There are two places that the world's money flees when it gets stressed and neurotic: into gold and into the Swiss franc. 'Swissie enjoys haven demand' ran the headline in The Financial Times. I read this on a still Swiss Alpine morning, looking out over the meadows rivers and mountains of the Engadin from the terrace of the Grand Hotel Kronenhof — and thought, it isn't only money that flees up here in search of a haven.
Life, like the money markets, can get a bit volatile at times. So the Swiss Alps in summer is still a haven, as it has always been. But what makes a haven on earth?
First, for me, it's a rest from fashion and the pressure to be at the hottest place in the coolest clothes. The Kronenhof and the town it's in, Pontresina, provides that refuge. Its most loyal friends would not call it hot. They spend 50 millions francs on a refresh four years ago. So the parquet floor is polished as if waiting for Fred Astaire to trip across it any second. The gilt and duck egg blue on the ceiling is fresh and vivid as if some Baroque retoucher had just packed his bags for Italy. The quiet grey paint on the exquisite ironwork is without a dribble or rust spot.
But they didn't rip it all out and put in Perspex Finnish light installations and cowhide bar stools. They kept it much as it was. That's what you do when you're a haven. There's enough change going on 6000 feet below.
That said, they did indulge the state-of-the-art crowd with the spa — and spent a fair proportion of those precious Swiss francs. The result is the best and most tranquil spa I've been to anywhere in Europe for years. It curves gracefully into the hillside, the ceiling above the pool suspended on giant mushroom-stalk beams. This is organic architecture. Where other spas have to import the rural tranquillity on CD, here it's all around you, ambiently, in the pine and meadows just outside the floor-to-ceiling glass panes.
Pontresina itself shudders away from the trendsetters and style hunters. That lot can swank around in neighbouring St Moritz. Pontresina is the very model of a wealthy, bourgeois mountain town where the locals are more interested in the quality of the cakes than the importance of the design statements.
Any self-respecting anarchist rioter would despair in Pontresina. There is just something in the air. After a few months of fruitless spray painting he'd be forced to give up, put on a lightweight sports coat, buy a 5-series and invite the family for a quiet dinner at the Kronenhof — where, of course, jackets are still compulsory for men.
Getting there: fly to Zurich, from where a Swiss Transfer Ticket (a return ticket between the airport and any Swiss destination) costs £79 in second class and £123 in first class; for the ultimate Swiss rail specialist call Switzerland Travel Centre on 00800 100 200 30 or visit swisstravelsystem.co.uk.
Accommodation: to make a reservation at the Grand Hotel Kronenhof, Pontresina, either visit the website (kronenhof.com) or call +41 81 830 30 30.
