Laax
The Skiing Unlocked guide to ...
Perhaps like many of you, I had heard of Laax many, many times before I actually visited. But when I finally got around to visiting, I was blown away by the sheer quality of the place; the skiing, the infrastructure, and the vibes.
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Welcome to Skiing Unlocked’s guide to Laax, Switzerland; built on personal experience and expertise to deliver the ultimate resort guide.
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Contents
Use the links below to quickly navigate this guide
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1. Top 3
2. The Basics
3. Where is it?
8. What else do I need to know?
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Top 3 reasons for picking Laax:
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Staggeringly refreshing look and feel to the place compared to many Swiss resorts, which can come across as stuffy
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Incredibly scenic views on the way in and when skiing around the 240km of pistes available
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Modern and fresh foodie scene delivering quality on and off the slopes
The Basics
Laax - officially Flims-Laax-Falera, but marketed to the outside world as either “Laax” or “LAAX” - is located in southeastern Switzerland, in the Grisson or Graubunden Canton. The local currency is the Swiss Franc (which doesn’t have a symbol but is commonly referred to by its three-letter code CHF, trading at around 1.09CHF to £1, and 1CHF to $1.24USD).
The local language is Romansch, a niche Swiss Alpine language only spoken in this region; German is the lingua franca, however, and both Swiss and High German variants are perfectly accepted, and the quality of the English is generally pretty good. Like most of Switzerland, this is an expensive resort - be prepared to pay top dollar for lift passes and food and drink; value can be difficult to find here.
The closest airport is Zurich (ZRH), the biggest hub airport in Switzerland; most people access the resort by taking the train from the airport railway station to Chur, followed by a regular bus connection to Laax.
Skiing Unlocked recommends spending around a week in Laax; this will give you more than enough time to explore every corner of this resort. Long weekends are also very doable thanks to the resort’s good connections to Zurich and Zurich Airport - indeed, this is the “local” resort for many Zurcherin, venturing up for the weekend. The nearby resorts of Andermatt, Davos, Klosters and St. Mortiz can be strung together for longer trips.
The region is generally very snowy, featuring a mostly continental climate. Skiing is available from late December to Early April, with most of this period being a good time to ski here.
The emergency number for Switzerland (and all of Europe) is 112; the ski patrol number for Laax is +41 (0)81 927 74 00
Resort website: https://www.laax.com/en
Lift Passes: https://www.laax.com/en/shop?tab=tickets
Piste Map: https://live.laax.com/en/slopes
Where is it?
Laax can be found deep in the heart of the Grison Alps, the most southeasterly collection of Swiss Alps. From Zurich, follow the Rhine River towards its source; as it turns south and eventually west towards Andermatt, there you will find the three villages of Flims, Laax and Falera, high above the Rhine Gorge. The Italian border runs just to the south, blocked off by an impenetrable band of mountains.
The resort stretches from around 1,000m at village level up to a maximum height of 3,000m; most of the skiing can be found over 2,000m, meaning the snow is sure and the skiing reliable for much of the season. The continental climate aids to steady snowfall throughout the year, rather than the bouts of powder that can be found elsewhere.
The three villages all have a different character. First you pass through Flims, a sprawling village of chalets and holiday homes where the locals base themselves. Next is Laax, whose newly redeveloped resort base features modern, high tech holiday apartments and hotels. Finally, Falera, the quietest of the three, home to a handful of homes and chalets.
How do I get there?
Laax, like many Swiss resorts, features excellent connections to the Swiss public transport network. The post bus (a brand name rather than a traditional post bus) runs every half hour through all three villages to Chur railway station, and connects directly with trains to Zurich and indeed across Europe.
One note - Switzerland’s incredibly reliable public transport network plays against it here. The busses are timed to arrive at Chur with only three or four minutes to spare before the corresponding train departs; because it stops at every stop to load luggage and people, it will regularly miss this timed connection. The locals almost always board the bus half-an-hour before the recommended connection! The buses have plenty of space underneath even for ski bags.
Trains run to Zurich Main Station (Hauptbahnhof), from where regular connections are available to Zurich Airport (Flughafen). The entire journey can be booked as one, and the Swiss national rail operator SBB is one of the few European operators to offer open tickets; board any train and bus on the date of the ticket’s validity! Because of the ease of this connection, there is very little point in trying to get here any other way!
Times and tickets can be found on the Swiss Federal Railways’ (SBB) website at https://www.sbb.ch/en
Where to Stay?
This is a relatively small resort, and there isn’t much commercial tourist property available; you certainly won’t find much in the way of “all inclusive” family deals, for example. That being said, what is here is of a very high quality.
The headline is the rocksresort, the newly developed resort base of the Laax village. Here you will find a hotel - the iconic riders hotel - and a huge variety of apartments to suit most group sizes and budgets. These are located close to several of the best restaurants, as well as the pool and wellness centre located in the main building of the resort.
Laax is probably the best of the three villages to stay in; Falera remains small and bucolic, whilst Flims’ role as host of weekenders in the chalets means it doesn’t offer the same buzz-about-town as Laax. At the foot of the slopes in Laax you will find the vast majority of bars and restaurants in the region.
Some ideas on where to stay include:
rocksresort
This collection of apartments offer some of the best value in the resort, with four-person apartments going for as little as 400CHF per person per week. They are new and modern, alternately crisp and scandinavian whilst crafted from a wonderfully dark granite stone. Residents are provided with ski lockers on the slopes for easy access to and from your skiing.
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Riders Hotel
The new anchor property of the Laax development, the Riders features a bar, night club and utterly, utterly exceptional restaurant on the ground floor and in the basement (all open to non-residents), as well as the same modern, scandi-albeit-granite hewn feel of the neighbouring apartments.
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Signina Hotel
One of the more original properties in the region, this is a well appointed four-star chalet-style hotel that has survived the redevelopment of the surrounding area. Ideally located just moments from the slopes. Updated and renovated recently, it now provides an understated slice of luxury right at the heart of the action.
The On Snow Experience
There are two things about Laax that will be immediately obvious if you have read any of my work on the resort previously, or indeed any marketing materiel surrounding the resort. This is a place that sells itself on its sustainability initiatives and on its freestyle skiing.
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And whilst it doesn’t hold back on either of these things, the best part is you don’t have to engage in them to have a good time. This is probably a good thing, as data set after data set reports that the only thing skiers care less about than freestyle skiing is sustainable skiing!
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HOWEVER. The result of these initiatives for you and me is that, quite simply, Laax has developed into a modern, efficient, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant place to go skiing, under the radar and without any fuss. You are not forced to compost your lift pass at the end of your stay (although you can …) nor are you obliged to perfect a 360 by the end of your first day on snow. If you want to? Great. But if you want a fast, modern lift system, impeccable pistes - and miles of them, too - and a simply delicious modern restaurant menu, you are 100% in the right place.
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Let's start with the FlemXpress, the brand new gondola installed on the far right of the piste map after the area’s designation as a World Heritage Site* meant they couldn’t replace the old lift like-for-like. Designed as an “on demand” lift, you enter a modern, steel-and-concrete lift station, press a button for your destination from a choice of four or five, then board through platform edge doors that hide the workings of the system from onlookers. You are then whisked off to your destination bypassing unneeded stops on the way. Yes, it saves 50% of the energy of traditional gondolas because it runs on demand only, but it is also spectacularly clean, fast, modern and efficient just to ride on!
The skiing available beneath it is pretty spectacular, too. Piste 10 - part red, part blue - runs all the way from Segneshutte at 2,100m to the Flims resort base at 1,100m, exactly 1,00m of treeline, empty, perfectly groomed cruising perfection. There are myriad stop offs on the way to hop on the lift up or down, but for those looking to turn the gas on it is a great run to really really get the miles in.
Moving west, the collection of runs above Nagens offers more fast groomers, although be careful of the black run here, piste 16 - it will narrow suddenly as you drop off a roller and become ungroomed and mogully at the same time, a lot of fun as a challenge but not one for the feint of heart.
Most of the skiing in the region sits about 2,000m, and that means above the cloud too. Even if the resort station is socked in, hop on the lifts and climb high into the Swiss sky and you will get to experience one of the most awe-inspiring, perfect cloud inversions I have ever witnessed. The pictures I took of this day have liberally filled this blog and my Instagram ever since!
This isn’t an area famed for its off piste, but as a lot of it sits above the treeline a lot of fun can still be had if the conditions hit right. Simply playing in the powder fields about the Curnius lift station was more than enough to fill my cup; it helps it was a foot of the silly soft stuff, but still!
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Finally, the high stuff to the Vorab Glacier, perfect to lap and get the miles in.
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There are only a handful of return runs, so beginners and intermediates are advised to use the gondolas and cable cars to get back home in the afternoon as these can get busy and icy particularly as the elevation drops. The home run to Laax, however, is a favourite, endless miles of treeline skiing and the perfect icing on a cake before a well-earnt beer!
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You can find the piste map here
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*It’s been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because the mountains that run around the resort are actually the meeting points between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates; look out for a horizontal crack in the rock running all around the mountain backdrop - this is the actual point where the two meet, Eurasian plate sitting on top of African plate. HOW COOL IS THAT!?
The Off Snow Experience
Despite its small size there is plenty to do off the slopes and plenty of places to eat and drink all over the mountain.
On snow, the Segneshutte restaurant provides a modern taken on Swiss Alpine classics; pork cutlets and veal are served up on tables and chairs that are so scandi you almost have to build them yourselves, a testament to the recent renovations of this place. The main Crap Sogn Gion hub - pronounced “crap san jean” and translating from Romansch as “peak of St. John” is a space-ship like facility that overlooks the seriously big freestyle parks and pipes. Named appropriately, therefore, as the Galaaxy, iIt offers lighter bites, pastries and coffees, and somewhere to sit and watch the park rats do their thing.
In town, IKIGAI shows what can be done when European high culinary tradition take asian food seriously, and offers a pan-asian menu that is superb. The headline of the off-snow restaurants is, by far and away, the Riders Restaurant, part of the Riders Hotel and open to non-residents. The entirely vegetarian menu changes fortnightly, and is always, always delectable, delicate, sumptuous and splendid in equal measure. European favourites like risotto are paired with Japanese onsen egg meaning you truly don’t know what you are going to find available, making it a proper culinary journey that is not to be missed.
You won’t find a tub thumping barrel dancing apres scene here like you will in other places. Instead, this is a resort that leaves it all out on the hill. Indy Bar is the place to go for a pint once the skiing is done, enjoying locally brewed beers - and almost locally brewed spirits that are too local, bubbling away on the bar - whilst a DJ gradually cranks up the dancing in the corner. It is the perfect spot to rest weary legs after a day on the slopes, share a tale or two over a beer, and watch the sun set and the snow fall over the hills all around you.
For those who need a break from the skiing, the nearby Caumasee lake offers tranquil winter walks through silent woodlands blanketed by snow, with stunning views across the picturesque Rhine Gorge along the way. A treetop walk in the village itself is also an option close to home. And for those whose on-snow adventures weren’t enough, be sure to check out the Freestyle Academy. Located three storeys underground far away from the cold and the snow, the freestyle academy is where tomorrow’s generation of freestyle skiers and riders is born, trampoline flipping, skateboarding, and parkouring their way around the centre. Lessons and sessions are available for children and adults alike!
What else do I need to know?
I mentioned earlier that Laax sells itself on sustainability and freestyle. Alongside this coming together to make Laax simply an excellent place to ski, it leant something else to the mix, too; just seriously good vibes. I’ve never skied anywhere that’s this chill, this relaxed, this focused on simply having a good time, and this goes for the staff, too. They have built this place on the aim of being a California surfer town in the Alps, and whilst that might be hard to picture, it's easy to see manifest itself in real life. This was and is a really special place to ski.