A Restaurant With Stunning Views at the Top of the Schilthorn

The high-alti­tude cable car sta­tion has been trans­formed into a unique revolv­ing plat­form restau­rant with 360-degree views of the Swiss Alps sky­line. Perched atop the Schilthorn, the Piz Glo­ria restau­rant offers its din­ers unri­valed views of the Bernese Alps.

While Piz Glo­ria claims to be the world’s first revolv­ing restau­rant, that’s an extreme­ly dubi­ous claim, giv­en that Seat­tle’s Space Nee­dle opened in 1962 dur­ing the World’s Fair with a sim­i­lar restau­rant on top. How­ev­er, Piz Glo­ria has already become famous for its con­nec­tion with James Bond and unsur­passed views.

The restau­rant is named after the 1963 James Bond nov­el and sub­se­quent film On Her Majesty’s Secret Ser­vice, in which Bond’s ene­my Ernst Stavro Blofeld lurks in the midst of moun­tain peaks. Today, Piz Glo­ria is allud­ing to the con­nec­tion with the secret agent, offer­ing vis­i­tors a spe­cial 007 Walk of Fame and an inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tion called Bond World.

The restau­rant is a pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tion as it rotates slow­ly and offers din­ers a view of 200 moun­tain peaks. There are very few places in the world where you can get such a panora­ma with­out being dis­tract­ed from eat­ing. And although the food at Piz Glo­ria is not very refined, and the prices are sig­nif­i­cant­ly inflat­ed (the clas­sic sit­u­a­tion of many restau­rants for tourists), the view from the win­dow more than com­pen­sates for these moments, since you are in one of the most unusu­al restau­rants in the world.

The Piz Glo­ria can be reached by cable car from Mür­ren. The cable car ride takes 32 min­utes (includ­ing a trans­fer at the mid­dle sta­tion) and offers views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau moun­tains, which have received UNESCO World Her­itage sta­tus.

To con­tin­ue, check out our selec­tion of restau­rants with the best views, fea­tur­ing many unique places.