Engadine Highlights (Inn-to-inn hiking tour)
Meet: Guarda
Depart: Soglio
Length: 10 days, 9 nights. 7 nights in beautiful 3-star hotels and 2 nights in mountain huts.
Hike Rating: Strenuous, 5-8 hours/day, 2500'-4500' elevation gain/loss
| 2007 Departure: | not offered |
This tour is an absolute gem, following the En river through the entire Engadine valley, in all of its marvelous variety, from Guarda to Soglio. The Engadine Explorer is a stunning collection of gorgeous, traditional villages, glacier-draped mountains, peaceful lakes, the Swiss National Park, and quiet trails. It's rich cultural heritage includes ancient Romansh, German, and Italian areas. We'll move to a new location every day (with one extra night in Guarda), and stay in 3-star village hotels at each stop along the way, plus two memorable nights in mountain huts. Our luggage is transported separately - and is not available for the nights at the huts - so you can hike unencumbered.
Our typical day starts with a continental buffet breakfast at our inn - delicious fresh baked bread, local cheeses, cereal, fruit, coffee and juice - which gives us the energy needed for a full day of inn-to-inn hiking. Soon we'll be out on the trail for 6-8 hours, where often you'll get to choose between an easier or more strenuous hike for the day. Each morning, you'll be handed a lunch to carry, and at a mid-point along the way we'll choose a beautiful spot to stop and enjoy our picnic. We get a lot of compliments on our imaginative lunches - making them something to look forward to as well!
We should finish our hike around 4-5 pm, giving you time to wash up and relax. After that, we'll enjoy dinner together at our inn. These are usually multi-course feasts, featuring local specialties like bratwurst, lamb, or local lake trout, and will definitely be hearty, filling, and very delicious.
Day 1 Arrive in Switzerland, and transfer by train to Guarda. The train ride from Zurich is very scenic, and Guarda is beautiful place to start our tour. The wide Engadine valley is filled with old castles, forgotten villages, and meandering trails. Guarda is one of the smaller villages in the region, with a beautiful cobblestoned and geranium-covered main road. (Hotel Piz Buin)
Day 2 After a hearty breakfast, we'll hike up to the beautiful Val Tuoi, near the Austrian border, and along the Via Engiadina - a series of hiking trails linking linking the quiet and charming villages of the lower Engadine. We'll stay a second night in Guarda, a small village with only 2 hotels, huddled high on a hillside overlooking the valley. (Hotel Piz Buin)
Day 3 We have a couple of options today on our way from Guarda to Zernez. An easy option continues along the Via Engiadina trail through Lavin and Susch along the banks of the river En, or a strenuous day takes us over a high pass and past small alpine lakes with views into Switzerland's only National Park. A short transfer at the end of the day brings us to another unbelievably quaint village, Zuoz. (Hotel Crusch Alva)
Day 4 The nature of our tour begins to change here as we move from the wide valleys and pastoral traditions of the lower Engadine into the spectacular mountain scenery of the upper Engadine valley. We'll hike from Zuoz to a small hut perched on a peak above Pontresina, and will be rewarded with our first stunning views of the Piz Bernina mountains and the elegant paternoster lakes of the St. Moritz region. (Georgy hut)
Day 5 A short hike today takes us past the aptly-named Paradise hut, a good place for lunch, marmot-watching, and beautiful mountain views, and then down to Pontresina. Pontresina is a wonderful village, stylish and alive with plenty of shops, but still quite small and relaxing. We'll have some time to unwind in one of the more scenic and friendly villages in the Alps. Part A ends after breakfast tomorrow and Part B begins with dinner tonight. (Hotel Steinbock)
Day 6 Our trail meanders back into the deep recesses of the Roseg valley, a long trench surrounded by white-capped peaks and filled with glaciers. There we'll hike to our second hut stay of the tour, the Coaz hut, at the very end of the valley where we will enjoy rustic alpine hospitality and a chance to sleep among the giants of the Alps. (Coaz hut)
Day 7 Leaving the hut, our scenic route leads over the Surlej pass and down to the St. Moritz lakes region for more incredible views. A long descent first above treeline and then through soft larch forests leads to tiny, lakeside Sils Maria for the night, where our hotel is one of the friendliest in the Alps. (Hotel Maria)
Day 8 We won't want to leave the lakes too early, so today's route is a flexible day that allows us to fully enjoy the area. An easy day leads us on a flat (really!) lakeside walk to the Maloja pass, while a more longer option explores magnificent Val Forno near the Maloja pass. (Hotel Schweizerhof)
Day 9 For our grand finale we'll see yet another side of the Engadine. From the Maloja pass we'll drop down into the sunny, italian-infused Val Bregaglia. The vegetation changes and the italian cultural influence is obvious in the villages and alp farms. All of this is accompanied by beautiful mountain views of Piz Badile and other grand peaks. We'll finish in Soglio, a tiny medieval-feeling village with numerous cobblestoned alleys and corners to explore. A fitting way to end a great tour! (Palazzo Salis)
Day 10 Today we say good-bye and depart for our post-tour destinations.
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| Arrive: | Plan to arrive the day your tour starts at the latest (flights from the US would depart the day before). The closest airport is Zurich. There is a train station at the airport that will take you to Meiringen. |
| Depart: | Plan departure for the day after your tour finishes at the earliest. Plan on 1 night at a hotel in your departure city. The Swiss Card rail pass is recommended only if you have extra travel in Switzerland planned before or after this tour. |
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