La Réserve Eden au Lac: Zurich’s Hidden Champion of Luxury Hotels and Sailing Culture

To this day, numerous Swiss sail very successfully at the highest level. Why it is like that? Well, Switzerland has many lakes that are great for sailing, it has the necessary technology, it has the money – and it has a luxurious yacht club: the Hotel La Réserve Eden au Lac is right on the shore of Lake Zurich. Among other things, pictures of sailing ships with numbers on the sails serve as room numbers.

The historic building has recently been remodeled. The owner Michel Reybier engaged the star designer Philippe Starck for the interior design. Yacht club and Starck – they don’t really go together in my head. But I have found that Philippe Starck can do that too.

Cold materials and clean lines do not dominate in the Eden au Lac, as I expected. The designer has used many different fabrics and woods, it looks warm and cozy. I didn’t know Starck like that before. He has also used excellent materials in the 40 rooms and suites – wood and leather are coordinated and used generously.

Incidentally, the owner Michel Reybier is not just a hotel owner. Ten excellent hotels in France, Switzerland and Great Britain now belong to the “Reybier Collection”, including La Réserve Paris, La Réserve Ramatuelle, La Maison d’Estournel, the Hotel Monte Rosa in Zermatt and L’oscar London. At home in France as well as in Hungary, Reybier owns three wineries, including Château Cos d’Estournel, one of the most famous wineries in Bordeaux.

A stroke of luck for the hotel, because the “house wine” at Eden au Lac is a Cos d’Estournel. Another stroke of luck for the hotel is the appointment of Thomas Maechler as General Manager, under his leadership you can feel the style and elegance.

The two restaurants in the hotel deserve a special mention. “Eden Kitchen” on the ground floor is a young restaurant concept with an open kitchen, large, colorful window fronts overlooking the lake, a mix of fine materials and different floors – and with a DJ desk for the party atmosphere at dinner. This also works so well in culinary terms that the Eden Kitchen has already been awarded a Michelin star.

A completely different concept can be found under the roof: the glass elevator takes you up to the sixth floor. Here you enter the Peruvian-Japanese restaurant “La Muña”. At first glance, the open wooden roof construction reminds me of a Swiss ski hut. On closer inspection, however, I notice the countless pictures of sailing boats – from Lake Zurich and from all over the world. So the restaurant is more like a ship’s command post than a ski hut. Incidentally, the colorful windows in the ceiling – like those in the Eden Kitchen – were designed by Starck’s daughter, the painter Ara Starck.

The name of the restaurant derives from the Peruvian medicinal plant muña, which is used primarily to treat altitude sickness. Very fitting for a sixth floor eatery with a huge roof terrace from which you can see far across the lake, the city and to the nearby mountains. There is another congenial concept for this terrace: “Bubbles & Dogs”. Only hot dogs and champagne are served here. Interesting mix.

“In fact, it’s so popular that the tables are fully booked months in advance,” says Thomas Maechler. In winter, the terrace even gets additional bubbles: then transparent, round tents are put over the tables, in which you can be comfortably warm and still enjoy the view.

The hotel surprises me constantly and everywhere with very loving little things that put a smile on my face. When I open the minibar, I find different types of ice cream there. At breakfast I am pleased with the selection and presentation – it seems as if a star chef is at work here.

But the following experience probably best explains the difference between one of the many five-star hotels and a very good luxury hotel: For example, if I leave my car parked at the Steigenberger Stuttgart, I find it exactly the same the next morning handed in: The opened water bottle is lying on the front passenger seat and the empty coffee mug is in the center console.

The next morning I get into the car at the Eden au Lac and find out that the car has been washed and the interior has even been cleaned. All rubbish has been disposed of, there are two small, fresh water bottles at the front and two at the back – one still, one sparkling – and the heated seats have already been switched on when the driver drives up. It’s the little things that make the difference. This is real luxury.

Rath’s Voyage Rating (current rating in bold):

1. Explicit Travel Warning
2. Better than under the bridge
3. So-so, not oh, là, là
4. Complaining at a high level
5. If only it were always like this
6. Great cinema

Insidertipps:

Culture: The Zurich Opera House is only a five-minute walk from the hotel and, in addition to operas, also offers classical concerts and ballet evenings. By the way: For the 2025/26 season, the current director of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, Matthias Schulz, will be moving to the Zurich Opera House.

Jogging route: The location could not be better for passionate runners. Just get out of the house and jog along the lake. If you keep to the right, i.e. heading north, you will soon be at Bürkliplatz and you can continue walking along the western shore of Lake Zurich – this is particularly beautiful in the morning sun. Heading south, you’ll pass Le Corbusier’s pavilion and jog through Zürichhorn Park.

Badi: If the weather permits, a refreshing swim in Lake Zurich is a good idea at the end of the run. It is best to go to one of the many bathing establishments, called Badi. The Badi Utoquai is almost directly in front of the hotel.

About the author: As a former grand hotelier and operator of the Travelgrand.ch travel platform, Carsten K. Rath is a professional globetrotter. He travels to all the hotels he writes about for the Handelsblatt on his own account.

Rath is the source of the ideas for the ranking “The 101 best hotels in Germany”, whose partners include the Handelsblatt. Rath is also the author of the book on the ranking, co-authored by Michael Raschke (Handelsblatt).