Around Switzerland in 3 Days

For experienced business travelers, there’s a moment in every trip when you suddenly realize that you really are in another country. On first day of the Seventh Swiss Meetings Trophy, an annual fam trip in which team of a dozen North American meeting planners and journalists competed with similar teams from seven European countries in a three-day whirlwind tour of four cities that is basically a scavenger hunt combined with The Amazing Race competition, there were two of those moments. 

The first was on the train from Geneva airport to Bern, when a woman at the counter of the first class snack bar, came through the first-class cars taking orders for excellent coffee. For those of us who know Amtrak, this was definitely foreign. The second was in the cozy elevator of the appropriately named five-star Hotel Bellevue Palace in Bern, when the door opened and tennis legend Roger Federer got on. That three-floor ride plus a nodded “good morning” with the Swiss tennis legend made me a minor celebrity-by-proxy for the rest of the trip.

In the heart of the old city, the Bellevue Palace has. The style is a very Swiss take on 19th century elegance—crystal chandeliers, huge French doors, plaster details and rich drapes, but never so much as to be gaudy.

That night, the eight teams met for the first time for dinner in the Kornhauskeller, a giant, barrel-vaulted restaurant in an old warehouse with elegant balconies perfect buffet/networking events for groups like ours. Sizing up the competition, against our inevitable victory, the big threat was Team Nordic, which was looking for a third successive victory, while Team France, at half strength with just six members, seemed an unlikely threat. 

The next day’s “race” (finishing first was worth no points) began with a morning of team-building challenges—such as climbing Bern’s historic bell tower with amazing city views to learn how heavy the counterweights were, visiting with the master chocolatier at Confiserie Beeler, to learn about the country’s happiest export and guess which of two ingredients were in each of a seven plates of chocolates (a highly recommended inclusion in any program)— that took us all over the city, ending at a café overlooking the city’s historic bear pit. A symbol of the city since 1441 the bear “pit” is now is a single-exhibit zoo on a large hillside overlooking the river that snakes past town. The best river views can be found there, as well as at the outdoor terrace of Le Terrasse, the Bellevue Palace’s fine dining restaurant, and on the plaza behind the city’s cathedral, which has lovely and quite interesting stained glass. 

From there, we set off in coaches for a buffet lunch in the gardens of Gasthof Weyersbuehl, a rambling, 17th century farmhouse-cum-restaurant that can take groups of 10-320 and offered our first view of the Alps, and a William Tell contest with a rubber-tipped crossbow (on a stand—no Swiss children provided). They can also arrange yodeling and Alphorns, among other special touches.

After lunch we set off for Gstaad in a fleet of Audi’s and Volkswagens. Supplier Europcar provided each team with one convertible Audi TT, a huge hit on the stunning drive to the Alpine ski town, which would have taken all day if we’d stopped everywhere we wanted to take pictures of the incredible views. 

In town, there were a series of teambuilding exercises, ranging from a hay bale race to a six-on-two beach volleyball game against pros in town for a major international tournament at Gstaad’s Roy Emerson Arena, the 6,000-seat home of tennis’ Swiss Open. A tour and tasting at the Gstaad cheese cathedral, an 80-foot deep aging room/exhibit for small groups that covers all aspects of cheese making from grass to mouth is an excellent addition.

 

Perched well up above the ski town, the turreted Gstaad Palace is about the most prominent building in town—especially at night—and offers the best room views I had on the trip. Despite the castle-like exterior, the rooms and interior spaces are more fine chalet and high-end rustic than palace. A number of the planners in our group called it their favorite property. It has five meeting spaces with room for 10 to 350. 

In the morning, we took a pair of incredibly steep cable cars up to Glacier 3000, a ski mountain at about 10,000 feet (or 3,000 meters—thus the name), with incredible views of some two dozen even higher Alps, including Mont Blanc and the infamous Eiger. The cable car and views from the lookout point above the restaurant/lodge are worth the trip alone, but Glacier 3000 is capable of arranging a number of teambuilding exercises, like walking on a four-person ski, as well as glacier hikes, dog sledding, and the Alpine Coaster, a 25-mile-an-hour, edge-of-the-mountain bobsled-like ride on roller coaster tracks. Make time for at least two rides. You control your own speed with brakes, and many people want to try it again, faster. 

Switzerland is a country with four official languages, and we crossed from German-speaking Switzerland to the French-language area (Italian and Romansch, an offshoot of Latin, are the other two) via the classically elegant Golden Pass train. The views reach the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, an idyllic 20-mile-long stretch of small hillside vineyards that drop steeply down to the shores of Lake Geneva. After the train ride, we headed to the hillside town of Grandvaux, where we had a wine-tasting that included the local Gamay varietal vintages. 

From there, it was a short ferry ride to Lausanne, and the 150-year-old Beau Rivage Palace on the shore of Lake Geneva, where a few members of Team North America snuck out for quick dip in the world’s cleanest lake, walking down a stone staircase into the amazingly clean, clear water. Highly recommended. In this hotel, the French influences in this part of the country (called the Swiss Riviera) showed in the grand public spaces, which were more opulent. The Beau Rivage has 18 event rooms, the largest of which can handle receptions of up to 600. 

Then the hotly fought 2011 Meeting Trophy came to an end at the Olympic Museum, which is literally connected to the Beau Rivage by a few hundred yards of gardens. The museum has an excellent statuary lawn for cocktails before you head down into the museum itself, a treasure trove of memories and memorabilia that was the perfect setting for the announcement of the final score, a nailbiter in which the plucky French team, at half-strength with just six attendees, pulled off an upset over the two-time champions, Team Nordic. The dancing/celebration afterward was kicked up a notch by Team Russian, which not only sang between courses, but brought a bottle of very good Russian vodka for each team. The space which was used as the bar and disco has a terrace of its own, but rain that night kept us indoors.

While the European teams packed it in that night, Team North America had one more stop: the lakeside city of Montreux, then in the throes of the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival, widely considered one of the best in the world. The normally calm and lazy waterfront was lined with souvenir and food booths, and tourists. But it was a fun and lively crowd, not as overwhelming as even a normal weekend in Times Square. 

We stayed at the 285-room Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, and many of our group considered it the pinnacle of the trip. Overlooking Lake Geneva and the French Alps, it was the largest and most opulent of the hotels we stayed at—see the Salon Rotary with its stained glass dome ceiling—the white-and-yellow Fairmont also has a restaurant and event space across the street, the Petit Palace, connected by an underpass for moving groups in inclement weather. Sitting right on the shore, it has the largest space, which can hold 900 theater-style or 1,200 for cocktails. The hotel also has an outpost of Harry’s New York Bar. 

We had lunch nearby at the Best Western Eurotel Riviera, which sites directly on the shores of Lake Geneva in the heart of town. The four-star property shows off a brand that is definitely a different class of hotel than in the United States. 

In the afternoon, a ferry ride a few miles down the coast to Chillon Castle, a great stone pile on a tiny island a few feet offshore. A combination stronghold and palace of the powerful Savoy family, it dates to the 12th century and could by turned into a set for the Lord of the Rings in an instant. There are many rooms that are perfect for hors d’oeurves, drinks or even a meal, for groups of up to 440. My favorite, by far, are the underground storage rooms, in which the vaulted foundation arches rise out of the raw stone of the island. One support pillar has the name “Byron” carved into it, a graffiti memoir of the great poet’s visit, which inspired him to write one of his better known works, “The Prisoner of Chillon.”

The music was amazing—we saw Natalie Cole and Arcade Fire— and the nearly 200,000-square foot Montreux Music & Convention Centre, in the heart of town on the waterfront. It has space for groups of up to 3,000, and (needless to say) A/V capabilities and professionals a cut above the ordinary.