Hotel Victoria Lausanne, WorldHotels Distinctive

In a quiet, central spot near the train station, the Hotel Victoria Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, fills a graceful 1907 building in keeping with the old town, with individually decorated rooms that mix antique touches and modern comforts, free Wi-Fi, meeting space, a gym and a sauna. Just outside lie the station, the old town and the city's shops, with the lakeside district of Ouchy and Lake Geneva a short ride downhill. Steep, characterful streets surround the hotel, and a metro drops quickly to the waterfront. Lausanne tumbles down its hillsides to the shore of Lake Geneva, a lively university city that is also the Olympic Capital and home of the International Olympic Committee. A great old cathedral crowns the upper town, the lakeside Olympic Museum tells the story of the Games, and the promenades of Ouchy look across the water to the French Alps. The lively Flon district buzzes with bars and design shops, and a night watch still calls the hours from the cathedral tower as it has for centuries. Just east of the city, the Lavaux vineyard terraces step down to Lake Geneva in Switzerland's largest stretch of vineyards, their stone-walled rows ribboning above the water for some thirty kilometres toward Montreux.