SPA TREK: CHENOT PALACE WEGGIS – REVIEW

‘Being here… it’s like when you have a virus as a child,’ smiles Dr George Gaitanos, in his soft Greek lilt, as we sit sipping lemongrass tisane and stare out at a mesmeric Lake Lucerne. The 62-year-old COO of Chenot International, the parent company whose rippling, softly interiored, pumping heart is detox mecca Chenot Palace Weggis, is not entirely joking. While seemingly nothing could make you forget a nasty bout of the flu – or a pandemic, come to that – faster than being enveloped in the swirling (I swear everything from carpets and lamps to vases and bucket chairs has undulating lines), ‘high-touch/high-tech’ environment of this stellar spa, it’s the emulation of a mother tending to her sick child with comfort, rest, the right food and kindness (the staff radiate it) that underpins the ambition of Gaitanos, who wants no less than for Chenot to be the absolute ‘leader in wellness’.

This ambition was ignited by the visionary work of Henri Chenot, who created his original Chenot Method at Palace Merano in Italy back in 1980. The move to Chenot Palace Weggis afforded both men the opportunity to reinvigorate their offering, and although Henri died in December 2020, he did get to see six months of their work in operation – Weggis opened in June of that year.