Best for: a boutique stay
Had history’s fickle ways played out differently, the Alpine village of Adelboden would be as well known as Gstaad, where Loro Piana rubs shoulders with Moncler on the high street. But after a flurry of fame in the Edwardian era, when Henry Lunn brought the first package group of British skiers here, it settled into affable obscurity, livened up by the annual World Cup giant slalom. One loyal regular, though, was Welsh-born Grant Maunder, whose family holidayed here in the 1970s and ’80s and who repaid the village’s hospitality by opening the Cambrian hotel about 15 years ago. This is the follow-up, and it’s an altogether more considered project, swerving away from the usual Alpine clichés in favour of a clubby midcentury look assembled by Dutch-based design studio Nicemakers. Behind the classic chalet façade, the ground-floor living space, which flows from breakfast tables to dining room and bar, ripples with texture – bouclé fabrics here, Nordic Knots rugs there, crazy paving underfoot – and showcases vintage furniture alongside woodcuts and brutalist sculptures. Easy to imagine Tony Curtis here, resplendent in a roll-neck and perusing a ’60s copy of Esquire. The intention was to make it all feel as much of a private home as possible, with bedrooms clear of hotel clutter and a sense of relaxed, “just drop by” warmth. It’s adults only and, unusually, fully inclusive (from feasts of salmon and mountain cheeses to the old-fashioneds), a concept at which some may baulk – until they remember their last restaurant bill in Switzerland. Maunder refers to The Brecon’s aesthetic as “Swelsh,” and, when you’re dallying in the terrace pool, with the flanks of the Bernese Oberland rising operatically above, it all feels pretty wonderful. Rick Jordan
Price: From about £650 per night.