Davos Klosters: altitude, art, and the longest descents in Graubunden
Davos occupies a peculiar position among Swiss mountain towns. At 1,560 metres in the Landwasser valley, it holds the distinction of being the highest town in Europe, a fact that shaped its history in unexpected ways. The altitude that today draws skiers once drew tuberculosis patients, who came for the thin, dry air that physicians believed could heal damaged lungs. Thomas Mann visited his wife at a sanatorium here, and the intellectual ferment he observed among the patients became the raw material for "The Magic Mountain," a novel that gave Davos its first layer of cultural mythology. The second layer arrived when the World Economic Forum established its annual meeting here, turning a ski town into a geopolitical stage every January. Hotels in Davos navigate between these identities with a pragmatism that the Swiss do well: the same property might host a hedge fund delegation one week and a family of four the next, adjusting the minibar accordingly.
Klosters, ten kilometres down the valley at 1,190 metres, offers the antidote. Where Davos sprawls along the valley floor with an urban density unusual for a mountain destination, Klosters maintains the village proportions and wooden-chalet aesthetic that visitors expect from the Swiss Alps. The British royal family established a skiing tradition here that gave the village a reputation for understated quality, the kind of place where discretion is valued more than spectacle and where the hotel owner knows returning guests by name. Together, the two resorts cover over 300 kilometres of terrain across six ski areas, a scale that the single-mountain resorts of the Engadin and the Oberland cannot approach.
Davos Platz and Davos Dorf: two towns in one
Davos divides along its valley floor into two distinct sections that serve different guest profiles. Davos Platz, the lower section, concentrates the congress centre, the commercial streets, and the hotels that cater to the conference circuit and the town-oriented visitor. The Jakobshorn ski area rises above Davos Platz, providing freestyle terrain and the liveliest apres-ski scene in the region. Davos Dorf, the quieter upper section, connects directly to the Parsenn ski area via the Parsennbahn funicular, and the hotels here serve guests whose primary loyalty is to the mountain rather than the town.
The Kirchner Museum provides the cultural experience that neither the WEF nor the ski slopes advertise. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the German Expressionist, moved to Davos for health reasons and spent twenty years painting the surrounding mountains in colours that reality does not quite support: oranges, purples, and acid greens that express the emotional impact of the landscape rather than its photographic truth. The museum holds over 1,400 of his works, and spending an afternoon among them recalibrates the eye. After Kirchner, the actual mountains outside the window seem both more vivid and more strange, as if the paintings have revealed something about the landscape that plain observation missed.
The Davosersee, a lake at the town's southern edge, rounds out the non-skiing options. In summer it offers swimming. In winter, ice skating. Year-round, the lakeside path provides the kind of contemplative walking that hotel guests use to decompress between ski runs or conference sessions, a pause in the altitude air that resets the rhythm of the day.
Klosters: the village that kept its scale
Klosters sits where the Prattigau valley narrows toward the road to Davos, and the village has resisted the expansion that transformed its neighbour. The chalet architecture remains dominant. The restaurants serve fondue with the conviction that no dish better suits a mountain evening. The pace is slower, the streets quieter, and the hotel tradition reflects a guest who values the mountain above the scene and the village above the town.
The Gotschna cable car from Klosters reaches the Parsenn ski area, the same terrain accessible from Davos Dorf, which creates an interesting dynamic: guests in both resorts ski the same mountain but return each evening to fundamentally different atmospheres. Klosters provides the intimate village version, Davos the urban altitude version, and the ten-minute train ride between them means that sampling both during a single stay requires no effort at all. The Madrisa ski area, accessible only from Klosters, adds family-friendly terrain with gentler gradients and a more relaxed pace that complements the Parsenn's longer, more demanding descents.
Six ski areas on one pass
The Davos Klosters ski domain covers over 300 kilometres of terrain across six distinct areas, all accessible on a single regional pass. The Parsenn provides the centrepiece: long descents from the Weissfluhgipfel at 2,844 metres down to Klosters at 1,190 metres, a vertical drop of 1,650 metres that ranks among the most generous in the Alps. The sensation of that descent, beginning on the exposed summit ridge and ending in the valley's forested lower slopes, takes the better part of an hour and covers terrain that shifts from Alpine to sub-Alpine to valley meadow.
The Jakobshorn above Davos Platz claims the freestyle reputation and the terrain parks. Pischa offers off-piste opportunities for advanced skiers willing to earn their turns. Rinerhorn and Madrisa add family-friendly sectors that round out a domain broad enough to occupy a week without repetition. Cross-country skiing covers 75 kilometres of groomed trails across the Davos valley floor, including the celebrated Fluela valley courses, and the Nordic dimension adds a completely different physical experience to the resort's repertoire. The appetite generated by 30 kilometres on the valley floor exceeds anything the downhill produces, and the half-board dinner at a good Davos restaurant responds to that hunger with appropriate generosity.
Summer: the quieter season
Summer strips away the conference security details and the ski crowds, revealing a quieter version of Davos that returning guests often describe as the more rewarding season. The trails from the Parsenn summit across the Strela Pass and down to Davos Dorf provide high-altitude walking with the Graubunden peaks visible in every direction, the air sharp and clean at altitudes where the wildflowers bloom in concentrated bursts during the short growing season. Hotel rates drop from their winter peaks, and the town relaxes into a rhythm governed by trail conditions and weather forecasts rather than piste maps and lift queues.
The congress infrastructure continues to operate through summer, keeping the hotels occupied with conferences and events that use the mountain excursion programme to complement the indoor sessions. This dual identity, winter sports destination and year-round conference centre, gives Davos a hotel infrastructure more robust and more varied than most Swiss ski resorts maintain, with the guest benefiting from facilities that would be hard to justify on seasonal ski tourism alone.
Getting there
Zurich connects to Davos in approximately 2.5 hours by train via Landquart, a journey that passes through increasingly dramatic mountain scenery as the railway climbs into Graubunden. Chur, the cantonal capital, is one hour south. The Rhaetian Railway connects Klosters to the Vereina tunnel, where a car-loading train service reaches the Lower Engadin in twenty minutes, opening up the possibility of day trips to the Engadin valley and its own ski domains. Free parking is standard at mountain properties throughout the region.
Davos Klosters at a glance
- Davos: 1,560 m, highest town in Europe, 11,000 inhabitants
- Klosters: 1,190 m, village-scale, royal skiing tradition
- Ski terrain: 300+ km across 6 areas, Parsenn summit at 2,844 m
- Longest descent: 1,650 m vertical from Weissfluhgipfel to Klosters
- Cross-country: 75 km groomed trails on the Davos valley floor
- Kirchner Museum: 1,400+ works by the German Expressionist
- Zurich to Davos: 2.5 hours by train
Should I stay in Davos or Klosters?
Davos suits the guest who wants urban mountain life: the cultural institutions, the Jakobshorn nightlife, the congress-centre energy, and the altitude-town atmosphere that Mann immortalised. Klosters suits the guest who wants the village version: traditional chalets, personal service, a quieter evening, and the Gotschna gondola delivering the same Parsenn terrain at a gentler pace. The ten-minute train connection between the two means the choice is not exclusive. Many guests split their days, skiing from one base and dining at the other, treating the paired resorts as a single destination with two distinct moods.
How challenging is the ski terrain?
The Parsenn favours confident intermediates, with long descents that reward smooth technique over aggressive skiing. The Jakobshorn provides freestyle and park features. Pischa delivers the off-piste opportunities that advanced skiers seek. Beginners will find dedicated areas at Madrisa and Rinerhorn, where the gradients are gentler and the crowds thinner. The 300-kilometre domain provides enough variety that most ability levels can find a week's worth of terrain without exhausting the options.
Is Davos Klosters worth visiting in summer?
The summer season transforms the region into one of the strongest hiking bases in Graubunden, with high-altitude trails, the Strela Pass crossing, and the Davosersee lakeside walks providing a range that spans serious Alpine routes and gentle valley strolls. Hotel rates are lower than in winter, the trails are uncrowded, and the town atmosphere, freed from the intensity of ski season, settles into a relaxed rhythm that many returning guests prefer.