Hotel Bellevue des Alpes

Built in 1840 as the Inn of the Chamois, the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes sits perched at 2,070 meters above sea level on a mountain pass so remote that it’s accessible only by cogwheel railway (AKA no roads). A competitor hotel sprouted up next door in 1896, until the Seiler family bought it out in 1912 and merged the two buildings.

Five generations later, Andreas and Silvia von Almen still run the place, where televisions are banned and mobile phones discouraged – the better to focus on the main attraction: a front-row seat to the Eiger North Face, nicknamed the Mordwand (“murder wall”) after claiming at least 64 lives. Clint Eastwood and crew stayed here in summer 1974 while filming The Eiger Sanction, a production that ended in tragedy when British climber David Knowles died on the mountain. In 2011, it was named Historic Hotel of the Year for keeping its 1920s interiors intact – a time capsule with a killer view.