In English
Perfect Hiking Service for Perfect Hiking Vacations.
Hotel Bernerhof is situated in the car-free center of Gstaad, which in turn is nestled into the mountainsides of the Bernese Oberland in the Swiss Alps. Bernerhof is perfect for your hiking vacation: perfect for just getting away from it all and relaxing in a welcoming warm atmosphere. And perfect as your «home base» for short and long strolls, walks, or hikes through the mountains and valleys of the Gstaad region. Together with your host, who knows the region like the back of his own hand. Or on your own!
Because Bernerhof offers its hotel guests everything they might need to explore nature at their leisure:
- Maps and pointers for the best hiking routes
- Provisions for your lunch box
- Free rental of hiking shoes and socks, hiking poles, backpacks, as well as snowshoes of course.
- On the accompanied hikes: free transport from and to the starting and stopping points, if necessary.
- Refreshment for tired feet and tired backs in the Bernerhof wellness area with Kneipp basin.
A Hiking Hotel for Gourmets.
But Hotel Bernerhof offers more than just hikes for perfectly enjoyable Gstaad-vacations:
- Four restaurants to choose from: Classic, Swiss, Chinese, and Italian Pasta cuisine.
- A cigar lounge with a well-tended humidor and a choice selection of single malts and other fine spirits.
- Wellness area with swimming pool, steam bath, sauna, and Kneipp basin.
- Massages and cosmetic treatments by arrangement.
Click on this link to find an overview of all the Bernerhof guest benefits in English.
A Word From your Host.
My father loved red socks. He had cupboards full of red knee socks. He wore them on our endless sunday hikes. To be sure that everybody saw his red socks, he topped them with knickerbocker pants. With his hiking stick in the right hand and a stogie in his left he marched ahead and I wheezed along behind him. Behind me, my mother. We tended to get lost a lot on these hikes. Presumably I learned to be a cook just so I could go to work on Sundays.
What my father used to be, is my wife today: Wellness. Upon mention of this word, I tend to break out in a cold sweat. Ayurveda, rain shower, hot stones and cold infusions… Wellness hotels tend to be as alike as peas in a pod. Especially in the near Austrian East. To me it’s all just stress. And I have enough of that without «wellnessing».
In our modern world humans are getting disconnected from themselves. To remedy that, they don’t need wellness, they need to get out into nature more often. Encounter life on its own. So: Hiking is sexy. Wellness is stress.
Today, forty years after the Sunday hikes with my parents, I’m hiking with my guests. We have good conversations about everybody and his dog. We get to know each other by walking with a common purpose, a goal. We feel human connection. Guests become friends, we develop «guest-friendship» – a very Swiss word for real hospitality.
Your Hiking Host
Thomas Frei