Journal | Luxury Travel Notes from Concierge Atelier

JOURNAL

Notes from the Atelier

Places we know well, and what we have learned about arranging them.

Alsace is one of my favourite directions from Zurich when somebody wants something completely different without flying anywhere.

This is one of those days that works because everything sits relatively close together.

This is the long one. And before anything is booked, I tell people exactly that.

Liechtenstein on its own? I will be honest with you.

Basel is different from the other days out of Zurich.

I have taken people to Lucerne more times than I can count.

Everyone seems to sell Zermatt as a day trip from Zurich.

Cross into French speaking Switzerland and the country starts to feel different.

Lake Lucerne is one of my favourite places in Switzerland.

This is not one of them. You leave Zurich by helicopter and within minutes the city falls away behind you.

Ninety minutes from Zurich, the country changes.

Interlaken is usually the name people know before they arrive.

Three things go wrong on the coast: the corniches, the calendar, and the beach clubs. Each is solved months ahead.

The peninsula bay by bay, from Yalikavak to Gumusluk, and which months are worth choosing.

When to book, and how much easier it becomes if your dates can move.

A day in our own city, from the Lindenhof before the crowds to a wooden bathing house on the lake.

Two days, hour by hour, across both sides of the Bosphorus, with the traffic accounted for.

Month by month. When the chalets go, when the skiing is best, and the green summer almost nobody sees.

The week the watch fairs take the city over, and how the days around them are actually arranged.