Spiez is a delightful town on Lake Thun and we really enjoyed our stay at La Belle Vue, not least because of the [essential] option of the view itself. Fantastic. The station sits above the town, and although it's an easy walk (at least on the way down!), because of the height difference you might want to make it easier still and get the bus, especially if you have suitcases or mobility issues. The #61 to the harbour (schiffstation) runs every hour, at roughly 5 mins to the hour in both directions. This means you can fall out of the hotel guest entrance in the morning to get (say) the 08.57 up to the station, and on your arrival/return the xx.49 bus down to “Des Alpes”. (There are other options to/from “Krone/Kronenplatz”, both very close to the nearby roundabout, namely #1, 62 or 63 going down, or the #65 up at 9 mins past). Incidentally, being able to simply hop on or off any bus (or train, or boat) was the main reason we found the Swiss Pass so helpful - it may not have saved us any money but it was so convenient to have. What about the hotel itself? We had a 'Panorama Comfort Double Room with Balcony' (Room 31). The room is quite small and fitted out in a minimalist fashion, and our bathroom - although perfectly serviceable - looked rather incongruous by comparison (I gather they are to be refitted). It was nice having large opening windows for ventilation as well as a balcony. There are no tea-making facilities in the room but there is a drinks station in an alcove on the landing, which was a clever alternative. There's a lift but it's tiny, which is why our luggage was kindly taken to our room for us ahead of us whilst we were given a welcome drink. The broadband is extremely fast. Rather unusually the breakfast is assembled to order - the idea being to save wastage - but you can have as much as you want and eggs and one or two other cooked options are available at a small supplement. The young owners are very much ‘hands on’ and have assembled a great team, so I wish them every success, but although I've rated this as 5* based on our assessment at the time, I do feel rather let down by subsequent events... We stayed five nights - not least because the hotel currently offers a very generous 35% discount on stays of five nights or more. The booking confirmation confirmed that this discount had been applied, and the net figure was the amount that the hotel took from our card the day before we arrived. Given that ALL accommodation in Switzerland is expensive [to us Brits] I didn’t think any more about it - it was a very good deal - but now that I come to compare one establishment with another in the course of writing my reviews I find that the figures simply don’t add up… At the heart is a lack of transparency as to what the room rate actually was for early August. I know what we actually paid – an average of £216 (plus £8 tax) per night (the actual rate varing accordingly to the day of the week, with Thurs & Fri being
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