Arosa or Davos: one joined up area, or a town with mountains round it
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
Our matching puts Arosa closer to Davos than any other resort we cover. Both are in Switzerland, both are a Zurich flight, both run December to April, and both pass our snow sure test. The measured tops of their skiing are 40 metres apart, and the share of piste steeper than one in four is within a point. On the mountain, they are near relations.
The difference is how the skiing is put together, and what sits at the bottom. Arosa is a gentle, sunny bowl joined to Lenzerheide by one cable car, and a family resort first. Davos is a busy, practical town with its skiing spread over separate mountains, most of them a bus or a train apart. So the question is whether you want one joined up area around a village, or a town with mountains to choose from each morning. The numbers first.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Arosa | Davos |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,800 m | 1,560 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 2,848 m | 2,808 m |
| Ski area | Arosa Lenzerheide, 225 km, linked by one cable car | Davos Klosters pass, 300 km official, 224 km measured, over separate mountains |
| Piste we measure around the village | 183 km | 145 km |
| Blue and easier | 97 km, 53% of the piste | 62.5 km, 43% of the piste |
| Black | 14.5 km, 8% of the piste | 20.7 km, 14% of the piste |
| Marked off piste itinerary | 8.5 km | 13.3 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 24% | 23% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 35% | 31% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 65% | 78% |
| Season | December to April | December to April |
| Nearest airport | Zurich | Zurich |
Arosa takes the size rows, the easy rows and the village. Davos takes the black, the itinerary and the share of its piste up high. The steep row is level, near enough.
Size: Arosa's skiing joins up, Davos's comes in pieces
Arosa and Lenzerheide are one domain, joined by a single cable car between the two valleys, and three sources agree on its 225 kilometres exactly. Around Arosa itself we measure 183 kilometres of piste, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover.
97 km blue and easier 53%72 km red 39%15 km black 8%
63 km blue and easier 43%61 km red 42%21 km black 14%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Arosa 9 km, Davos 13 km.
Davos is sold on 300 kilometres. Measured across the same ten lift areas, it comes to 224, spread over separate mountains. Only the Parsenn, at 95.5 kilometres, is genuinely shared with Klosters. The rest need a train, a bus or a car, and one of them, Schatzalp-Strela, is privately owned and needs its own pass. Around the town we measure 145 kilometres of piste, the third most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover.
So Arosa has 38 more kilometres of piste around the village, and all 225 kilometres of its domain join up by lift. At Davos the Parsenn gives you 95.5 before you need a timetable. Davos's answer is variety rather than reach: several mountains with different characters, and the long Parsenn runs that finish down in Klosters.
Altitude: Arosa is higher at the door, Davos higher on the hill
Arosa's village is at 1,800 metres, the second highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover and 240 above Davos at 1,560. At the top there is almost nothing in it: Arosa's skiing reaches 2,848 metres on our measure, and Davos's 2,808.
In between, Davos keeps more of its piste high. Both are snow sure on our measure: at Davos, 78 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,808, and at Arosa 65 percent, up to 2,848. Above 2,000 metres the gap widens, 63 percent against 38, and half of Davos's piste sits above 2,106 metres, against 1,922 at Arosa.
Nobody can promise snow, but Davos has more of its skiing well clear of that line. Arosa has more of its height where you sleep.
The skiing: much the same steep, a different shape at each end
On the measure we trust most across resorts, the share of piste steeper than one in four, the two are a point apart: 24 percent at Arosa and 23 at Davos, both a little under the 26 percent of a typical resort we cover.
97 km blue and easier 53%72 km red 39%15 km black 8%
63 km blue and easier 43%61 km red 42%21 km black 14%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Arosa 9 km, Davos 13 km.
The easy end belongs to Arosa. It has 97 kilometres of blue and easier piste, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against 62.5 at Davos. And its blues are the kinder of the two, averaging 15.4 percent against 16.2 at Davos, which has the third steepest blues of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover. These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as the feel of the week rather than a verdict on any one run.
The hard end belongs to Davos, by the kilometre. It has 20.7 kilometres of black, the most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against 14.5 at Arosa, and 13.3 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary against 8.5.
Who each one actually suits
Arosa suits families first. It is the one trait we tag it with, and families head its list of what it does best, ahead of sunshine and snow sure. Our read of it is gentle and sunny. It suits a group with nervous skiers or improvers, who get more blue and easier piste than at any other Swiss resort we cover, and a group that likes to roam one linked area without a bus timetable. The strong skier is not left out: there are fewer blacks, but steep ones, and some marked itinerary.
Davos suits groups who want more than skiing. It is a working town, busy and practical by our read, with town amenities on its list of what it does best. Trams and buses link the two ends of town, and there are full sized supermarkets, a big natural ice rink, cross country loops and winter walks, so a rest day or a non skier is never stuck. Mixed groups with strong skiers do well too: the most black of any Swiss resort we cover, more itinerary, the long Parsenn runs, and the Jakobshorn, where the freestyle crowd and the livelier bars are. Davos Dorf, by the Parsenn railway, is the calmer end. Davos Platz is the busier one.
The bit nobody tells you
The gradients run against the reputations. Arosa, the gentle family bowl, has the steepest blacks of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover: they average 32.4 percent, against 26.7 for a typical Swiss black. Davos, with more black than any other Swiss resort we cover, has blacks that average 25.8 percent, under that Swiss average. And it is Davos, not Arosa, whose blues are the steeper.
At Davos a confident intermediate can work through a lot of black that, on average, measures gentler than a typical Swiss black. At Arosa the blues are the kinder ones and the blacks are the real test, and there are fewer of them. If your strong skier wants mileage on black, Davos. If they want a handful of runs that properly bite, Arosa.
So, which one
you are a family or have nervous skiers along, you want more easy piste than any other Swiss resort we cover offers, and you would rather ski one linked area from a high village than take a bus between mountains.
the town is part of the holiday: someone will not ski every day, you want shops and an evening on the doorstep, or you like a different mountain each morning. Also if your strongest skiers want the most black and itinerary on offer, or you want more of the skiing above 1,800 metres.
It gives you 183 kilometres of piste around the village, 38 more than Davos, 97 of them blue and easier, all joined by lift, from a village 240 metres higher, with near enough the same share of steep and the same airport. Davos wins when the town is half the reason for going, or when not everyone in the party is there to ski.