Alex Lake Zürich: An Honest Review
The bougie lakefront hotel we booked on credit card points
We stayed at Alex Lake Zürich in Thalwil for the first three nights of our Switzerland trip, and I will be upfront: we booked it on credit card points through the Chase Edit Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection when they had a 1.5x point deal. That got us a “free” room plus free breakfast and a room credit. Without that, this is probably not a hotel we would have booked. It is genuinely bougie.
It is a 5-star hotel that reopened in 2019 on the shore of Lake Zurich in Thalwil, about 20 minutes outside the main city. It is small, 44 rooms, with a restaurant that included a gorgeous lakefront terrace. As it says in the name, you are right on Lake Zurich. It was a stunning view to wake up to every morning!
What we loved
The family suite. We booked the family suite, which is essentially two bedrooms connected by a hallway. This is the layout you want with small kids. Everyone slept and it came with a legitimate kitchenette and an actually cold mini-fridge. The mini-bar was also FREE (as it was in all of Switzerland), which was a nice surprise.
The beds. Very comfortable. Worth saying because we all know that five stars does not automatically mean a good mattress.
The kid touches. They put toys in the kids' room and set out little robes and slippers for them. Small effort, big payoff, my son still talks about the robe.
The views. Gorgeous, quiet, right on the water. This is the entire point of staying here and it delivers completely.
Lake access. You can use the hotel dock to get straight into the lake. On our jet lagged arrival day, being able to walk downstairs and put the kids in the water saved us.
The boat. The hotel runs a boat transfer to its sister property in the city. It costs extra but it was worth every franc for us since we made it part of our experience. Taking a private boat back across Lake Zurich in the late afternoon light was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip, not just the hotel stay.
The e-bikes. Available to rent and extremely convenient for a grocery run to the Coop.
The staff. Lovely and helpful across the board, including sorting out sold-out Lindt tickets for us.
What to know before you book
This hotel is kid accepted, not kid friendly. Nobody was anything other than gracious about our children, but this hotel was not designed with kids in mind. There is no kids' club, no splash zone, no chicken nugget energy. If you want a hotel that entertains your children, this is not it. If you want a beautiful, calm place where your children are welcome, it is.
The life jacket situation. I asked in advance whether they had children's life jackets and was told yes. In practice there was really only one. We had to rely on floats for our son, which was not ideal on a lake with actual chop. For a hotel whose best feature is direct lake access, this is the one thing I would genuinely push them to fix.
The AC is not American AC. They have it, and it was something, but adjust your expectations. The hotel heats and cools using water from the lake, which is very cool from a sustainability standpoint and less cool when you are used to being blasted with refrigerated air. I know this makes me sound extremely American, so be it. I had a small fan that I brought with me that helped me sleep at night.
The food is very good and very expensive. We ate at the restaurant and it was excellent, right on the water, lovely. It is also priced like a five star Swiss hotel restaurant. We relied on Coop and an Uber eats night for our sanity and wallet.
Would I book it again?
With points, absolutely, without hesitation. It was the perfect place to land after an overnight flight and start actually relaxing.
At full rate, I would think hard about it, and that is not a knock on the hotel. It earns its price. It is just a lot of hotel for a family that mostly wanted a comfortable base.
If you have points (or cash) to burn and you want to start a Swiss trip somewhere beautiful and quiet, this is a fantastic choice.
