St. Moritz has a quality in winter that resists description, the perfect breath taking IG moment. Snow settles across the rooftops, Lake St. Moritz freezes solid, and the air turns sharp and still. The Swiss resort has drawn a particular kind of traveller for over a century – those who come for rhythm, ritual, and a certain unspoken standard. Being wrapped up in radical hospitality for the whole family.
The Terrain
St. Moritz isn’t simply a ski resort. Every slope, every service, feels deliberate. On Friday evenings, Corvatsch opens for Snow Night skiing – floodlit runs through alpine darkness that finish just before midnight.
By day, the frozen lake becomes the town’s stage. Ice polo, cricket, and horse racing draw crowds through to February, while skaters trace long loops across the surface. Skijöring – being pulled across the ice on skis by a galloping horse – offers the kind of story that travels well
For those less inclined toward speed, winter hiking and snowshoeing through the Engadin Valley offer another way in. There are fondue dinners served in private gondolas, sunset drinks at the Sky Bar, and late-night piano at Badrutt’s Palace . Après-ski here has little to do with volume.
Between Activities
Via Serlas, the town’s high street, runs to its own clock. Boutiques offer bespoke jewellery, Italian cashmere, Swiss watches – the kind of shopping that feels more like browsing a private collection
For the committed, there’s ice bathing in the lake – brief, bracing, said to clarify the mind – or yoga held on snow at altitude. The Segantini Museum, dedicated to the painter who captured alpine light like no one else, offers another form of restoration.
The Festive Season
December brings a particular energy to St. Moritz. The Christmas market on Plazza Mauritius fills with local craftsmen, glühwein stalls, and the scent of roasted chestnuts, while Father Christmas arrives by sleigh to meet families . Badrutt’s Palace erects the town’s tallest Christmas tree, draped in gold ornaments and visible from across the lake.
On New Year’s Eve, the resort transforms. Gala dinners unfold across hotels – from Michelin-starred tasting menus to champagne-soaked ballroom parties that stretch past midnight. Some prefer torchlit processions down the mountain; others, intimate celebrations in hotel wine cellars. Either way, the town offers a framework for stories worth retelling.
Why It Holds
St. Moritz works because it accommodates contradiction. Grandparents can warm themselves in spa lounges while grandchildren tear down floodlit slopes. One person’s quiet snowshoe trek is another’s adrenaline-charged ice polo match. The town doesn’t force a single experience – it provides the infrastructure for several to coexist gracefully.
This is what makes St. Moritz more than a winter destination. It’s a place that allows families to disperse by day and reconvene by evening with entirely different tales. It gives velocity lovers their stories – the midnight skiing, the skijöring, the New Year’s champagne on ice – while offering those who move more slowly the chance to simply watch the lake freeze over a morning coffee.
In a season when most resorts choose either pace or peace, St. Moritz refuses to pick. That refusal is precisely what keeps people returning.
We work with the established names in St. Moritz and elsewhere – the hotels that hold the best rooms, the guides who know which slopes to avoid on which days, the restaurants where a table still means something. The logistics are handled by our principal concierge who will ensure white glove treatment; the time remains yours.
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