this site's main mission is to be a guide to every overwater bungalow and water villa resort in the world, I've been quite surprised at some of the places that exist out there. From a somewhat ramshackle resort in Cuba to a beautiful resort on Koh Samui in Thailand that has rooms set over private pools, these things come in more forms than I ever would have guessed.

We are now listing over 125 of these overwater resorts, and today I just added one that is in Europe, Switzerland to be exact. The strange thing about it for me is that this hotel has actually been open since 2002. The reason it took me so long to hear about it is they call their overwater rooms “Pavilions on the Lake.”

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Hotel Palafitte

At first glance this hotel that has 24 of its 40 rooms on stilts out over Lake Neuchâtel doesn’t look too fancy. In fact, the Pavilions on the Lake appear to be shipping containers on stilts from the photographs, but once you look inside you see that this is 5-star luxury all the way. Hotel Palafitte does locally carry a 5-star Superior rating, and room rates start at around US$830 per night for the overwater bungalow rooms, and about US$630 per night for identical rooms on dry land.

 

Except for the name they use themselves, there is no denying that these are overwater bungalows or water villas. They are only accessible by an overwater sidewalk that stretches out into the lake, and each comes equipped with a private terrace and a ladder that leads down into the water.


Business hotel or honeymoon suite?

Another unusual thing I learned on the official website is that there is no spa, and there doesn’t appear to be any recreational amenities either. The only thing they list is that they have two state of the art meeting rooms that hold 50 people each. Combine that with the fact that each room comes not only with complimentary Wi-Fi, but with a computer as well, and that indicates that this place is used a lot for business meetings and retreats. This is Switzerland, after all.

 

But looking around at the packages available and many of the photos in the photo gallery says that this place is also popular with honeymooners and romantic couples, which also isn’t hard to believe. There are wonderful and fancy hotels all through Switzerland and its neighboring countries, but in how many of those do you have the novelty of sleeping out over the water?

Most Europeans take an overnight journey to check into one of the 60 or so overwater bungalow resorts in the Maldives, but at least during the summer months, this might be a lovely option.

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