St. Moritz ski holidays: the complete resort guide

Why St. Moritz

Some resorts sell themselves on vertical drop. St. Moritz sells itself on light. Perched at 1,822m at the heart of the Engadin, it claims around 322 days of sunshine a year, and on a clear February morning the combination of blue sky, white peaks and a frozen lake genuinely does look like the postcard. This is high altitude, snow sure skiing with a glamour that no marketing team invented.

The numbers back up the reputation. Around 350km of pistes thread across the Engadin, served by 58 lifts, rising from the resort to 3,303m at the top of Corvatsch. The skiing spreads over several distinct areas rather than one linked circus, which suits how St. Moritz is skied: hard in the morning, long over lunch, afternoons off the mountain.

That is the real point of St. Moritz. Few resorts offer as much for non skiers and part time skiers, from lake polo and racing to the Cresta Run, spas, shopping and some of the most serious eating in the Alps. If your group mixes keen skiers with people who would rather ski two days and shop for five, this is one of the few places that keeps everyone happy. It is not a cheap resort, and this guide will not pretend otherwise, but it is more flexible on price than its image suggests, and the value hiding in St. Moritz Bad and the wider Engadin is a big part of the story below.

Who it suits

St. Moritz suits people who want as much off the snow as on it. If you want a proper mountain week wrapped around long lunches, spa afternoons, good food and a sense of occasion, few resorts do it better.

Couples do well here, especially those who like skiing until lunch and then walking the frozen lake, browsing the shops or booking a treatment. The scenery is romantic without trying.

Families are better served than the glossy image implies. The Engadin has gentle, sunny nursery areas and easy cruising, and the volume of non skiing activities, from tobogganing to horse drawn sleighs, keeps children busy on the days their legs give out. Multi generational families work particularly well, because grandparents who no longer ski still have a full week of things to do.

Groups of friends in their 20s to late 40s find their level too, chasing the off piste and long reds by day and the bars by night, or splitting into a ski crew and a spa crew without anyone feeling short changed. The one group that should think twice is the strictly budget first skier, unless you base in Bad or a nearby village and treat the smart end of town as a treat.

Where to stay, and what it costs

St. Moritz comes in two halves, and knowing the difference is the key to where to stay in St. Moritz. St. Moritz Dorf is the smart village on the hillside above the lake, home to the grand hotels, the designer boutiques and the funicular up to Corviglia. It is the postcard St. Moritz, and you pay for the address. St. Moritz Bad sits lower, down by the lake, and is the more relaxed, more residential and noticeably better value half, with its own spa heritage, the cross country trails on the doorstep and a link to the slopes.

Look wider and the Engadin opens up further. Villages such as Celerina, Pontresina, Samedan, Sils and Silvaplana sit within a short bus or train ride, share the same lift network and sunshine, and cost a good deal less than a Dorf address. For many groups these villages are the smart play: keep the skiing and the scenery, and spend the difference on the eating.

On price, this is a market of roughly £2,000 to £10,000 per week for a property, and St. Moritz spreads right across it. At the value end, a simple self catered apartment for four to six in St. Moritz Bad or nearby Celerina can land around the £2,000 to £2,600 mark, remarkable for a resort of this reputation, while a comfortable mid sized chalet or larger apartment for a family sits in the £4,000 to £6,000 range.

At the top, St. Moritz does luxury as seriously as anywhere on earth. A high end catered chalet or suite based stay in Dorf, sleeping eight to ten with a hot tub, staff and a lake view, can run to £9,000, £10,000 and beyond in the peak weeks around New Year and the winter events. The honest headline: you can do St. Moritz on a sensible budget from Bad or the villages, or as one of the great blowout weeks of your life. Both are real, and both are here.

The skiing: key runs and areas

The Engadin skiing splits into a handful of separate areas, and the trick is to plan your week around them rather than expecting one seamless network. The headline three are Corviglia, Corvatsch and Diavolezza.

Corviglia rises straight above St. Moritz, reached by funicular from Dorf or cable car from Celerina and Marguns. This is the sunny cruising heart of the resort: wide, well groomed reds and blues and a string of famous mountain restaurants. It is the area you will ski most, and it flatters intermediates in particular, with long confidence building runs to the tree line and back.

Corvatsch, across the valley above Silvaplana and Sils, is the high one, topping out at 3,303m with reliable snow late into the season. It has more serious terrain, testing black pistes and excellent off piste when conditions allow, plus the celebrated illuminated night skiing run once a week. Diavolezza and Lagalb, further up the Bernina pass, are the wild card: high, snow sure and dramatic, home to the classic glacier descent past the Morteratsch glacier with a guide.

For all levels, the Engadin delivers. Beginners get gentle, sunny nursery slopes at Corviglia and Suvretta and easy blues to progress onto. Intermediates are in their element on the flowing reds of Corviglia and Furtschellas. Advanced skiers head to Corvatsch, Diavolezza and Lagalb for the steeper pistes and glacier terrain. Because the areas are spread out, a week here rewards a bit of planning, and on powder days a guide is money well spent.

Off the slopes

This is St. Moritz's headline strength, worth choosing the resort for alone. The frozen lake below Dorf becomes a stage each winter: snow polo, White Turf horse racing with jockeys tearing across the ice, cricket, golf and gourmet festivals draw crowds who never touch a ski. If your dates line up with a big event the town lifts a gear, so book early and expect peak prices.

Then there is the adrenaline heritage. The Cresta Run, the natural ice toboggan run where riders go head first at serious speed, has operated since 1885 and still runs on its own singular rules. Nearby, the Olympia Bob Run is the oldest natural ice bobsleigh track in the world, and for a fee a pilot will take you down it.

For the calmer contingent, the spa culture runs deep; St. Moritz Bad was a mineral spring resort long before it was a ski one, and the grand hotels and wellness centres offer some of the best pampering in the Alps. Add designer shopping, winter walking and cross country trails, horse drawn sleigh rides, tobogganing and Bernina railway excursions, and a non skier could fill a fortnight without repeating themselves.

The eating culture

St. Moritz takes food as seriously as it takes skiing, and eating well is central to the experience. The mountain restaurants on Corviglia are a scene in their own right, running from rustic sun terraces serving hearty Engadine plates to polished dining rooms where lunch is a two hour event. Booking a good table on the mountain is part of the ritual, not an afterthought.

Down in town the range is huge. Dorf carries the Michelin starred rooms and the see and be seen classics where the bill matches the address. But you are not trapped at the top end: Bad and the surrounding villages hold honest, family run restaurants serving Engadine specialities such as capuns, pizzoccheri and the local barley soup, along with fondue and pizza at prices that will not frighten anyone.

The smart move for most groups is a self catered or half board base that lets you cook a few nights and splash out on the others. A supermarket shop in Bad keeps the budget in check, and then you pick your moments: one long mountain lunch, one proper dinner in town, the rest kept simple. Eat that way and St. Moritz is far more affordable than its reputation.

Après and nightlife

St. Moritz nightlife is more champagne bar than boot stomping ski bar, and that suits its crowd. The après scene leans towards elegant terraces and hotel bars where a well dressed crowd gathers as the lifts close, rather than the beery, table dancing chaos of the big Austrian resorts. It is lively in its own polished way, just do not arrive expecting oompah bands and litre steins.

As the evening moves on, the grand hotel bars come into their own, mixing serious cocktails in serious surroundings, and the town has a late night scene built around a handful of famous clubs that stay busy until the early hours in peak season. For a more relaxed night, Bad and the villages offer easygoing bars where a group can settle in without a dress code or a second mortgage. However you play it, the town rewards packing something smarter than a fleece for the evening.

Getting there

The nearest airport is Zurich, with a transfer of around 3h15 by road up to the Engadin. That is a longer haul than some Alpine resorts, but the journey here is genuinely part of the appeal.

The reason is the railway. St. Moritz sits on the Rhaetian Railway network, and the final stretch up to the resort is one of the great scenic train rides in the world, climbing through the Albula tunnels and across the soaring Landwasser viaduct on a UNESCO listed line. Many visitors fly to Zurich and take the train the rest of the way, swapping a motorway transfer for a spectacular haul through the mountains. The Glacier Express and Bernina Express run through here too, and even a day trip on the little red trains is a highlight of the week.

Driving is straightforward in good conditions, with winter tyres and the usual caution over the passes, and the resort is easy to get around on foot and by the free local buses and funiculars. For most groups, though, the train is the civilised choice, and part of why arriving in St. Moritz feels like an event.

Heritage and status

St. Moritz is widely regarded as the birthplace of Alpine winter tourism, dating from an 1864 wager in which a hotelier bet English summer guests they would love the Engadin in winter; they did, and the winter holiday was born. The town has since hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948, holds World Championship pedigree, and gave its name to a level of Alpine glamour that other resorts still measure themselves against.

The final word

St. Moritz is not the resort for a purist chasing the cheapest possible week of vertical. It is the resort for people who want a proper mountain holiday in the fullest sense: sunlit, snow sure skiing across 350km of the Engadin, wrapped in food, spas, lake events and a sense of occasion no other Alpine name quite matches.

The pleasant surprise is how flexible the price can be. Base yourself in St. Moritz Bad or a nearby Engadin village, cook a few nights, pick your moments in Dorf, and it comes far closer to earth than you would expect. Or lean all the way in, take a lakeside chalet and one of the great glamorous weeks in skiing. Both versions are honest, and both are St. Moritz. For couples, families, groups of friends and multi generational parties alike, few places give you so many ways to spend a day. Sort the accommodation to your budget and dates, and the mountain, the light and the lake do the rest.