12 Best Hotels in Zürich, Switzerland

This youthful hotel on the rowdy bar-lined Langstrasse is awash with color and original design elements inside, and although the address screams hip-appeal, the rooms are fresh and quiet. Behind the refreshment–breakfast area there is even a small park with a playground. The rooms are designed with smooth, flowing lines and a subtle palette. Even with a clear design goal, Swiss practicality is not forgotten; the desks provide plenty of space to work, and you are even provided with a stylish bag to borrow for city shopping trips.

This former brewery turned hotel, spa, and thermal bath melds its industrial past with a sleek modern design. The lounge–breakfast room offers snacks throughout the day and has a 30-foot-high ceiling with bookshelves to match. The room’s vast chandeliers are made out of metal contraptions that were once used to dry beer bottles. The Hürlimann Suites, designed as duplexes, are housed where the beer was once fermented. This is where the old industrial building is most visible, because rooms here have been built inside the shell of the original structure. Guests have specially timed exclusive access to the thermal baths.

Richard Wagner arrived and premiered the first act of his Die Walküre here, accompanied on the piano by his father-in-law, Franz Liszt. Kings and queens, empresses and dukes took turns visiting (and let's not forget Arthur Rubinstein, Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, and Plácido Domingo), making this hotel a truly upper-crust establishment from the time it opened its doors in 1844. This is still one highbrow patrician—it even goes so far as to turn its broad back to the commercial center; its front rooms overlook the lake, the canal, and the manicured lawns of its own private park. Upstairs, the rooms are individually decorated in a mix of styles that range from art deco to English Regency to contemporary. Meals are served in the glassed-in pavilion along the canal.

Smack in the middle of Niederdorf, this is a smart, state-of-the-art hotel where, from the gleaming lobby to the sleek, modular rooms, the ash-and-granite decor makes the most of tight spaces. Hand-painted murals of city landmarks remind you that you're in Zürich. The restaurant off the lobby, Swiss Chuchi, is known locally as a great year-round place for fondue.

In a 17th-century merchant's mansion, this hotel offers the away-from-it-all atmosphere of a dreamily quiet residential area by the Kunsthaus, yet is just a few tram stops away from the main train station. It provides a respite from the bustle of Niederdorf, but is only a stone's throw away. The Florhof entices its guests with a fresh, airy feel in a historic building. The restaurant serves light, seasonal menus.

Once a rooming house for country girls attending school in the big city, this boutique hotel has two floors that cater exclusively to women—a first in Switzerland. A stylish palette and steel furnishings join the original 1900 parquet floors and high stucco ceilings. The extensive, women-only wellness center offers saunas, massages, and various treatments, and the use of the amenities is included in the room rate. (Nonguests can also book spa time.)

Located in the heart of the cobblestone streets of Old Town, this boutique hotel smartly blends its 15th-century history with modern minimalism. The rooms vary in size and are individually decorated, but all are done in a pared-down style with lots of white linen and pale wood. Bathrooms are sleek with rain showers and loaded with Aesop products. Downstairs is IGNIV restaurant.

A few blocks from the lake, the wide-open spaces of the city's first American-style luxury hotel are accented in black marble, rich maple, and lots of gleaming glass. Rooms have parquet floors with soft carpets, beige furnishings with pale green accents, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Bathrooms are so spacious and luxurious you'll want to take one home with you.

Lording over town, this stark hotel tower offers rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, dark-wood floors, separate shower areas, and neutral color schemes with purple accents. Walls are adorned with contemporary art that speaks to the neighborhood's industrial past. Touch-screen monitors in the lobby can direct you to local attractions. A tram station offers direct access to the city's main train station.

The central location of this airy 660-year-old structure—tucked between the Fraumünster and Kirche St. Peter on the gull-studded bank of the Limmat River—is stunning. Rebuilt in 1939 and renovated in 2016, the modern hotel is impeccable and intimately scaled. It has warmly appointed rooms, some with French windows that open over the water. Deluxe corner rooms, with views toward both river and lake, are worth fighting for, as are seats at the terrace café, where dessert is the panoramic vista of the Altstadt.

Set atop the Zürichberg mountain, this sprawling resort hotel, which began life as a Victorian-era Kurhaus (health spa resort), blends the Corinthian capitals and crystal chandeliers of the original structure with two modern glass-and-steel wings that mirror the natural surroundings. The sumptuous guest rooms, some with hardwood floors, are complemented by an extravagant in-house spa offering everything from soothing massages to cosmetic surgery. Architect Norman Foster designed the hotel's newest wing. The restaurant has two Michelin stars, and the downstairs piano bar is locked in another era. What more could you want in a hotel?

Zürich's most captivating hotel was created when 10 adjacent medieval houses were gutted and combined—now steel fuses with ancient stone and timeworn wood. Behind every door is a fascinating mix of old and new: a guest room could mix restored 17th-century frescoes and stone floors with a leather bedspread and halogen bell-jar lights. Set in the heart of Zürich's historic quarter, many of the houses look out into a communal courtyard, and others flaunt views of the Rennweg or the Augustinerkirche.