St. Moritz

St. Moritz invented winter tourism and has never surrendered the title. High-altitude light, the frozen lake, polo and horse racing on ice, grand hotels and Engadine ceremony create a destination where sport and society are inseparable.

St. Moritz lies at 1,800 metres in the Upper Engadine, a high valley of lakes and larch forest in the canton of Graubünden, where Romansh is still spoken. It was a summer spa until 1864, when the hotelier Johannes Badrutt invited English guests to return in winter — the beginning of Alpine winter tourism. It hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948.

The resort divides into St. Moritz Dorf on the hillside and St. Moritz Bad by the lake. Corviglia is the principal ski area above the village, with Corvatsch and Diavolezza nearby, and the valley holds some of the best cross-country skiing in the Alps. The Cresta Run and the natural-ice bobsleigh run are both survivors of the nineteenth century.

The winter season runs from late November or early December to early April, with dry, cold air and unusually high sunshine. Late January brings the Snow Polo World Cup and the St. Moritz Gourmet Festival; on three Sundays in February, the White Turf horse races are held on the frozen lake. The Cresta Run operates from just before Christmas until the end of February.

The Engadin Skimarathon, run across the frozen lakes in March, draws more than ten thousand cross-country skiers. March is also the month of long days and spring snow. Summer, from late June to early September, belongs to hiking, sailing on the lake and the Engadine music festivals; the grand hotels close in spring and autumn.

Badrutt’s Palace, with its tower above the lake, remains the defining address; the Kulm Hotel, where winter tourism began, stands beside the Cresta Run; Suvretta House occupies its own slope with private ski access to Corviglia; and the Carlton Hotel, a 1913 building of the Tschuggen Collection, looks south over the lake. In St. Moritz Bad, the Grand Hotel des Bains Kempinski sits at the foot of the Signal cable car.

LVXVRY books the Grand Hotel des Bains through Kempinski Club 1897 — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. Badrutt’s Palace, the Kulm, Suvretta House and the Carlton are independent, and LVXVRY advises on and arranges those stays directly; most open only for the winter and summer seasons, and the February weeks of White Turf fill early.