Lausanne, Switzerland – August 1, 2007: Experienced travelers might not normally associate child-friendliness with one of Switzerland’s very finest hotels – Lausanne’s elegant, lakeside Beau-Rivage Palace, renowned for its exquisite taste, cuisine and refinement, and currently celebrating its 150th anniversary.
“We were all children once,” says François Dussart, General Manager of the Beau-Rivage Palace, “and we aim to please and cater to all our guests, whether they are 4, 14, 44 or 84.”
The hotel’s “Kids are Kings” program starts at check-in when children are presented with a shopping bag with age-appropriate contents. An inclusion for all children is a cuddly soft toy fox, named “Bori” (as in “Beau-Ri”), whose real-life and remarkably cordial namesake can sometimes be spotted in the hotel’s 10-acre gardens.
Children aged 3 through 11 are invited to participate in a treasure hunt — a board game whose clues take them throughout the hotel by following pictures and obtaining stickers as they progress. Once the board is completed a surprise gift awaits children at the front desk.
For children aged 6 through 16, two different opportunities await. A one-hour children’s cooking lesson is given by the hotel’s pastry chef, with children participating in the making of cookies and cakes that are afterwards delivered to their rooms. And a one-hour flower-arranging class is conducted by one of the hotel’s three on-staff florists, culminating in the children presenting their creation to Mom and Dad.
“Our goal is not to turn the Beau-Rivage Palace into an amusement park, indeed quite the opposite,” says Dussart, “for our children’s programs at the Beau-Rivage Palace are designed to entertain, intrigue and occupy children by drawing them into adult pursuits…rather than shipping them off to a faux playland.”
Children under 11 stay gratis in their parents’ room at the Beau-Rivage Palace. Children’s-sized bathrobes and slippers are provided and the hotel’s café offers a special children’s menu that offers appealing and nutritious fare, not merely the usual “kiddie” fried foods. In addition to children-only amenities, the cobblestone streets of the old town of Lausanne, the gracious steamboats plying Lake Geneva, as well as the hotel’s giant park and two pools, are all ideal for a child’s vacation.
The Beau-Rivage Palace was recently voted best hotel in Switzerland by the readers of Travel+Leisure magazine. To know more about the Beau-Rivage Palace, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, visit www.brp.ch.
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