Waldhotel Doldenhorn

Waldhotel Doldenhorn, a Relais & Chateaux, in Kandersteg, sits in a sunny location on the outskirts of town, and was very charming and delightful! I loved the sound of the small creek which runs through the property. It is a solid 4 star with a lovely, traditional property, and stunning views of alpine mountains and Swiss countryside the minute you step out the door! Kandersteg is a walker’s paradise in the Summer and early Autumn. A convenient free town bus stops at the foot of the long drive or a 10-15 minute walk to the village and another 15+ min to the foot of the Oeschinensee gondola. The hotel offers a nice breakfast, and serves complimentary afternoon tea & pastries in the lounge or on the front terrace. I haven’t seen the specific Ambiance Guest Room assigned in any of the hotel’s photos, but it felt like staying in a charming, private Swiss cottage or cabin with a comfortable large bed, desk, small frig, plenty of windows, outlets, and deck & chairs. The indoor swimming area sounded busy (didn't use it). Friendly servers and front desk reception. The staff is caring and delivers hospitable service. Keep the wooden loungers out front (or add a couple more)! Beautiful location. I wouldn’t have chosen anything else, but this hotel! Thank you.

Our 4 day stay at this hotel was .... full of contradictions. On one hand the hotel is nice and the location is great. Although we have stayed in other places in the same category that were better. It begins with a door hinge that should be fixed, goes over to the pool that is nice but would need some more attention, to the missing towels in the Spa area, to the extremely long wait for food from the kitchen, to unfriendly and overworked waiters. Nice would be if I could speak my native language in my home country with people who work there from foreign countries. We had to adjust to them by speaking English or French to be understood. It was these things and other small details which makes me say it was "OK" but not superb. The quality of the food was great (and expensive).... if you received the dishes you ordered. The front desk was very friendly and competent. I will leave out the details of the dispute my wife and I had with one of the servers. We complained to management and we hope they take the necessary steps to correct the situation. With "change of the guard" I mean my feeling that something was missing. A person who would have the eye for these details and would be empowered to take influence and change them.

I had never heard of Kandersteg before and nor had anyone else that I spoke to about Switzerland but when I found this hotel on the Inghams website I decided to take a chance. I’m so glad I did! It is surrounded by mountains and just outside the small town and is both lovely, inside and out. We had two rooms, one ambience room for the children and we were upgraded to a suite, both rooms were spacious and very clean and had stunning views of the mountains. The inside pool was a big hit as was the snooker room and back from days out for tea and cake at 4pm a really nice little extra. Food was always going to be tricky as I’m the first to admit that I’m a bit fussy but the waiters were professional and friendly and always helpful with menu choices and swapping things around for us! Reception staff were very pleasant and picked us up and dropped us back to the train station when we arrived and departed. The only thing if I was being super picky would be the daily news, all written in German about the weather, things going on and menus for the evening. English guests seem to be the minority in the hotel which I am more than happy with but for when English guests are staying there, a copy in English would be really nice as we missed some of the important news for one of the evenings about a music night and then the waiters were surprised when we knew nothing about it! All in all a stunning location and perfect for day trips using the local buses, trains and cable cars

The room was NOT as description in our emails "see the photos on webite". Instead it was in an outside building from 1980s and we had to walk in snow with our slippers to use the spa. The room was also on the parking so the snow plow comes by the windows at 6AM, not relaxing. The spa is noisy and uses a ridiculous red or green sign, so if red you can't go into a sauna even if one person inside? We definitely will NOT return.

This hotel is currently under construction and very noisy from 7am - 5pm. Once inside the hotel, it is very pretty, food is good and accommodations nice. The staff is very gracious. It was just that bang-bang-banging when we sat on our balcony that was a problem.

Great atmosphere, picturesque place, pretty garden and terrace. However, very unfriendly personnel, not listening, talking in reproaching tone to customers, simply unprofessional! What a pity for such a location!