The fog was so heavy, it felt suffocating. We had travelled up to Belalp, at 2100m in the Aletsch glacier region, a UNESCO world heritage site, in a cable car as the mist swirled around the valley. With every few metres of our ascent, the thick grey air gathered underneath us until it felt as if we were travelling through the clouds. It was magical, if unnerving. After about 10 minutes, we reached Belalp, a tiny village, with no cars, and the end of the line. We found a signpost to Hamilton Lodge in the gloom and started our walk down a track to find it. There was hardly anyone around — this is the kind of day to find somewhere warm, with a log fire and red wine, and curl up.
Luckily for us, there can't be many better places to do that than Hamilton Lodge. With visibility at virtually an arm's length in front of us, suddenly we stumbled on it, feeling like two lost explorers finding base camp (even if we had only been walking for 10 minutes).
The lodge is not huge, with the communal area taking over the ground floor — a large restaurant, with a lounge area to the side — which makes for a sociable stay; inevitably you end up chatting to other guests. We sat in the "library", a cosy nook with sofas and a couple of bookshelves, a glass of wine in hand and felt grateful to have arrived.
The style of the lodge is Heidi-with-a-makeover, with traditional Alpine elements — the antlers on the wall and cowbells — given a modern update. There are fashionable grey walls to offset the traditional gingham fabrics, and glittery chandeliers are matched with rough-hewn wooden furniture. The rooms continue in a similar style with seagrass carpets, whitewashed furniture, tongue-and-groove panelling and handmade quilts all adding to its understated, thoughtful style.
We were shown around the spa on the lower ground floor, which is small but well designed with an indoor sauna, and the wooden hot tub and plunge pool (both filled with water from the glacier) outside, and a view over the mountains where you can sit amid Alpine wildflowers in the summer and in the snow in winter. We were planning to use the spa, but because the weather had turned so bad, the hotel had decided to give it over to guests' children for the afternoon (Hamilton Lodge is a very family-friendly hotel, although as a child-free couple, we didn't feel overrun by nippers). They shrieked delightedly as they leapt between pools. On a different day, the view over the mountains would have been amazing but today you could only see grey fog so I didn't begrudge them the hot tub.
In the summer, Hamilton Lodge is filled with hikers, in the winter with skiers (though for less active people, a day in the spa followed by an evening in front of the fire would be time well spent). There is a ski school and hire shop, children's ski area and lifts right next to the lodge, with a wide range of pistes for everyone, from a good beginners' selection, to advanced runs (a new chairlift takes you to 2,700 metres).
The main draw of Hamilton Lodge, though, is its view. Perched on the mountainside, with a large terrace wrapped around the lodge to take full advantage of it, everything was set. Except for the weather. Then, just as we finished our pre-dinner drinks and took our seats in the restaurant next to the huge windows, the mist lifted as suddenly as if someone had pulled opened the curtains. We sat for a while looking out over the vast valley to the mountain range in the distance, lit by the last of the sunlight, too awestruck to speak.
Hamilton Lodge and Spa, Belalp, CH-3914 Blatten, Switzerland; hamiltonlodge.ch; +41 27 923 20 43. Double rooms from SFr200 per night in winter, and family rooms from SFr360. Entrance to the spa is SFr15 per person, per day.
