Vaud Hotels

It's a pleasure unique to Vaud to wake up, part floor-length sheers, and look out over Lac Léman to Mont Blanc. A series of 19th-century grand hotels with banks of balconied lakeview rooms were created to offer this luxury to such grand-tourists as Strauss, Twain, Stravinsky, and Henry James. Yet there's no shortage of charming inns offering similar views on an intimate scale. The hotels of Lausanne and Montreux are long on luxury and grace, and low prices are not easy to find. Especially at peak periods—Christmas-New Year's and June-August—it's important to book ahead. These days, in-room Internet connections, safes, and business centers are the rule rather than the exception. Small auberges in the villages along the lake, and the vineyards offer traditional dishes and simple comforts. At the cantonal tourist office Web site, www.lake-geneva-region.ch, you can scan hotel facilities and rates, then click to reserve.