Pure mountain adventure on the Alpine Circle

About as panoramic as it gets! This road and rail trip offers magical views of the natural surroundings of the Grisons and Ticino.

Last fall, I embarked on an extra­or­di­nary adven­ture. My pro­gramme includ­ed the Alpine Cir­cle, which com­bines all the high­lights of the Grisons and a side trip to Tici­no in one tour.

The great thing about this tour was that I was able to tai­lor the basic route Laax – Locarno – St. Moritz to suit my inter­ests. The vari­ety of expe­ri­ences and oppor­tu­ni­ties for detours into the local moun­tains are tru­ly end­less here.

The Bern­i­na Express trav­els from glac­i­ers to palm trees – and back. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Three youth hostels – countless sights

The fol­low­ing youth hos­tels were booked as fixed points for accom­mo­da­tion:

The train ride auto­mat­i­cal­ly took me past the four main sights of the Alpine Cir­cle: the Rhine Gorge, the Swiss Nation­al Park, the Diav­olez­za glac­i­er world and the Rhaet­ian Rail­way Land­wass­er Viaduct near Fil­isur.

Of course, there were many oth­er attrac­tions to dis­cov­er. In the end, I was lucky enough to encounter all the facets of the Swiss autumn in terms of weath­er.

View from the train win­dow of one of the count­less viaducts and the Gri­son Alps. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Mystical mist and wellness in Laax

On the rainy jour­ney to Laax by train and Post­Bus, I ben­e­fit­ed for the first time from the Rhaet­ian Rail­way graubün­den Pass: This GA Trav­el­card for the Grisons gives you unlim­it­ed trav­el on Graubün­den (Grisons) pub­lic trans­port.

As the weath­er gave me more mist than sun­shine, I decid­ed to go to the rows of stones from the Bronze Age in Falera. There, I caught a few shy rays of sun­shine against the colour­ful autumn back­drop.

Falera in autumn colours with a view. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Lake Laax is also beau­ti­ful when it’s cloudy. ©Natal­ie Sidler

In the evening, I treat­ed myself at the youth hos­tel – to some well­ness for all the sens­es with a deli­cious plant-based cur­ry at Restau­rant Biblau and a relax­ing break in the Aua Gra­va well­ness area.

Flavour­ful and deli­cious: the healthy plant-based cur­ry at the youth hos­tel restau­rant. ©Natal­ie Sidler

In good weath­er, the moun­tain autumn in the Sur­sel­va region is won­der­ful­ly var­ied. You can find inspi­ra­tion here in the Overnight Blog.

Serpentines from Laax to Locarno

This stage excit­ed me: In turns, I was amazed by the incline, the many bends, viaducts and the fan­tas­tic view – but it was a bit tricky in terms of plan­ning. The route went through Ander­matt (in the can­ton of Uri) and thus out of my tick­et com­fort zone. But the lady at the tick­et office in Dis­en­tis quick­ly helped me out, so I was able to con­tin­ue on the Mat­ter­horn Got­thard Bahn towards the Ober­alp Pass with­out any wor­ries.

When your own train is fur­ther ahead in the bend. ©Natal­ie Sidler

I also just missed the time win­dow when the Post­Bus ser­vices the «king of pass­es,» i.e. the Got­thard Pass (last year, the last trip of the sea­son was on 9 Octo­ber). Instead, I caught a glimpse of the famous Devil’s Bridge in the Schöl­lenen Gorge on the steep train descent from Ander­matt to Gösch­enen.

Are you fast enough to take a pic­ture of Devil’s Bridge? ©Natal­ie Sidler

Tip:

Any­one wish­ing to pho­to­graph the spec­ta­cle with­out chang­ing seats is advised to sit at the train win­dow on the right (in the direc­tion of trav­el).

My castle extra: A detour to Bellinzona

On arrival at Locarno Youth Hos­tel, I was already look­ing for­ward to the extend­ed stopover – includ­ing la dolce vita on Lake Mag­giore and a cas­tle hike in near­by Bellinzona.

Pic­turesque evening ambi­ence on Lake Mag­giore. ©Natal­ie Sidler

The best place to start the cas­tle tour is at the tourist infor­ma­tion office. There, they gave me a map of the cir­cu­lar route through the UNESCO World Her­itage Site and warned me that the third cas­tle was quite high up. How­ev­er, tired legs and good cam­eras still allow an impres­sive view of the stone giant in the for­est (Castel­lo di Sas­so Cor­baro).

The ascent to Mon­te­bel­lo Cas­tle (cen­tre), with the third cas­tle in the back­ground (top right). ©Natal­ie Sidler

My favourite:

Walk­ing across the wide walls of Cas­tel Grande real­ly took my breath away.

View of Cas­tel Grande from the wall. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Off to Italy on the Bernina Express Bus

Well-rest­ed, I con­tin­ued my extra­or­di­nary trav­el expe­ri­ence on to Italy, board­ing the red-and-white Bern­i­na Express Bus at Stazione Nord in Lugano. Be care­ful, the bus stops a bit out of the way (hence the tip: Stazione Nord).

Bern­i­na Express Bus: My jour­ney con­tin­ues on the road. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Lunch at Piaz­za Basil­i­ca in Tira­no treat­ed me to a very spe­cial encounter: The Bern­i­na Express nois­i­ly crossed the inter­sec­tion in front of the pil­grim­age church before my very eyes!

In the mid­dle of the inter­sec­tion and right in front of the din­ing ter­race, the Bern­i­na Express sur­pris­es me on the track. © Rhätis­che Bahn / Christof Son­dereg­ger

Things get real­ly excit­ing from Tira­no: This sec­tion of the RhB UNESCO World Her­itage route took me on the Bern­i­na Express panoram­ic car through spec­tac­u­lar Alpine land­scapes on Europe’s high­est rail­way tracks. Not only is it the steep­est rail­way line in the world, it also pass­es through a total of 55 tun­nels and cross­es 196 bridges.

The Bru­sio spi­ral viaduct is a mas­ter­piece of rail­way con­struc­tion. ©Natal­ie Sidler

By the way, the Bern­i­na Express is cel­e­brat­ing its birth­day this year: For no less than 50 years, it has been trans­port­ing its guests up to the eter­nal ice, through rugged gorges and – in my case – past radi­ant autumn forests. There is even cur­rent­ly a chance to win a ride in your own panoram­ic car for you and your loved ones: 50 years of the Bern­i­na Express.

The eter­nal ice of the Morter­atsch Glac­i­er behind gold­en trees. ©Natal­ie Sidler

Golden larch in St. Moritz

I was also greet­ed by bright yel­low larch­es in St. Moritz. In autumn, they not only frame the award-win­ning youth hos­tel (Ibex Fairstay Award) but they also enhance almost any panoram­ic pho­to tak­en in the famous tourist resort.

Dogs also love the youth hos­tel and the evening scenery in St. Moritz. ©Natal­ie Sidler

The next morn­ing, after an abun­dant break­fast, I took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to admire Lake St. Moritz in all its colours.

Autumn sun­shine and sparkling water on Lake St. Moritz. ©Natal­ie Sidler

If you have more time than me, you can try the Diav­olez­za glac­i­er expe­ri­ence, the Engadin lakes or plan a cul­tur­al tour of St. Moritz.

The Albula Line rocks

The last big route deci­sion that I had to make before return­ing home: Should I take the Albu­la Line or the Flüela Pass?

I didn’t have to think for long, as I def­i­nite­ly want­ed to check off the must-vis­it place near Fil­isur, the impres­sive Land­wass­er Viaduct. To do this, take the Albu­la Line (towards Chur).

The Rhaet­ian Rail­way land­mark is 65 metres high and 142 metres long. ©Andrea Badrutt

With my head and my phone full of impres­sions, I arrived home hap­py. I won’t be for­get­ting this fan­tas­tic and var­ied round trip any time soon!

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