. The sheer majesty of the place makes it hard to stay inside.
But that is where the spa is, and after one treatment, I was utterly devoted to the place. The ESPA Time Ritual — chosen completely without irony in the depths of my jet lag — lasts two hours and is tailored to specific needs and desires. Mine began with a welcoming dosha foot wrap and massage, followed by a full-body algae massage with linen wrap, wherein I felt strangely embalmed. Then came a scrub that was nothing short of a total brining — kippered-herring style — in preserving sea salts and oil. A hot stone and oil massage rounded out the experience, and brought me back to life.
Beyond the treatments, enticing features include a professional fitness center, a host of wonderfully powerful Jacuzzi tubs, and a Clarins Beauty Center for the aesthetically aware. The entire spa wing is a sophisticated, modernist oasis with the calm air of a Zen garden, set off by a decadently exotic Belle Epoque-style pool that’s a vision in Greco-Roman as if dreamed by Gustav Klimt.
But as tempting as it was to soak away a lifetime in such indulgent surroundings, even greater temptations — Wengen, Mürren, and Grindelwald — awaited the next day. And thanks to time well spent in the spa, I greeted them with vim, vigor, and vitality.
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