The Welsh brothers taking their brand of hospitality to the Alps

The road into Adelboden takes you through pine forests and meadows before it opens into a valley framed by the high peaks of the Bernese Oberland. It is an easy 45 minutes from Bern, but you can fly from London to Zurich, as I did recently, take a train to Frutigan, then drive 20 minutes to the village, which still feels like a secret: a mountain community caught between old-world charm and a more contemporary vision.

The Swiss have known about Adelboden for ever, of course (the Ski World Cup is held here each January) but outsiders are just getting in on the act. At the heart of this quiet transformation are two hotels bookending the village, the Cambrian and the Brecon, owned by brothers Grant and Craig Maunder, from Penarth, a seaside town near Cardiff. Together, the Maunders have spent more than a decade reimagining what smart Alpine hospitality can be. The Cambrian – family-friendly, with 72 rooms – has become a much-loved fixture, with its decked terrace and cinematic views. It opened 15 years ago and has helped shift Adelboden’s image from purely winter destination to all-year escape. At the village’s far end, The Brecon, opened in 2024, is a bijou, discreet sibling: adults only, all-inclusive, and effortlessly chic.

Rooted in their Welsh upbringing, the Maunders’ philosophy for both hotels has been one of generosity and ease. I met them for dinner recently at the brilliant nearby mountain restaurant Hohliebe-Stübli, and Grant described his idea of opulence as informal and completely relaxed – a sense of arriving somewhere knowing you’re welcome. The pair have always liked hotels that feel like home, where service is thoughtful rather than polished. It’s this warmth, or cwtch – a favourite Welsh word meaning something between a hug and a sense of belonging – that connects both properties.

The Maunders – Grant from the finance world, Craig in project management – have been visiting Adelboden for decades. A 1970s family holiday in the Ford Escort gave way to teenage ski trips and, eventually, in 2009, to the purchase of a faded belle époque hotel that became the Cambrian. “Adelboden feels different, magical,” Grant said. His mother’s ashes are scattered on the mountains. He still brings his 91-year-old dad for visits.

That word – home – is one Grant uses often. “I still get a sense of panic going into extremely posh hotels knowing the staff need to flog me stuff,” he said. “Luxury for me is being in a place where you can feel completely relaxed, where the people looking after you are interested in who I am. They don’t have to be perfect; they just have to be nice. I want to feel totally relaxed and that’s what I want for our guests.”

Design matters, too. At the Brecon, the brothers worked with Amsterdam-based studio Nicemakers, stripping an unremarkable 1980s chalet back to its external walls and starting again. It’s now layered, lived-in: part midcentury clubhouse, part mountain hideaway – a more intimate counterpoint to the larger-scale Cambrian. Inside, surfaces are tactile: coffered timber ceilings; cosy, deep armchairs; thick Welsh slate underfoot, hand-laid by a Welsh craftsman. The palette is warm and muted, lighting low and flattering. A proper family affair, the ceramic tableware is all handmade by Grant’s wife, the artist Andréa Anderson.

With only 18 rooms and four suites, the Brecon never feels busy. The communal areas resemble a stylish friend’s house rather than a conventional hotel: a living room with vintage sofas and cool magazines, an open kitchen where breakfast and delicious teatime cakes are served. When I visited, I happily drifted around in slippers and robe, pausing to gaze at the peaks from inside the sauna.

Bedrooms are pleasingly television-free, and have light-as-air beds and soft rugs underfoot. Mine, a corner room with a wraparound balcony, looked across to the Engstligen waterfalls and down to the heated outdoor dipping pool, which remains a balmy 34C all year round. Each room has Melin Tregwynt wool blankets and bathrooms are stocked with Aesop products. Comfort is king.

The all-inclusive model here – unusual for Switzerland, and certainly at this end of the market – reinforces that sense of ease. “I never want people to sign for anything. Just come and enjoy yourself,” Grant says. There’s a roaming champagne trolley that goes from room to room at 6pm.

Dinner is a sociable ritual. The Welshman Bryn Williams, executive chef at the Cambrian, helped shape the approach here at the Brecon, which is run by first-time head chefs Mattia Freguglia and Adrian Barral: simple, seasonal, unfussy – cooking what they know and love. There’s no heavy Alpine fare, but instead dishes such as Simmental beef, served with local vegetables and a jus made with Adelboden veal bones, or bruschetta with Haueter Royal bread from a local bakery and lenker mountain herb cheese. Guests are encouraged to dine together, great wine flowing, phones tucked away. Strangers often leave as friends.

Beyond the hotel, the landscape offers its own quiet brilliance. We took the short, scenic hike around the thundering Engstligen Falls, among Switzerland’s highest. The walk down, after the cable car up, is the ideal moderate level for amateurs. Half an hour’s drive away, Lake Oeschinen – part of a Unesco World Heritage site – shimmers so perfectly it looks like an AI approximation in turquoise. Another time, we boarded the Eiger Express up to the observatory at Jungfraujoch, the so-called Top of Europe, where we had one of those days of total clarity: crisp blue skies, cloudless horizons and views so perfect they felt impossible. From there, we trekked a further snowy 250m to the Mönchsjochhütte, a metallic hut improbably perched on the edge of the mountain, 3,650m up. There I discovered, over a bowl of soup, that I suffer from altitude sickness, and my family were much amused by my city-slicker frailty. As for other experiences at the Cambrian, there are, of course, Pilates, yoga, a tiny gym and spa treatments. I understand that both hotels are now offering a new mobile sauna and river-plunge service, which I’d love to try next time.

Back in Adelboden, Grant jokes that the mix of Welsh friendliness and Swiss precision they’ve cultivated at the hotels might best be described as “Swelsh”. It’s also the perfect shorthand for Grant himself: warm, funny and gently irreverent but quietly serious about creating places where guests feel cared for and relaxed. A third hotel, the Snowdon, in the higher-altitude resort of Saas-Fee (best known for the Wham! Last Christmas video, in the 1980s) is in the works for late 2027. “Places like Gstaad are around 1,000m,” Grant explains, “so I suspect there won’t be a ski region there in 30 to 40 years, and I’m not entirely sure what the future of the lower destinations looks like if you base everything on the winter. That’s why we’ve focused on welcoming people all year.”

The Cambrian is a member of Design Hotels