Luxury Stays and Getaways: Indulge in Sophisticated European Luxury at Swissotel Chicago
The entrance to the downtown Swissotel Chicago.
At Swissotel in downtown Chicago, you’re checking in to a four-diamond hotel where warmth and European hospitality rule the day, a place where the staff exude genuine welcome, and the rooms envelop you with unexpected delights and comfort.
Swissotel Chicago is a sophisticated hotel with an enviable view. Located along the Chicago River, every window boasts a picturesque view of the city. It was designed by Chicago architect Harry Weese and the all-glass hotel provides views of Navy Pier and Millennium Park.
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If you’re looking for a real treat, for a stay where you’ll forget you’re in a hotel room, check in to one of their suites—designed to meet such needs as traveling with kids, conducting business, pursuing wellness or entertaining guests.
The suites manage to tap into an elegant, modern vibe while eschewing the monotony of traditional hotel rooms. They make you feel as though you are in a luxury apartment whether you are staying one day or a week.
Lobby of Swissotel decorated for the winter holidays.
Why You’ll Love It
Once you check into your room, you may not want to leave again. I stayed in the property’s Vitality Suite, a unique experience that promotes well-being in a sanctuary designed to enhance health and good rest. With five rooms that make up 1,700 square feet, it provides a space for socializing, working, exercising, and relaxing. It seamlessly combines office, bath, fitness, and sleeping areas along with a gorgeous view.
You’ll also want to spend more than a minute of your day staring out the windows with the bird’s-eye view of many of Chicago’s top landmarks. In fact, it’s worth scheduling time at sunrise, midday, sunset, and in the middle of the night to capture the glittering changes of the city.
A night view from one of Swissotel’s windows.
What to Expect
The staff at Swissotel Chicago are very warm and accommodating. Quick to answer questions, offer suggestions, and provide top-notch service, the staff is well-trained in European traditions where hospitality is a noble profession. The guestrooms are all newly renovated and the king-size beds provide top-level comfort.
While the hotel does not have a spa, they do offer in-room spa treatments, a penthouse fitness center, and curated well-being experiences. They’ll provide maps to local jogging tracks and throughout the year offer Vitality boot camps and other fitness offerings. Wellness is integrated into everything they do from the décor of the hotel, the design of the rooms, and the contents of their food service menus.
A welcome amenity provided in the guestroom.
Key Features
Swissotel has 662 oversized rooms, suites, and lofts—all newly renovated and filled with luxury amenities. There are five ballrooms including a wedding reception favorite: Eleve on the 42nd floor.
The hotel has 65,000 square feet of state-of-the-art event space and that’s not even counting the fact that many of the suites can accommodate small meetings and retreats. Their catering department can provide delicious meals that fit closely with their Vitality theme—food that is healthy, filling, and satisfying.
If you’re looking to host a large corporate event, check out the 14,000-square-foot Zurich Room that features 17-foot ceilings and can accommodate 1,800 attendees while providing state-of-the-art technology, fiber-optic cables, high-speed Wi-Fi, and video conferencing.
A concierge on site can help make the most of your visit to the city while the valet staff smoothly controls the entrance area, conducting arriving guest cars, taxis, and ride-share vehicles. Guests who arrive by car can choose 24-hour valet or self-parking.
A serving of arancini at the Amuse Lounge at Swissotel Chicago.
Cuisine
Within the hotel’s walls are The Palm Chicago Steakhouse and Amuse Lobby Lounge. The lounge is connected to the front lobby and provides a trendy place to sip on cocktails while watching the bustle of the city outside the windows. During the holidays, it is beautifully decorated with tinseled trees and colored lights.
Well worth talking about is the room service and catering abilities of the Swissotel. The banquet staff has the flexibility to cater anything from a large event with thousands of people to an intimate business meeting. Whether you are looking for a buffet, a plated banquet, a boxed lunch, themed breaks or specialty stations, the team has many options to choose from.
Chicago native Brian Schoenbeck is the executive chef, bringing 40 years of culinary expertise to Swissotel Chicago. He’s been recognized as one of America’s 10 best pastry chefs and was the only American to win first place in The Grand Prix International de la Chocolaterie in Paris. A chef who has cooked for Michael Jordan, Sting, Bono and U2, Oprah, George W. Bush, Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, and Barack Obama, he says he most enjoys working with ingredients that aren’t typically used every day.
While there, I was able to sample two of their banquet offerings: the Vitality Breakfast and a sampling of their Fall/Winter lunch. The Vitality Breakfast featured a build-your-own savory oatmeal, a spread that included several bowls of fresh mix-ins that make the oatmeal an unforgettable, uniquely delicious start to the day.
The options included mushrooms, feta cheese, onion, artichoke, sun-dried tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. It was served with fluffy spinach and goat cheese frittata, turkey sausage, muffins, and a selection of drinks including coffee, orange juice, grapefruit juice, and teas with honey, milk, and cream.
A catered Vitality Breakfast with savory oatmeal and frittata.
The lunch started with a salad that was a Mediterranean diet lover’s dream—generously filled with chickpeas, broccoli, bell peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes. It was paired with a crock of tomato basil soup and a seared chicken breast with whole grain velouté. It was topped off with a chocolate mousse that truly showcased why Chef Schoenbeck says people should, “Eat. More. Chocolate.”
A catered Vitality Lunch.
Insider’s Tip
If it’s available, reserve the Vitality Suite. It’s a unique space and an experience you are unlikely to get anywhere else. The five-bedroom suite goes above and beyond to offer everything a guest might need to have a healthy stay—with that health being experienced in mind, body, and spirit.
You enter the suite through a short hallway with a mirror at the end surrounded by white silk flowers. Turn left down another corridor that is home to welcoming art on one side and a long coat closet on the other that also holds the in-room safe and ironing board. The outer wall is covered in tall windows looking out on the glory of downtown Chicago.
Abstract art welcoming guests into the Vitality Suite.
With the touch of a button you can lower blinds for privacy or raise them to enjoy the view. A comfortable living room includes one of five flat-screen televisions in the suite along with a cozy set of chairs and a couch.
The living room of the Vitality Suite.
Next door is a dining area with a long table that can accommodate six people. Across from both rooms is a lengthy bar with a mini-fridge, sink, cupboards, and a bookshelf filled with wonderful tomes with Chicago-related topics.
Dining room in the Vitality Suite.
Head deeper into the suite and there is a spacious office area. The large glass desk has chairs on both sides, a nearby hutch, and lots of outlets.
An office with a view in the Vitality Suite.
Across from the office is what gives the Vitality Suite its name and is one of the unique features of the room. While the hotel has a state-of-the-art fitness center on the top floor that is open 24/7, this room has its own workout area.
There is a Peloton bike, a water rowing machine, and a wall of weights, yoga equipment, stretching devices, and two televisions—one for watching while you work out and another with a touch-screen that provides workout routines using the equipment in the room.
An in-suite workout room that promotes the pursuit of wellness.
The bedroom anchors the suite with its king-sized bed, luxury linens, and a collection of several types of pillows.
The cozy bedroom bathed in blues.
There are two bathrooms in the suite—one on either side of the suite. Both have private toilets. In the master bathroom there is a deep jetted tub and a walk-in shower. The shower provides all the options one could possibly wish for with two different patterns of rain shower, a waterfall stream, and a pulsating shower.
A deep jetted tub complete with a bathing wand.
There’s also a wand you can hold. If you ever leave the shower, there are plush robes waiting for you and a collection of delightful amenities with welcoming invitations.
Some of the options in the large walk-in shower.
If you’re looking for a room where you can have comforts that surpass those of home while still keeping up with your routines and healthy habits, this is a suite that is unsurpassed in excellence and comfort.
Suites come with plush robes and several amenities.
Accommodations
Other options include a variety of king rooms with various views, a junior suite, a corner lifestyle suite, a corner executive suite, a presidential suite, and a skyline duplex suite.
While many hotels claim to be kid-friendly, Swissotel Chicago goes the extra mile with their Kids Suite. It’s a two-room suite—one for the kids and one for the adults. When the room is reserved, the kids’ ages must be entered so that the hotel can fill the room with age-appropriate toys, books, coloring books, and games.
The kids' room contains appropriate-sized table and chairs along with stuffed animals. Each stay comes with a free movie, a movie amenity, and a complimentary breakfast for two adults and two kids at The Palm.
Décor in a Swissotel guestroom.
For more information and to book a stay at the Swissotel Chicago, call 312-565-0565 or visit their website. To book your next visit, click here. Follow them on Instagram: @swisshotelresorts
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323 East Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601
Bridgette, who is a second-generation journalist, fell in love with spas and travel while working as a writer and editor for 16 years at the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. As a freelancer for the International SPA Association, she co-wrote two textbooks, nine workbooks, and numerous case studies on spas. Her freelance career began in the 80s and she has written for publications in Michigan, Arizona, California, and Texas along with several regional and national publications. She is a committed storyteller who loves sharing narratives which improve people's quality of life and build community. Born and raised in Michigan, she currently lives in Lansing with her husband and son. See more of her writing at bridgetteredman.com.