Hotel of the week: Fairmont Montreux Palace, Switzerland

Freddie Mercury lived there while looking for a home in Switzer-land, Vladimir Nabokov used the proceeds of Lolita to fund a suite there for the rest of his life and Deep Purple recorded Smoke on the Water in its lake-side pavilion.

There may not be a more celebrity-studded hotel in Switzerland than the Montreux Palace, arguably the country's most glamorous hostelry.

Thanks to investment by Fairmont, this multiple award-winning five-star gleams as brightly today as when it was built in 1906. The yellow awnings and art nouveau signage are as much a city landmark as the station, a five-minute stroll away, where Hemingway set one of his stories. But the hotel's great glory is its proximity to Lake Geneva - step outside and you're on the shore within 30 seconds.

While all the rooms are gorgeously done out in soothing pastels, insist on a lake view or postpone until you can get one; the whole point of this hotel is to sit on your balcony and commune with the glorious body of water and snow-capped mountains beyond.