The art-filled Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern is a year-round delight

Just 12 hours ago, we had grand plans to hike the Wildheupfad trail. It’s stunning, we’d been told — a wild haymaking path that overlooks the emerald Lake Uri, an hour’s train ride away from our palatial sanctuary on the banks of Lake Luzern. But now we are cosily ensconced in deep armchairs, noshing on poached eggs and local Sbrinz cheese by a picture window at Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern overlooking the lake. Leaving this oasis feels like a waste of good fortune.

From this perch, it’s easy to see why Europe’s noble class flocked here during La Belle Epoque. The scenic serenity is breathtaking. Were you a wealthy European in the late 19th century, whose elitist stronghold on the government was waning, this would have been the perfect retreat from the grim realities of the rising democracy.

In the early 1900s, this was the Palace Hotel, a sumptuous retreat dreamed up by Swiss entrepreneur Franz Josef Bucher. In those early years, it was a beacon for pleasure seekers, mountaineers and adventurers who joined Queen Victoria among its roster of guests.

More than a century later, Bucher’s legacy lives on under the auspices of the Mandarin Oriental. No longer just a place for the noble — the likes of us are here, after all — the rather more egalitarian Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern still bears its La Belle Epoque bones in its regal scagliola columns, stucco walls and original chequered marble floor.

What use are good bones if the heart is cold? Happily, the Mandarin Oriental Palace Luzern radiates warmth in spades thanks to a cast and crew that know exactly how to deliver luxury hospitality with the perfect dose of good feeling.

Consider its head concierge, Michael Elias. He is there to greet us every time we descend the marble staircase and offers friendly suggestions on where and where not to dine (“May I advise that you skip the Indian restaurants here and try a Thai restaurant instead?” he offers when I tell him that after a week in Switzerland, I am ready for some spicy food).

In the gorgeous MOzern Bar & Brasserie, a young server remembers my preference for poached eggs (hold the avocados, please) after one breakfast service. In our lavish junior suite, an ice bucket becomes a mainstay after a single request. Evidently, the hotel’s veneer of splendour is more than skin deep,

We decide that hiking can wait. The sleek steam rooms in the hotel spa beckon, along with an experiential shower that turns bath time for experience shower noobs like us into a delightful, childish experience. When we retire squeaky clean to our suite, we linger far longer than planned on our terrace overlooking the lake’s promenade and the stunning shards of Mount Pilatus beyond.

While dining options abound in and around the hotel, it’s hard to resist the siren call of a Michelin-starred restaurant — one that earned its star just five months after its opening. That it happens to sit just a short flight of stairs below our suite renders that call impossible to ignore.

Colonnade is arguably one of Luzern’s best restaurants. Like every shared space in the hotel, it too looks out to the eternally splendid lake. Executive chef Gilad Peled and his team turn locally sourced produce into stunning dishes. To wit: A tile of wild turbot arrives wearing a coat of scales made from paper-thin slivers of pickled hazelnuts. The accompanying vin jaune sauce has a creamy, delicate smokiness from pureed chard that somehow morphs into deep savouriness as we eat.

There is Bresse pigeon, slices of its crown roast served plummy with a shallot marmalade and wild blackberries. It is suitably flavourful and perfectly cooked, but it is the puffed potato chips served alongside them that elicit unbridled glee among this pair of middle-aged potato chip junkies. We love that the kitchen has a sense of humour enough to serve this childlike snap of dopamine with the elegant pleasures of its main course.

To walk off that satisfying dinner, we meander through the hotel, taking in its rich art collection of landscape paintings from European pioneers of the Romantic movement juxtaposed with modern-day abstract nature photographs, installations, and glass paintings. Frankly, this is far more agreeable than reserving an afternoon at a museum — the selection is tight and when it’s time to rest our legs, we lope back to our bedroom and fall into the sumptuous king bed.

Before we leave the next morning, we laugh at the fact throughout our three-day stay, we’ve done nothing more than walk around the lake, stroll across the surrounding old town, doze on our terrace, or loll lazily in bed.

“But we’ve actually done a lot,” reasons my partner. “We’ve spa-ed, eaten well, and seen plenty of amazing art — all without leaving these walls.”

He’s right. Turns out, this is the rare hotel that truly has it all.