Almost everyone who visits Switzerland falls in love with the country – with its stunning mountain scenery, efficient service, great snow and high quality services, what’s not to love?
Graubünden is one of Switzerland’s most a beautiful alpine region and is home to some of the country’s (and indeed the whole world’s) best known ski resorts.
Here you’ll find Engadin St. Moritz, where the first winter sports holidays took place more than 150 years ago. There’s also global freestyle mecca LAAX with its world class terrain parks, indoor freestyle training centre and glacier skiing and boarding. It’s home to the BRITS, British Freestyle Championships as well as the famous Burton European Open. There’s world famous Davos Klosters too, with Davos one of the original ski resorts and welcoming world leaders to its famous Economic Forum each January, and Klosters the well-known favourite of British royals. Plus there’s also the wonderful Arosa Lenzerheide, recently inter-connected by an amazing cable car to create one of Switzerland’s biggest ski regions with 220km of slopes. And these are just four of the most famous of Graubünden’s 40 or so ski areas.
The size, scope and variety of winter sports resorts in Graubünden mean there’s something for everyone: wonderful gentle, specially designed beginner areas; fast and wide cruising runs above and below the tree lines for all holiday makers, or steep challenging terrain plus vast off piste powder areas for advanced freeriders. There are world class terrain parks too and state-of-the-art modern lift networks to whisk you back up the slopes, and all with the backdrop of some of the most spectacular mountain scenery on earth.
Great Snow
There are lots of things said about the likelihood of good snow in a ski resort. Many low-lying ski areas boast about their extensive snowmaking systems and then go very quiet when it’s just too warm for them to operate. Graubünden’s resorts have the advantage that even though they are charming traditional mountain villages, many are at high altitudes and their lifts climb up above 3,000m – some of the highest lift-served peaks in Europe, and indeed the world. Some have permanent glacier ski areas up top. So it’s cold enough for natural snow and indeed it has already been falling in early autumn. Engadin St Moritz will open its first ski area on the Diavolezza glacier in mid-October, LAAX will open its glacier slopes at the end of the month. That’s a REAL snow guarantee. Yes, there’s snowmaking too, but Mother Nature is still kind to the high mountains of Graubünden regardless.
Not Just Skiing
Although all of Graubünden’s ski areas offer world class downhill skiing, there are plenty of other things to enjoy on a winter holiday in the region, indoors and out. Indeed, when the first Brits chose to stay in St Moritz for the first ever recorded winter holiday in 1864-65 there wasn’t much skiing involved then or for the first few decades afterwards – ice skating and tobogganing were the most popular pastimes and there are still plenty of great toboggan runs (you might even brave the famous Cresta Run at St Moritz, or perhaps try the world’s only still-natural ice bobsleigh run, also rated as the world’s largest ice sculpture!) and ice rinks (one of Europe’s largest in Davos). Snow-shoeing, sleigh rides, cross-country skiing and winter hiking are among the many other popular winter activities.
Getting Around Is Easy
One of the best things about Swiss ski resorts is that reaching them is so easy and once you’re there, getting around is hassle-free.
Graubünden is easily accessible from the UK – less than two hours flight from any UK airport and then a quick train ride from Zurich airport. Arosa Lenzerheide is among the quickest and easiest to reach with efficient, comfortable trains taking you from airport to Arosa without needing to change onto a shuttle coach. Trains wind through spectacular scenery en route, so you certainly won’t feel in any hurry to arrive.
Value
Graubünden is a diverse winter sports region of soaring peaks, deep valleys and scrumptious food.
It’s also a region of good deals with many resorts offering special packages to make holidays in their areas still more affordable, on top of the ever increasing buying power of the pound against the Swiss Franc.
Current initiatives include St Moritz and the wider Engadin areas offering a very low price for lift passes when you book in selected hotels all through the season, whilst Davos Klosters is offering completely free lift passes in the pre-Christmas period when you book selected accommodation there.
Visit Graubünden
There’s a fantastic range of hotels available in Graubünden, ranging from three to five star. You can choose between hotels that are great value, modern, traditional, close to the lifts, in the town centre or using many other criteria. Most properties tick many boxes.
Book online on www.inghams.co.uk/graubunden or call 01483 79 1111