Arosa Is the Charming Mountain Town Where Swiss Locals Actually Go to Ski
Skiing in the Swiss Alps has become such a global status marker that mountain villages are routinely flooded with international tourists during peak season. These snow-covered ski resort towns may sparkle on Instagram, but the reality of elusive dinner reservations, endless lift lines and packed hotels is not exactly serenity-inducing. For travelers looking for the charms of a picturesque Swiss mountain town without the crowds—and who prefer a cozier winter getaway to the over-the-top glitz and glamour of Gstaad or St. Moritz—why not look to the Swiss locals themselves? They are, after all, renowned arbiters of taste and quality, from chocolate to cheese to luxury timepieces—and such discernment extends to mountain retreats, as well. Enter: Arosa, where the Swiss go to ski, with all the charms of the Alps but without any of the crowds.
To call an alpine ski town—or any destination, really—a “hidden gem” is so beyond cliché that it verges on laziness. But such loathed phrases as “well-kept secret” and “off-the-beaten-path” inevitably and unwillingly came to mind when I arrived in Arosa this past February. How else to explain this charming village deep in the Schanfigg Valley of Graubünden (elevation: 5,823 feet, permanent residents: 3,200)? The architecture is a Wes Anderson-worthy blend of Belle Époque grand hotels and modernist alpine design set against a striking storybook landscape of high-altitude lakes and snow-capped mountains. The only thing missing? A deluge of international tourists.
Arosa is the last town in the Schanfigg Valley (there’s nowhere to travel past the village), nestled within the surrounding wilderness. The best way to arrive is via Swiss rail: board the train from Zürich to Chur, where you’ll transfer to the red train cars of the Rhaetian Railway for a scenic ride through winding mountain passes and Alpine lakes. Though the village can be accessed by car, the route from Chur is demanding and requires snow chains and winter tires during ski season. This relative inaccessibility, combined with its historic reputation as a health retreat in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is why Arosa remains under the radar for international tourists. This is all likely to change, however, and winter tourism has experienced an uptick since the 2013 expansion of the ski terrain, when a panoramic cable car linked Arosa to nearby Lenzerheide, resulting in a 139-mile resort.
And yet, unlike Zermatt or Interlaken, Arosa remains a destination largely for Swiss vacationers. Roughly 70 percent of overnight guests are from Switzerland, with another 15 percent from nearby Germany, the largest international market. The locals aren’t catering to the global jet set, so everything feels a bit more personalized, while still maintaining that Swiss hospitality. The culinary scene heavily emphasizes local ingredients sourced from nearby farms, and the skiing is world-class: massive terrain without the crowds; a (black) diamond in the rough.
From grand hotels to forest suites and nighttime tobogganing to morning ice baths, read on for an insider’s guide to Arosa, Switzerland.
