Bike Davos: Tips for your weekend on the trails

Davos was once known as a health resort, with peo­ple trav­el­ling to Davos as ear­ly as the 19th cen­tu­ry. The clean, dry moun­tain air and cli­mate were con­sid­ered a cure for lung dis­eases. Davos Youth Hos­tel also dates back to this era, once a sana­to­ri­um. In the facil­i­ties, it was par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for patients to get plen­ty of rest and eat well. That’s why every room has a bal­cony with a great view. And there is even a sun ter­race on the roof of the youth hos­tel.

Davos by train

The four of us took the train to Davos. At first, we thought it would be tedious with so much lug­gage and the moun­tain bikes. How­ev­er, the ride was very leisure­ly, as we made the manda­to­ry bike reser­va­tions with the SBB from Zurich main sta­tion to Landquart, so we had des­ig­nat­ed spots. We had a nice chat and played Uno.

After rid­ing up to the youth hos­tel (5 min­utes from Davos Dorf rail­way sta­tion), we were able to check into our room and enjoy a deli­cious three-course meal for din­ner. We first plunged into the sal­ad buf­fet, before we enjoyed some tasty fried pota­toes with beans and beef roast for the main course. For dessert, we had a large brown­ie.

After din­ner, we checked out the town and decid­ed to cool off in Lake Davos. There’s a great lido with a water sports cen­tre where you can rent wind­surf­ing equip­ment, SUPs and ped­a­los.

The bike trail is calling

Fuelled from the youth hostel’s deli­cious break­fast buf­fet on Sat­ur­day morn­ing, we head­ed for the first gon­do­la to Jakob­shorn at 8:30 a.m. Today, there are exact­ly two things on our agen­da: Take the cable car up the moun­tain and then ride our bikes down!

Trail tip (easy):

To get start­ed, we rode all the way down Jakob­shorn once. These are two easy trails that are great for warm­ing up. First you descend a stony trail from Jakob­shorn with wind­ing switch­backs and from the mid­way sta­tion, we fol­lowed the Bol­gen Trail, a route with small, steep curves. Among the locals, it’s also known as the “Chügelibahn”. Because the trail flows with its many banked curves and is per­fect for begin­ners or warm­ing up.

Tour tip: Jakobshorn-Klosters-Jugi Davos (medium)

Once we were warmed up, we climbed Jakob­shorn again and from there head­ed to Ser­tig, on the first sec­tion of the Alps Epic Trail. This trail has a lot of large stones at the start, which can be very tedious, but rid­ing over them at high­er speeds is eas­i­er and a lot of fun. As soon as you head towards the for­est, the trail gets very cool and chal­leng­ing. Many parts of the trail are built sep­a­rate­ly from the hik­ing trail. There are small jumps, banked curves and rock gar­dens. From Ser­tig you cycle back to Davos as far as Lake Davos. There we enjoyed our packed lunch, which we ordered right from the youth hos­tel.

Refreshed and refu­elled, we then con­tin­ued to Klosters via the Wolf­gang. There we tried out the blue down­hill course. The jumps are already very big and chal­leng­ing in the blue, sim­ple course. If you don’t dare to jump them, you can just ride them as nor­mal. The course is real­ly cool and has a good flow with the banked curves. Only the jumps were a bit too chal­leng­ing from time to time.

From Klosters, we took the Gotschn­abahn back to the very top. To return to Davos, fol­low the well-sign­post­ed panoram­ic path. But we weren’t done just yet, so we took the Parsennhüt­ten­bahn up to the Weiss­fluhjoch, which is locat­ed at almost 2,700 m above sea lev­el . Up there, it almost looks a bit like the moon. From there we rode back to Davos and made a short detour to the Davos Adven­ture Park. It has an awe­some pump track. Plus there are jumps for dirt bikes and a bril­liant and unique climb­ing park, which is great for fam­i­lies.

Tip: We put togeth­er our routes using the bike map that we received at the youth hos­tel. You can also find many routes online.

It was time to final­ly earn our din­ner. After such a long day, our bikes got pret­ty dirty. The youth hos­tel has a spe­cial hose for clean­ing them. We were then able to safe­ly store the bikes in a spa­cious, lock­able bicy­cle room.

After din­ner, we explored the youth hos­tel. We noticed the sun ter­race on the roof, the games room in the base­ment with table ten­nis and a pin­ball machine as well as the com­mon room on the ground floor with a bil­liard table and table foot­ball. We had to try every­thing out right away, hold­ing lit­tle com­pe­ti­tions.

Tour tip: Alps Epic Trail Davos (difficult)

On Sun­day, we planned the Alps Epic Trail Davos, which runs from Jakob­shorn to Fil­isur and takes a whole day. Not only does this trail go down­hill – it also has a total alti­tude dif­fer­ence of 750 metres and is extreme­ly chal­leng­ing. To do this trail, it’s not worth buy­ing a day tick­et for the moun­tain rail­ways. You can sim­ply buy a one-way trip up Jakob­shorn, because after that you’ll be depend­ing on your own mus­cles.

From Jakob­shorn, you fol­low a stony trail to Ser­tig. From Ser­tig, you then have to climb up to Riner­horn on a mag­nif­i­cent trail with for­est ter­rain. The climb is very tech­ni­cal and requires plen­ty of mus­cles. It takes just under an hour and from there it’s slight­ly hilly with more descents towards Davos Mon­stein. As our stom­ach was rum­bling again, we had a bite to eat at the Ober­alp Traum Berghütte just before Mon­stein.

From Mon­stein, it’s anoth­er uphill stretch on a coun­try path. After that, it’s all down­hill on a trail on for­est floor to mead­ows. From there, fol­low a coun­try path into the val­ley along the riv­er under the famous Land­wass­er Viaduct from Fil­isur to Fil­isur sta­tion. The Rhaet­ian Rail­way takes you through the beau­ti­ful land­scape back to Davos.

Bottom Line

Davos Youth Hos­tel is per­fect for hol­i­days on your moun­tain bike. Many rooms at the youth hos­tel have a bal­cony, and all have their own bath­room with show­er and WC. With its table ten­nis, pin­ball machine, bil­liard table and table foot­ball, the youth hos­tel also offers plen­ty to do after a ride. The food also tast­ed great and we were even allowed to get a sec­ond help­ing. The per­fect fuel for our long tours. The infra­struc­ture of the youth hos­tel is ide­al for bik­ing fans. You can wash your bikes and store them safe­ly in a locked room.

About the authors

Andri, Alessan­dra, Urs and Beda

There isn’t a trail in the coun­try that is safe from the quar­tet. The out­door fans love to trav­el togeth­er in youth hos­tels and dis­cov­er nature away from every­day life while bik­ing. Togeth­er, they not only have a blast chal­leng­ing them­selves on their sporty adven­tures, but also dis­cov­er­ing Switzer­land from a dif­fer­ent angle.