Tips for a winter weekend trip to Engelberg

Engel­berg Youth Hos­tel has opened its doors to guests for many years and boasts a won­der­ful loca­tion. The cosy chalet is sit­u­at­ed near to the entrance to the vil­lage, at about the same alti­tude as Lake Eugen. It is very close to the Titlis moun­tain cable­ways and only a stone’s throw from Engel­berg rail­way sta­tion. There are also a host of restau­rants, cafés and bars near­by to delight food­ies and après-ski fans alike. From your room at the youth hos­tel you can look direct­ly over the ski­ing areas and the moun­tains. One look out of the win­dow is enough to tell you what the weath­er will be like that day.

Exciting winter adventures in Engelberg:

I trav­elled to Engel­berg with a friend. We want­ed to explore the place that is so espe­cial­ly well known in Swe­den. Most skiers are well equipped and a styl­ish freeride out­fit seems to be the order of the day here. We could get used this! It’s what makes Engel­berg one of the cool­er and trendi­er ski resorts in Switzer­land. Engel­berg isn’t just worth a vis­it for its ski­ing and freerid­ing. There are so many oth­er things to enjoy in the region – from enchant­i­ng snow­shoe tours to thrilling tobog­gan runs. And it’s the ide­al loca­tion for cross-coun­try ski­ing enthu­si­asts too.

Skiing area options

There are two moun­tain cable­ways in Engel­berg: They are locat­ed in the sun­ny Brun­ni resort, where we didn’t go because there wasn’t enough snow, and in the well-known Titlis resort. The cool thing is that hard­core win­ter fans can often start the ski­ing sea­son here as ear­ly as mid-Octo­ber, because ski oper­a­tions on the glac­i­er start ear­ly. This ski­ing area is more suit­able for expe­ri­enced skiers. For freerid­ers, there are long, large and open runs such as the Laub – but this sport is not entire­ly with­out its risks. It is there­fore advis­able to take a guide when freerid­ing so that you can get to know Engel­berg bet­ter and, above all, safe­ly. 

Ski touring in Engelberg:

It’s always dif­fi­cult to plan a ski tour in a place you don’t know well. But the tour to the Alpe­len­hörn­li was a com­plete suc­cess. We set off from the Titlis val­ley sta­tion and made our way approx­i­mate­ly 1,000 up the moun­tain­side. It was rel­a­tive­ly easy going to begin with but became a lit­tle steep­er in the sec­ond part, but only mod­er­ate­ly so. The ski tour is rat­ed as «medi­um» in terms of dif­fi­cul­ty. When you reach your des­ti­na­tion, you are stand­ing 2,023 metres above sea lev­el on a hill sit­u­at­ed in front of the huge Rot­sand­nollen escarp­ment. Hav­ing this escarp­ment as our back­drop makes the tour par­tic­u­lar­ly pho­to­genic – we take a lot of pic­tures and are impressed by the impos­ing Engel­berg moun­tains. Dur­ing the descent we are reward­ed for our efforts with a few wind­ing pow­er turns. 

Après-ski:

There is a wide vari­ety of après-ski options. We tried out the Yucatan bar and the Ski Lodge. Both bars are styl­ish and dec­o­rat­ed entire­ly in Swedish style and not like the clas­sic après-ski haunts that play pop hits all the time. They serve drinks that you’ve nev­er heard of, but we’re soon total­ly into it. My top tip: the drink called «Vail in der Skilo­dge».

Afternoon chillout:

As the weath­er wasn’t quite on our side one of the days we planned to ski, we decid­ed to head for the val­ley in the after­noon and relaxed in the well­ness area at the H+ Hotel & Spa. From the youth hos­tel you can reach the resort in about ten min­utes on foot. There are var­i­ous saunas, relax­ation areas and a pool. Since well­ness leaves you hun­gry, after­wards you can stroll just a few metres away to the Kafikauf­bar and treat your­self to a deli­cious slice of cake or, if you’re a bit hun­gri­er, a tarte flam­bée. The atmos­phere is cosy and invites you to linger.

Anoth­er tip is to use Engelberg’s inter­na­tion­al­i­ty to your advan­tage. The Titlis is also a pop­u­lar excur­sion des­ti­na­tion in Asia, which is why many Indi­an guests trav­el to Engel­berg. For this rea­son, there are also sev­er­al restau­rants catered to this mar­ket. I high­ly rec­om­mend din­ner at «Spice Bazaar» (Indi­an restau­rant). How­ev­er, the cui­sine is quite authen­tic and I rec­om­mend that you order your per­son­al «heat lev­el». Oth­er­wise, you may end up eat­ing more yoghurt than fine Indi­an (very spicy) lentil cur­ry. 😉

Mountain activities 

Oth­er activ­i­ties that we unfor­tu­nate­ly did not try out due to the weath­er would be the fon­due sledge, where you can take your fon­due to a cosy spot in the ski area, and snow­shoe­ing at full moon