[Alonso]

30 March 2018 at 22:31:59 #815054

Dear MyswissAlps community,

My cousin and her husband are coming to Basel for visiting and we are planning to do a very small trip to the Alps, one night staying only. As I’m arranging this small trip, I have been living in Basel for just over a year (we are from Mexico) and I haven’t been out much in the outdoors during my living in Switzerland. The first thing to know is that my cousin is pregnant, so we can’t do any hiking, skiing or just wander around by foot. So I’m thinking to rent a car so we can stop whenever we want and for not doing much walking, instead of going by train or bus. The main destination I’m thinking is Vals as we can visit Chur, Flims and other towns before and literally just see the mountains.

So here my question: Are conditions for going by car good enough during the first week of April? (5th and 6th of April 2018). I see on the live webcams that there is a lot of snow so I just want to be sure that we can drive through the roads by car and visit towns around Vals. I guess we’ll have to consider snow chains for the wheels?

Please let me know any useful thoughts!

Thank you in advance and my best regards.

alonso mortera

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[Arno]

31 March 2018 at 9:31:32 #880468

Hi Alonso, welcome to MySwissAlps!

There’s still snow in Vals and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s still the case next week. I don’t know that area well enough to provide all the details, but I think it would be highly unlikely that you need snow chains. That is usually required in mid winter for small roads that are not cleared of snow. If you have snow chains you will have to practice on how to put them on before your trip. Winter tires are more useful. Your rental car should still have those I would say.

Personally I would definitely go by train for a trip like this. No worries about road conditions, and everyone can enjoy the scenery, including the one that would otherwise drive and focus on the road and traffic. However, Vals would not be the most convenient destination as it can’t reached by train. But a nice circular tour Basel – Chur – Glacier Express to Brig – Basel (optionally via Kandersteg for even more scenery) would be perfect. This would require only 2 to 3 train changes, and of course you can stop along the way as well.

Please find more details here:

• http://www.myswissalps.com/ca r
• http://www.myswissalps.com/tr ain
• http://www.myswissalps.com/ac tivities/scenictrips/t rain