The wellness oasis, THE SPA, is as stylish as the award-winning hotel itself. The only hotel spa in Bern, and it also welcomes guests for the day.

Since 2015, the roof of the “Schweizerhof” has been home to three colonies of bees, who forage for nectar in Bern’s gardens, balconies and above all in the city’s tree-lined avenues – starting off with maple, followed by horse chestnut, then as the weather turns warmer acacia and finally lime. . Beekeeper Jo Roth harvests the honey twice a year, single-handedly carrying the heavy and bulging honeycombs from the roof of the Schweizerhof to his cargo bike and transporting them to his honey extractor. It never ceases to amaze him how the bees place a tiny seal on each cell of filled honeycomb. Once these seals have been removed, the honeycomb is placed into the extractor. The resulting honey is then passed through a sieve and stored for up to two weeks in large containers, before being “skimmed” and poured into jars. 

Following its reopening in 2012, Brigitte Bernold (who originally hails from the Canton of Aargau) joined the spa team as a masseuse and brought with her so much experience, warmth and empathy that it wasn’t long before she was promoted to spa manager. 

Dark floors and walls, iridescent printed wallpaper and muted lighting: the spa feels stylish, mysterious and intimate all at the same time – and very personal. If a guest comes to her with neck tension, Brigitte Bernold recommends the honey-fascia massage, a signature treatment that genuinely deserves this name. After all, the most important material used in the treatment is home-made: honey from the hotel’s own hives. Fascia massage involves releasing tension in the finely meshed connective tissue surrounding each muscle fibre and bundle of muscles. The sticky honey is ideal for loosening the tissue using rolling movements of the hand.

The Schweizerhof was the first hotel in German-speaking Switzerland to participate in an initiative to bring bees back into urban environments. The hotel has also initiated a number of different sustainability projects. For instance, rather than being simply thrown away, leftover vegetables from the kitchen are now chopped into small pieces, mixed with salt and served together with olive oil and bread to guests in “Jack’s Brasserie”. The honey is now the star of the breakfast buffet and the hotel often gives jars of the sweet nectar to guests such as seminar delegates as a take-home gift. The honey is not available to buy – but you can have it rubbed into aching muscles as part of a massage.