Is 5 days in Davos, Switzerland too many?
 

My DH will be attending a meeting in Davos for 5 days and I will tag along. Has anyone been there in summer? Favorite hikes, restaurants, day trips, what else is there to do there when the snow has melted?

Too many? Not at all.

- Go to the tourist office and get a leaflet on favourite hikes.
- Visit Guarda and villages in the area.
- Visit Sils
- Visit my cousin who manages the watch and jewelry store in Davos.

I have responded to your query on the Bernina Express on another thread which also included some info on a lovely walk in the Bever valley and walk down from the Berhof hotel in Davos. I would certainly put those top of the list.

Get the Lonely Planet book for walks in Switzerland, it is so helpful with suggestions and gives info on using public transport to get to walks. As mentioned above, the town centre should also have information on local walks. There are some serious walks in the area, like you can go up and over the mountains to Arosa. I am not sure of your interest or ability, and this book may be quite helpful. There are two main Swiss walking clubs which also offer guided walks, you might try their websites (these may be only in German, Italian or French, but you could tray babbelfish translations):

Swiss Hiking Federation at http://www.swisshiking.ch/
Swiss Alpine Club at http://www.alpen-journal.de/links.html

There is a national park in Zernez with just miles of trails for walking, relatively flat and easy, this is probably about an hour by train from Davos.

While Davos itself is not the most charming town, the surrounding countryside is very, very lovely and in summer will be green and quite beautiful. I agree on the above suggestion to go to Guarda, IMO the most charming village in all of Switzerland, there is also Tarasp with its castle and Scuol. Sameden has many scraffito buildings similar to Guarda and is also worth a stop. Go up to St Moritz and explore that area, esp the lake area around Sils-Maria (have lunch at the Waldhaus), and there are cable cars and walks around and down in the St Moritz area. While the town of St Mortiz is not exactly charming either, it does have some amazing shopping and good restaurants and you can just people-watch the really, really rich people there (as opposed to just the ordinary rich people in Davos…ha ha) If you have a car, the Julier pass can be fun to drive, or take a Postbus up and over it. A great ride is the Palm Express bus ride from St Moritz down to Lake Como, a very pretty ride over the Splugen Pass and Majola Pass and through some lovely ancient towns like Promontogno and Stampa. You should be able to do this as a day trip if you can start early (and days are long in June/July when I am assuming your trip is). Or go for an overnight and stay in the Como area. If you have a car, then do this as a drive stopping off at the lovely little towns in Italy (or get off the bus in some of them.)

You can go down to Bad Ragaz by train in about 1.5 hours and go to some of their natural hot spring baths and pools see, http://www.myswitzerland.com/en.cfm/...al-110105.html for some general information.

You can go go the lovely and virtually untouristed area around Mustair, in the Romansch-speaking far east of Switzland, which is about 2 hours by train from Davos. There is the Benedictine convent of St John in Mustair, which has a church with beautfil murals. Take a look at http://www.muestair.ch/

If you somehow get bored or get rain, Zurich is about 2 hours by train from Davos (slightly less by car) and offers many distractions like good museums. On a sunny day, Zurich is great for ferry rides on the lake (one thing the Engadine is lacking). In that case, I would train to Rapperswil and then ride all the way up to Zurich, sitting in the back to get the Alp views. Then train back to Davos when you have seen a little of Zurich. (Note that there are many towns called Rapperswil, you want the want in Saint Gallen Canton spelled with two “p”s.). You could also take the train to the towns of Kusnacht or Horgen, which are further up the lake toward Zurich, and take the ferry from there to Zurich.

There are often festivals like ballooning festivals in the Engadine in the summer, so check websites or with your hotel.

Read the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It is set in Davos. I personally think of it as set at the Berhof hotel, but that is just my notion I think.

I would suggest you get a guidebook for Switzerland (not Rick Steves as he does not cover this area well). One that focuses on the Engadine would be very good.

Sorry, for favourite restaurant it has to be the Chesa Grischuna in Klosters, take a look at http://www.chesagrischuna.ch/index-english.html. Will look to see if I have others for Davos itself, there is a little place outside that I like in winter because you can take sleighs to it, should be a nice walk in summer, I will check my list. Berhof hotel for drinks for sure, restaurant is fine as well, there is another place up there as well.

I spent a full week in Davos some years ago and didn't get bored. One *must* excursion is the Bernina Express (see other thread, and I won't correct Cicerone here again). Another is Guarda like schuler suggested.

Don't forget about the wonderful hiking opportunities around Davos itself if you're into that. Mountain cable cars and public transportation are included if you stay in a hotel if I recall correctly. Definitely see the Sertig valley (cute hamlet at the end of the valley), go up to Jakobshorn by cable car (maybe hike down via Clavadel). See Davos-Monstein, a picturesque village (microbrewery). See the Kirchner museum. Go up to Weissfluhjoch and Weissfluh peak for fabulous views. And so on ...

Thanks for all the terrific suggestions, schuler, Cicerone, and Ingo. I'm not worried anymore about running out of things to do. And Cicerone, if you do have other suggestions for restaurants in Davos itself, that would be great.