Help! Where to base in Upper and Lower Engadine?
Manuela is planning a 30-day trip in early September to October focused on the Engadine region, with concerns about fitting in Zermatt. She's seeking advice on bases for hiking trails and the best airport to fly into for easy travel, considering her and her husband’s hiking preferences.
- Consider basing in Scuol for Lower Engadine as it has good transport links and beautiful surroundings.
- A Swiss Travel Pass will simplify travels around the Engadine region, allowing for easier exploration without multiple bases.
- Incorporate Zermatt into your itinerary via easy train routes; it's worth the visit for stunning views of the Matterhorn.
- Book accommodations early, especially for September, as desirable hotels may fill up fast.
AI-generated summary-
Trip will be about 30 days (+/- 3days) from early Sept to Oct 2023.
Our rough itinerary: Lower Engadine (base in Scuol or ??) 6n/5d, Upper Engadine 7n/6d, BO (base in Wengen or split with a Lake town?) 7n/6d. Then we would like to go towards Geneva, train to Annecy, Chamonix, perhaps Lyon as well. We’d like to fit Zermatt in there but it looks logistically challenging.
Where do you recommend we base in Engadine? Is it necessary to have two bases in each of the Upper and Lower Engadine to be closer or easier access to the trails? We are avid hikers but we don’t plan on spending all-day hiking every day. We are both in our late 60’s, reasonably fit, and can handle some elevation. I would consider a 6-hr hike (with elevation) a long and hard day (but rewarding). We want to alternate hard days with easy-to-moderate hikes, as well as just strolling around alpine lakes and quaint villages. We would like to pin down where to base so we can start booking. I have a feeling the most desirable hotels are already booked for Sept/Oct 2023.
With this itinerary, where do you recommend we fly in and out of? From Zurich, it appears to be an all-day train ride! Is there another possible route? If we end the trip in France, we’ll most likely fly out of Geneva or CDG.
Thank you!
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Zurich is the nearest airport to Scuol and the Lower Engadine. It does not take all day to get from Zurich airport to the Lower Engadine; the usual journey time is 3 hours dead, with just 2 changes (Zurich HB and Landquart). It is in fact one of the least complicated journeys you can make on the railways network of Switzerland.
Scuol is a nice place to stay, but there are accommodation options (everything from hotels to holiday houses, apartments and rooms) and even camp sites) all the way along the RhB railway line between Scuol and Samedan. Just look at the list of stations ( http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/fileadmin/fap_pdf_fields/2022/960.pdf ) along the line and search for accommodation in those villages, they are all beautiful. With a rail pass (http://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses) it is easy to travel around the Engadine, so you could get away with one base. Zernez would be a good base for accessing the Swiss National Park as well as being able to nip up towards the upper Engadine for the day
The attached pictures are from a just pre-Covid trip (we were lucky…) to the Engadin in Feb 2020
Your 11 days in just the Engadine is longer than many people complete trips to Switzerland, so I am very surprised that with 30 days to play with you think including Zermatt will be “logistically challenging. Perhaps you could explain why you thought that.
Have a search through other threads on the forum, many of them talk about moving from the Berner Oberland to Zermatt (or even just going for the day)
Hi Manuela and welcome to MyswissAlps.com!
In addition to 1960man’s answer, you can also check the timetable here: http://www.myswissalps.com/timetable.
The Lower Engadine is one of those places that isn’t that touristy, so great choice in my opinion. The upper part of the valley, the Upper Engadine with St. Moritz, is visited much more. Scuol is the central town in the Lower Engadine. Zernez, at the entrance of the Swiss National Park, is another town of some size. Both towns can be reached by train. Another village worth mentioning is Samnaun, in the north-east corner of the Lower Engadine. This isolated municipality is the only tax-free shopping zone in Switzerland. More information: http://www.myswissalps.com/lowerengadine.
Regarding Upper Engadin, please have a look at http://www.myswissalps.com/upperengadine. Suggested hotels in this region can be found here: http://www.myswissalps.com/upperengadine/hotels.
Are you going to have a rail pass?
Ildiko
Hi Manuela,
If you are into hiking, you could consider, in Lower Engadin, staying at S-Charl above Scuol. Depending on your time availability, you could hike from Scuol to S-Charl through Val Plavna and Val Minger, or reach S’Charl by postal coach. In S-Charl, I stayed at Gasthaus Mayor (2021) and can recommend it. From S-Charl, you can hike to Lü via the God Tamangur forest and Pass da Costainas. In 2021, I was 72 and did that hike in one day. Lunch available at Tamangur Dadaint. From Lü we took a postal coach to Müstair and stayed at Hotel Helvetia, which I can also recommend. In Müstair, you should see the romanesque monastery where Charlemagne had stayed in his days.
Another base in Lower Engadin is Lavin (hotel Piz Linard).
The trail map of Switzerland is here.
You surely know that Engadin is in the Romansh-speaking area of Switzerland.
If you want to follow my hiking advices, select September rather than october, as the trails are reliable only if snow-free.
Hi Manuela,
Fitting Zermatt into your itinerary shouldn’t present any logistical problems what so ever. Plus, in my opinion, it would almost be a shame if you did miss it (strictly my opinion, mind you). Especially if you have nearly a month to work with. Based on your rough itinerary you can reach Zermatt before going to the BO. Either the Glacier Express, or the main lines will get you there. You can go from St Moritz, (straight through) or from Chur. Or from many other locations in the Engadine region. From Zermatt, you can get to the BO in the vicinity of three hours. (Via Visp/Speiz/Interlaken.) From there you can take the Golden Pass to Montreux, (very scenic journey) and continue your itinerary as planned from there. The best of all worlds. This way too, your going in one fluid direction without backtracking, and fitting Zermatt in there as well. It is so beautiful there and has an enormous amount of hiking. So much of which has the Matterhorn in view. This is but one of myriad ways to fit Zermatt in, and merely a suggestion. I hope you are able to fit it in, as I strongly believe you won’t regret it. Enjoy your planning and the trip.
Regards,
Danielsan
Hi Manuela!
I personally like La Punt-Chamues-ch and Zuoz a lot. They’re small authentic villages, but with the basic amenities needed for a holiday, plus excellent train connections to both the Upper and Lower Engadine.
Hi Manuela
In my experience on this forum you are very unlikely to get any consensus on which town or hotel to stay in while visiting Switzerland. Typically forum members recommend the town or hotel they last stayed in which is good as that means they enjoyed their visit. On previous threads there is about an equal number of recommendations for Wengen, Grindelwald, Murren, Interlaken, and Lauterbrunnen as a base in the BO. Nevertheless I’ll add my two cents worth. Like you my wife and I are in our late 60s and go mostly for the hiking, usually moderate day hikes. We have visited and hiked in the Jungfrau and Zermatt areas several times but also in Locarno,Adelboden, Leukerbad and for the first time the Upper Engadine this past September.
We have always stayed in Wengen and highly recommend it. I think the hiking in the Jungfrau area is the best in Switzerland. But we thoroughly enjoyed our recent stay and hiking in the upper Engadine. We opted to stay in Sils Maria (also called Sils Im Engadine) which is a very small town on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and about 20-30 minutes from St Moritz. We stayed at the Waldhaus overlooking Sils Maria lake (not the Waldhaus hotel in St Moritz). It is a large upscale historic family run hotel that has been very well maintained. They have a hiking concierge service that is very knowledgeable and helpful in suggesting and planning day hikes (including maps). The food was excellent and the views fantastic at the Waldhaus. You might consider googling it or looking on Trip Adviser for further details. It reminds me of the Greenbrier hotel in the US. FYI we found the hiking in the Val Fex, Murtel, and Furtschellas excellent and all within 20 minutes or less of Sils Maria
I agree with Danielsan that hiking in Zermatt is worthwhile. The views of the Matterhorn and Gornergrat are iconic for Switzerland. Our last 2 times we stayed in Riffelalp overlooking and above Zermatt and I highly recommend it. Riffelalp has great views of the Matterhorn and is away from the bustle and congestion of Zermatt but close enough to easily visit. also Riffelalp is a great starting point for hikes on the Gornergrat or 5 lakes region as well as Zmutt.
We found that it is desirable to be able to reach the trailheads for our hikes in an hour or less traveling from our base hotel. So I would recommend separate base towns for the Upper and Lower Engadine as long as you can stay at least 4-5 days at each base. Transferring bases more often than every 4-5 days wastes a lot of time with packing, unpacking, transporting luggage, and checking in and out of the hotels.
Definitely travel in September, not November. You should have no trouble getting reservations wherever you want in Switzerland for September 2023. In November you will find many things closed for maintenance and snow may prevent hiking in the high alpine trails
If your interested I recently posted a trip report with photos and details of our hikes in the Wengen and Upper Engadine areas this past September. It’s in the trip report forum on this website as “ Wengen and Sils Maria in September “
If your thoroughly confused now by all the different opinions I’d go with Arno’s advice. He is the head honcho after all.
Enjoy Mark
Hi Manuela,
We spent 2 weeks in the Engadine in September 2019 and took ages to decide on where to base ourselves as there are so many good options. We finally settled on Pontresina and Scuol and were delighted with our choices. Both towns have all the services you could require and excellent transport links. There were also many hiking trails that we could easily access without needing buses or trains. As others have already mentioned Scuol is not touristy and on some of our hikes we saw few other people.
September is always our preferred month to visit too as snow in October can restrict access to many alpine trails.
I do hope you can include a visit to Zermatt in your itinerary. There is something special about hiking with the Matterhorn in view. Not to be missed!
Enjoy
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