Aman-i-Khas vs The Dolder Grand

This is ten tents on the edge of a national park, and the case for it is almost entirely the people running it. Guests describe a general manager, Kishan, who took one couple to a village wedding mid-stay and brought his own family along so they wouldn't feel out of place. The batler system (their word, one per tent) produces the same kind of story on repeat: a butler who noticed a child was a picky eater and had the chef rework meals twice a day, another who set up a surprise birthday table with cake and flowers. The tiger sightings back it up too. One couple saw six tigers across two drives with an Aman-arranged naturalist, while friends of theirs who hired their own guide for a week saw none.

Where it gets messy is the money. The room rate looks reasonable next to other tented camps, and then the add-ons start: private safaris and airport transfers priced high enough that several guests felt nickel-and-dimed on top of an already expensive stay, one reporting a $2,400 one-way transfer quote for a three-hour drive. The tents themselves split opinion too, gorgeous to look at but with furniture (hand-built by local craftsmen on site) that a few people found stiffer to actually sit in than they expected. The food is good rather than a highlight, and it's worth knowing there's no television and thin canvas walls, so noise from neighboring tents or the odd 3am monkey overhead is part of the deal.

Book it for the safari access and the way the staff run the place, not for a five-star dining programme. It suits people who want a real wildlife trip with a soft landing at the end of the day, and who won't flinch at paying twice for the extras. Skip it if you want an all-inclusive rate with no surprises on the bill, and go in expecting the tents, not a hard-walled suite.

The pitch is a castle on a hill above Zurich, with a Norman Foster wing grafted onto the 1899 original, and it mostly delivers. Guests who've stayed three, four, a dozen times keep coming back for the same three things: the view over the city and lake from the balconies, staff who remember names and birthdays years later, and a breakfast people plan mornings around, the bircher muesli in particular. The modern wing rooms read as genuinely special rather than generic five-star, and the art scattered through the corridors, including a piece one guest was convinced was a real Dalí, gives the place a personality most hotels can't fake.

It isn't uniform, and the price makes that worth knowing before you book. Historic-wing rooms draw real complaints for feeling sparse and a little cold next to the new side; one recent guest, fresh off a stay at the Chedi Andermatt, said the rooms had lost their wow factor. The spa's reputation has slipped for some: a couple of reviewers who used to call the staff top professionals now describe them as arrogant and the space overpriced for what it offers, though plenty of others still call it the best in Switzerland. Breakfast buckles on busy weekend mornings, with slow coffee refills, and there's at least one drawn-out billing dispute on record along with a guest who felt brushed off at check-in until a $15k booking was proven. Book the modern wing if you have the choice, and don't expect spa-retreat calm on a Sunday.

None of that changes who this is for. If you want a hotel you could spend a whole weekend inside without leaving, a short shuttle ride from central Zurich, this is still the one people mean when they say the best hotel in Switzerland.