Gstaad Palace

In the 1960s, Marlene Dietrich performed at a Palace gala while Grace Kelly watched from a sled, Jackie Kennedy skied with daughter Caroline, and a fur-clad Brigitte Bardot walked her dog through the village. Michael Jackson, staying at Elizabeth Taylor's chalet nearby, once asked the owner if he could buy the hotel outright: "I like it." The fondue restaurant occupies a former wartime bunker where UBS once stored gold bars; today it serves the Saanenland's gold in a rather more edible form. Opened in 1913 by a visionary local schoolteacher, the Palace has been owned by the Scherz family since 1947. 100 rooms, five restaurants, and the legendary GreenGo nightclub in the basement, where phones are banned and the décor hasn't changed since 1971, because every time the hotel suggested updating it, guests point-blank refused.