Glamour, sunshine and a lake full of events.
St. Moritz is the original luxury ski resort, a byword for glamour set beside a frozen lake in the sunny Engadin valley. The skiing is excellent, but the place is as much about the scene, the spas and the events on the ice.
Know the mountain before you go.
The skiing
The slopes spread across several areas, mostly cruising terrain that flatters intermediates, with the Corvatsch and Corviglia the main draws. Snow is reliable and the light in this high, dry valley is famous.
The village and the evenings
The town is smart and international, with grand hotels, designer shops and a busy calendar of polo, horse racing and cricket played on the frozen lake. Non skiers are spoilt for things to do.
Beyond the skiing.
Free, and worth knowing
Eisarena Ludains, free to walk into. A full ice arena down in St. Moritz Bad, and the tourist board gives the entry price in two words, Eintritt frei. Public skating, ice stock, and a rink you can sit and watch from if nobody in the party wants skates on. Skate hire is twelve francs a day for an adult and seven for a child, and a hockey stick is two, which is the entire cost of an afternoon.
The winter walking network. Around a hundred and fifty kilometres of maintained winter trail across the Engadin, free to walk, and roughly half of it starts on the valley floor and needs no lift at all. The set piece from the village is the lakes walk from St. Moritz Bad to Celerina, six and a bit kilometres and just under two hours, starting at the Cafferino kiosk by the Catholic church at the west end of the lake.
oV Inklusive, the transport that comes with the bed. Stay in a participating hotel or apartment and from your second night every bus and train in the Upper Engadin is free: Engadin Bus, the Ortsbus St. Moritz, PostBus and the Rhaetian Railway, over the whole network from Maloja to Cinuos-chel and from Spinas to Alp Grum, with your arrival and departure journeys included as far as the network boundary. Dogs travel free on it as well. The accommodation pays per guest night and the guest pays nothing, and it is what makes Sils, Surlej, Celerina and the whole Bernina line usable without a car.
A few of the rest
The Cresta Run. The St. Moritz Tobogganing Club's natural ice run, built by hand every winter since January 1885 and the only one in the world made of natural ice. It takes nearly nine weeks to build. You ride it yourself, head first, on a steel toboggan, and the part that surprises people is that a complete beginner can turn up and do it. You book a practice session from the club's online calendar and take the Beginners' Course, which covers your first five rides, the tuition and all the equipment. Over 50 euros.
The Olympia Bob Run. The other natural ice run, and the easier sell of the two, because you do not drive it. You sit in seats two and three of a four man bob with an experienced pilot in front and a brakeman behind, on the only natural ice bob run in the world, running from St. Moritz down to Celerina since 1904. One thousand seven hundred and twenty two metres, a hundred and thirty metres of drop, nineteen corners. Over 50 euros.
Watching the bob, the IBSF World Cup. If two hundred and sixty nine francs is more than the day is worth, stand at the side of the same track instead. The IBSF Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup returns to St. Moritz on 22, 23 and 24 January 2027. Twenty five francs buys a day, fifty buys the whole weekend, and under sixteens go in for nothing. 20 to 50 euros.
All 25 picks for St. Moritz, dining included, live in the Ski Snug app.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
Getting there
Zurich is the usual airport at a little over three hours, and the Swiss rail journey through the Engadin is a highlight in itself.
St. Moritz guides
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