Hotel berhampiran Aletsch Waldpromenade, Raron

A very nice hotel only about 10 minutes from Brig's train station. My double room had a balcony that faced the castle and the mountains beyond. Staff are friendly and kept in touch in the days leading to my arrival to make sure everything was all sorted. The room is very clean and comfortable although the curtains were a bit thin. Luckily, it's winter so the sun doesn't rise so early or else it would certainly wake me up if it were summertime. Breakfast was quite decent with a good choice of cold cuts, cheese, cereals, a big selection of tea, and even fresh fruits. Brig is a good base to explore Zermatt, Saas-Fee, and the mountaintop towns facing the Aletsch Glacier.

Sad to share that what used to be a proud, classic 5-star Swiss hotel experience now is reduced to an overpriced mediocre experience, at best. Through my stays during the past 15 years, I have witnessed a hotel fading to become a worn-down average 3-star hotel without proper staffing or attentive service, but fighting to stay in the five star range – at least when it comes to pricing. How about a 40$ simple gin & tonic in the bar? After you had to walk over to the front desk so they could try to locate a grumpy bartender. Twice! Breakfast was slow, even we were the two only guests. Ordered fried eggs and it took at least 15 mins for them to produce it. Coffee was semi-cold all three mornings. In general, the staff has severe problems communicating in English, so expect confusion and misunderstandings. If you are sensitive to mold, well, you should definitely choose another hotel. The pictures speaks for itself, this is next to the bed. In general, the lack of maintenance of the hotel is very visible. If you try the outdoor pool, look out for screws in the deck which have popped out everywhere. The so-called Turkish sauna barely broke out a sweat, and the ceiling was black of mold. Leukerbad is quite hilly, so dragging your luggage around is not ideal. We therefore ordered transport by the hotel minivan at 8:30 to the bus station the day before departure, to make our connection for journey back home. The transport was confirmed twice by the front desk. Checked out at 8:15 and sat down waiting for the transport, nobody came at agreed time (come on, this is Switzerland, right?), minutes went by, our bus was departing soon, went to ask the front desk, she was sorry, but the portier had took off with the van filled with luggage for a group that was departing later. No one could not drive us. She had no other suggestion, so instead of calling a taxi or try to help us in another way, she just continued doing nothing and yelled it was not her fault. We ended up running through the town with our bags and made our connection in less than a minute. A good advice; pick another hotel in otherwise amazing Leukerbad. Les Sources Des Alpes can no longer defend their stars – neither price. A 3-star at best.