A former castle and mid-city watering hole for opera types, the building now occupied by the Hotel Ambassador d'la Opera has sat majestic in the heart of Zurich's well-to-do Seefeld district since 1898.
Across the road from the Opera House, Lake Zurich, the offices of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung newspaper, down the road from a main railway station and surrounded by bars and restaurants, there is no doubt this hotel is in a top spot.
Walk in and be cuddled by its dark walls, its carpets that are stripy in that luxurious way, and its general all-round elegance that makes you feel just a little bit special.
Its 45 rooms have tiny private balconies with lake views and beds that can be individually adjusted at the touch of a button. There is a rooftop bar where one can do one's yoga or lie back, drink cocktails and eat nibbly bits while looking over the lake and the city.
And it is quiet and private, thanks in part to a clearly discerning and very respectable business and visitor clientele.
Possibly the best thing is the restaurant. Called Restaurant Opera, it features fish dishes so good they have been awarded 13 Gault Millau points (fancy, trust me), has a fascinating mural of operatic scenes that completely covers the walls and ceiling, non-intrusive and excellent service in any language you choose, and a bar that new manager Michael Bohn says he hopes to once again make the first stop of the high-end opera crowd for pre- and apres-show tipples.
And good luck to him.
The whole thing is positively cosmopolitan and really a quite excellent base for a short, or long, stay in Zurich.
The author was the guest of the Small Luxury Hotels group.
