La Reserve Geneve Hotel & Spa

Class: Deluxe

Style: Opulent

Rooms: 102

Geneva’s top hotels tend to be stately old grand hotels, restorations of early 20th-century palaces, places where the only nod to modernity is a wireless LAN or a flat-screen television, hidden in an antique armoire. The exception, though, is La Réserve; thanks to Jacques Garcia of Hôtel Costes fame, Geneva now has a stylish and inspiring modern design hotel of its very own.

The location is unique; while most of the city’s hotels are concentrated along the river, La Réserve occupies tenacres of parkland at the side of the lake, five kilometers outside the city center. This may put a damper on sightseeing by foot, but only enhances the resort-like quality of the place.

Interiors are handsome, with a touch of decadence, starting from the materials—leather desks, granite baths, floors and furnishings of oiled hardwood, and thick velvet bedspreads. Colors are rich, from the muted earth tones of the walls to the rich reds, browns and violets of the accents.

The spa is central to La Réserve’s appeal, and spans an entire floor, complete with indoor and outdoor pool, seventeen treatment rooms and a hair salon. Three restaurants serve the hotel: Le Tsé-Fung, serving Chinese cuisine on black lacquered tables with red velvet chairs, Le Loti, the Mediterranean restaurant with the tented ceiling, and Une Autre Histoire, a vaguely Sixties-minimal scene out of Barbarella, serving lighter fare, including fresh fruit and vegetable juices. And the lounge is a local hotspot, with nightly DJ and a long list of vodkas, whiskies and cognacs—there's no need to leave the hotel grounds, which is entirely the point.