I had a stay at the Schloss Fuschl (hereafter SF) during the 2nd week of May. Coming from a great stay at the Hotel Goldener Hirsch, perhaps my expectations were overly high for my stay here... but I am happy to report that this resort still surpassed my expectations and delivered what I would consider my best Starwood experience to date ^. I would give it an A++ and recommend it to all my loved ones.

As discussed above, I arranged with my plat concierge to have the classic Rolls Royce Wraith pick me up from Goldener Hirsch, and I would highly recommend for others to do the same if they had a few extra hundred EUR to burn on a phenomenal experience. We had a call to our room in Goldener Hirsch from the front desk telling us that our ‘ride’ had arrived. Shortly after the bellboy came to my room to take my luggage and walked us over through to the back of the hotel. When we reached the limo, there were a throng of people around it all checking out this cool car parked behind a 600+ old hotel with a uniformed chauffeur standing next to it, all wondering who the VVIP was that would be carried in this beast… all taking pictures of the car in the meantime. Then we came, squeezed through those people (felt like a celeb), were introduced to our very courteous chauffeur who opened the door to the very beautiful car and whisked us away. My lousy description does not do the experience justice. Try it for yourself – the ride in the classic car (the chauffeur told us that the hotel sourced it from the Buckingham palace) through the beautiful Salzkammergut (spelling?) to the resort, really was a once in a lifetime experience .

Okay, moving on. The grounds of the resort are lovely – it is not “clean shaved” – i.e. the landscape is not done up ‘artificially’ as they often do in many resorts. Rather, this resort sits in the midst of a natural setting and makes little intervention to cut grass, sculpt trees or to plant pretty foreign flowers. This may come across as a bit more ‘crude’ but my wife and I loved it the way it is. My tiny complaint is that because they made no efforts to ‘shave the trees’ outside my balcony I could not get a clear view of the lake… but frankly, I agree with the resort’s stance on leaving the environment alone around Fuschlsee @:-).

Check-in was great with perhaps one of the friendliest check-in agent ever (Thomas). We were served champagne while checking in – nice touch! We were escorted to our room – a nice upgrade to a junior suite with a view of the lake (don’t count on this though esp during high season as there aren’t many of these). What we noticed were the amount of high quality paintings all around the hallways – one could spend half a day just admiring these paintings, some of which appear to be of v. high quality. Another thing about the common areas of the resort is that they are kept at perfect condition. My wife and I agree that whoever is managing the common areas of the hotel is a perfectionist. Every little corner, every little turn is lit artistically, kept clean and luxuriously appointed without looking pretentious.

Everyone at the resort are very friendly and polite, treating us royally while being very efficient. For example, I called the FD to be connected to the restaurant Jagdhof (at the Sheraton some 20 mins walk away) cos we wanted to try eating there. I was told, however, that the restaurant would probably be too busy now to answer calls and offered to help us reserve a table there himself. Some ten minutes later, I got a call back saying that he had reserved a nice table for us, and asked us to come to the reception around 10 mins before dinner time. When we show up, there was a chauffeur waiting, who invited us into the flashy Mercedes parked at the door, drove us up to the Jagdhof, walked us into the restaurant to introduce us to the very friendly waitress who took us to our candle-lit table. After we finished desert, we walked out to find that the limo had returned for us (the waitress called on our behalf). The friendly chauffeur asked us how our dinner was and wished us a good night after bringing us back to the hotel. Flawless. I was especially impressed with the way they treated my wife here – always treating her with so much courtesy ^.

Speaking of restaurants, I tried both the Schloss Restaurant and the one at the Jagdhof. They were both very good. The Schloss restaurant is higher class in terms of service (and price) but we thought it was worth it. They use silverware and the waitresses wear gloves to handle them. Qualified sommeliers recommend wine pairings which are decanted upon request. You get the idea. We tried the salmon caught from the lake (apparently the only restaurant in the world where you can have fish from the lake as they’re the only ones with a fishing license) and it was very good. And oh, we saw a celebrity dining there with us (a US politician who I will not name – but he is a very prominent Republican) .
The restaurant Jaghof is equally good but in a more casual way. This place is interesting in that they serve locally hunted meat. We tried the boar medallions and deer meat. The service is very friendly too.

And then there is the SPA. It is free to use for guests (except for massage/professional treatments). I typically do not do SPAs but I very much enjoyed this one. There is a heated swimming pool, three different saunas and an outdoor hot jacuzzi. There are also hot stone-beds. The facilities are of very high quality… the only thing that surprised us was how everyone there were fully naked (not used to this… both male and female). We wanted to blend in but decided that we would keep our swimwear on…. We ended up visiting the SPA everyday during evening time, watching the sunset whilst staying warm in the outdoor hot jacuzzi.

We also rented e-bikes (electric bikes) to ride around the lake… we found this to be the best way to soak in the beautiful scenery. It took us about 2 hours to do a full circle. On the other side of the resort is the town of Fuschl Am See where you can get cheap local eats and cute little coffee shops and souvenir stores. There is also a boathouse in the resort where you can hire boats and ride it out into the lake. Another magical experience! The water is freezing but tastes great. The boat hire is slightly more expensive (EUR 35 per hour). The e-bike is only around EUR 35 for the whole day. I would highly recommend doing both ^.

I have to mention one of our favorite activies at this resort – star watching. We come from a big city in Asia and we have never seen so many stars at night. Imagine fresh air, complete silence except for the occasional splash from small fishes, and a black sky filled with a billion stars. We couldn’t believe our eyes at first! We did this every night after dinner. There is a little gazebo down towards the lake from the Schloss Restaurant and next to it is a small jetty. Do yourself a favor and stand at the end of this jetty at night and look straight up! You will be awed and find yourself standing there forever. It really is that beautiful.

What more can I say? Sure it’s not cheap to stay here but the service is top notch, the area is very beautiful, the food is great and the rooms are very nice. Spend the nights looking at the stars, wake up in the mornings to the chirping birds, enjoy the very cold air whilst sitting in an outdoor jacuzzi, soak n the views of the alps on your e-bike and read your favorite book atop a boat floating on one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Dreams perfected. Enough said. ^^