5-Star Hotel in Graubünden, Switzerland

When I had the chance to visit the quaint mountain village of Vals, I was thrilled!

As you can tell just by looking at the website, Hotel 7132 is a design hotel with striking architecture and contemporary interior design. The new owners that took over the hotel in 2014 (it used to be named Therme Hotel Vals) clearly care about every tiny detail, making sure the hotel fits in with the breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains, that were covered in snow while I was there. The food was of extremely high quality, the service impeccable yet very friendly and the spa with the thermal baths was simply amazing. That word is overused, but it is the only way I can describe the experience.

The spa was designed by Zumthor and built from no less than 60,000 plates of Valsian quartzite, the local rock. It gives the entire place a dark, intimate vibe with various types of pools and baths in every nook and cranny, varying from very large (the outdoor pool) to very small (the ice bath). The steam rooms are also wonderful and the entire experience is just so overwhelmingly relaxing. And obviously, this being Switzerland, it is the cleanest spa I have ever seen…

Every room comes with complimentary access to the Therme, as the spa baths are called, but other than that the rooms vary greatly. The hotel commissioned no less than three different star architects: Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and of course Peter Zumthor, who also designed the spa, but more on that later.