Gourmet Hotel Villa Patriot

Location was good. Breakfast was generally good, but paying extra for a cappuccino or an omelette is unusual. The outside facade was excellent, but many problems lurk within......

No lift in the building!! And there are about 40 stairs to climb (with luggage) from the ground floor to the second floor, much of it via a spiral staircase. I'm pretty fit, but found it a bit of a chore to climb those stairs every night, especially after negotiating the north face of the Eiger beforehand (i.e. the hotel driveway)... Nowhere did it mention this in the hotel website. The driveway up to the hotel is at a very very steep angle, the steepest I have ever encountered at a hotel, so bring your crampons and safety ropes, you will certainly need them if there is any frost or ice. The second floor bedrooms are in the attic of the building, so there are no views at all (dormer windows pointing to the sky) and you have to duck your head even when getting into bed. I also had a skylight window directly over my bed, which was an 'interesting' touch. When I was booking the room it certainly didn't mention that I would be in the attic of the hotel with the sloping roof cutting off much of my room area (unless you like crawling on your hands and knees). My bathroom had no shower and the bath (which was huge and would have taken an hour to fill) was under the eaves of the building, so it was a bit of an acrobatic feat getting in and out of the bath to have a handheld shower each morning. The food in the restaurant is certainly tasty, but the dinner menu is ridiculously short with very few choices. I really have no idea why this hotel styles itself a 'Gourmet' Hotel. In the end, I found all of this rather tedious and would certainly not stay here again.