If you’ve ever wondered how winter holidays began, you need look no further than St. Moritz in the Engadin Valley.
This world-famous resort has been world-famous for a very long time now, as the very first recorded winter mountain holiday took place here a little over a century-and-a-half ago.
The remarkable thing is that whilst thousands of ski areas have emerged around the world in the years since, Engadin St. Moritz has managed to maintain is global ‘top spot’ as the best of the best.
Why? Well for one thing Engadin St. Moritz is natural high, but also has a remarkably good sunshine record. The result is snow-covered slopes sparkling in the sunshine framing the wide, high valley of bewitching beauty which is also the successful basis you need to build a good ski holiday on!
Then there’s the choice here, Engadin St. Moritz has repeatedly won the coveted award for the Alpine ski region with the greatest variety in annual German ski ‘bible’ the ADAC ski guide, alongside many other honors, including the prestigious British Travel Award.
The area is home to four large ski areas a Corviglia/Piz Nair, Corvatsch, Diavolezza/Lagalb and Zuoz, as well as at five smaller but charming areas, all well inter-connected by efficient Swiss public transport systems included in the area lift pass.
Altogether skiers and snowboarders will find 350 km (217 miles) of beautiful pistes for all ability levels and tastes waiting to be explored.
Thanks to that high altitude – with some slopes reaching 3000m – and the modern artificial snowmaking facilities, Engadin St. Moritz is famously snowsure, there’s even glacier skiing at Diavolezza which is usually open from mid-October right through to the following June each season, while the dry climate guarantees some of the best powder snow in the Alps.
Throughout the area there are 74 mountain restaurants and other places to eat promise mouth-watering gastronomic variety. But perhaps most importantly Engadin St. Moritz just feels timelessly special and makes you feel happy just to be there. They call it the “Champagne climate”.
Hotel and Ski Pass 2015/16
Stays in Engadin St. Moritz have been made even easier in recent years with the special “Hotel and Ski Pass” promotion which is back for winter 2015-16.
The deal is that if you stay more than one night at any participating hotel and you can purchase a ski pass for only CHF 35.– per person/per day for the duration of your stay – around £23 and around half the price you’d expect to pay for a lift pass at a top international resort.
The special promotion is available throughout the winter season right through until 22 May 2016.
Over One And A Half Centuries On Winter Holidays
The first recorded winter mountain holiday in the world took place in St. Moritz in 1864-65 when the inn keeper at the humble Kulm guest house – today one of St. Moritz’s five grand five-star hotels- bet some summer visiting British tourists that if they returned and spent the winter in the Engadin they’d find the climate, the sunshine and everything else about a winter stay in St. Moritz much better than staying in Blighty.
The hotelier won his bet and the rest is history. Ever since the early years Engadin St. Moritz has built on the area’s natural attractions with a wealth of high-class international events. Over 150 years, the ranges of tourist facilities and services have expanded steadily and still continues to grow even today.
Hosting The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2017
Twice host to the Winter Olympics and multiple-host of the Alpine World Ski Championships too, no other ski resort boasts a stronger ski racing pedigree than Engadin St. Moritz.
The Engadin St. Moritz holiday region is looking forward to the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships again in 2017 in St. Moritz.
The layout of the pistes on the sunny slopes of the Corviglia is tried and tested for ski racing and glamorous, cosmopolitan St. Moritz promises to pull in spectators in their multitudes.
Thankfully the locals love their ski racing too and the enthusiasm of the inhabitants of the Engadin guarantees a host of dedicated volunteers.
The Cresta Run
The world famous Cresta Run was first built in the 1884/85 season, by British officers, and has been one of the great attractions of St. Moritz ever since – there is nothing quite like it anywhere else.
Between Christmas and the beginning of March, more than thirty races take place on this special ice track right beside the Olympia Bob Run (which, incidentally, is now the only bobsleigh run in the world hand made each year, making it the world’s largest ice sculpture!
The atmosphere at the Cresta Run remains very British: announcements are all made in English, and many riders wear vintage sports clothing. The best riders can reach speeds approaching 140kph (87mph). You need some nerve to attempt it, and some skill to avoid the infamous ‘Cresta Kiss’ a common injury to first timers and even the more experienced.
The Snow Polo World Cup
St. Moritz is the birth place of Snow Polo and its back again this winter for an annual tournament running from 29-31 January 2016.
In 1985, the very first tournament was played here and still today, the Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz is the world´s most important Snow Polo tournament even though many more competitions are now organised in several of the world’s other top ski resorts.
Four «High Goal» teams of world class players offer a unique spectacle on the frozen lake of St. Moritz.
White Turf St. Moritz
One of the most iconic of all of Engadin St. Moritz’s many annual world class events, White Turf sees horse racing on the snow around frozen Lake St. Moritz – an incredible spectacle and the social highlight of the season.
Staged on three successive Sundays in February (the 7th, 14th and 21st in 2016) the annual White Turf event is one of the famous resort’s longest established, a tradition dating back to 1907.
No ‘show’ event this is serious horse racing with thundering hooves and spraying snow, complete with the full race course experience – even betting offices.
Along with the regular horse races brave men and women on skis are pulled along at high speed by unmounted horses at the only skijoring race in the world.
Cricket on Ice
St. Moritz has hosted what is arguably the most unusual game of cricket in the world for nearly 30 years now. This winter’s tournament takes place from 18-20 February 2016.
Since 1988, players – usually male – dressed in white stand around for hours on an oval-shaped cricket ground and try to out-manoeuvre their opponents in what seems to be an almost passive manner. But appearances can be deceptive. The style of game played at Cricket on Ice on the frozen Lake St. Moritz demands a considerable amount of skill and agility from the players.
The St. Moritz Gourmet Festival
The 23rd St. Moritz Gourmet Festival will be back in the Engadin from 25-29 January 2016
Once again the festival will be a paradise for gourmet food lover and this year there’ll be a Japanese flavour to the cuisine. That’s because topic of the 2016 event is “Yokoso Nippon“ – featuring Japanese master chefs who cause an international sensation with their art of cookery.
