Arosa, Switzerland

Valsana Hotel & Apartments

Price per night from$930.06

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (CHF817.20), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Valsana Hotel & Apartments Photos

Style

Chalet chic

Setting

Swiss slopes

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Reinventing the chalet-hotel wheel, Valsana in the Swiss ski resort of Arosa has let trad Alpine stuffiness melt away with last year’s piste. In its place is a fun, fabulous design, with botanical prints, industrial accents and bold reclaimed pieces. The restaurant caters to every kind of traveller (vegans, gluten-phobes and clean-eaters will all be fed well here), and the hotel’s eco credentials are heroic. The Arosa-Lenzerheide ski area has 225 kilometres of slopes to throw yourself down – in summer, it’s all about the watersport-friendly lake and its surrounding hiking trails.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A CHF 50.00 voucher for Restaurant Twist

Facilities

Photos Valsana Hotel & Apartments facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Forty-nine, including nine suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm, also flexible.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

The train from Chur (can we call it the chur-chur train? Sorry) is the stuff of Swiss chocolate-box dreams: be sure to sit on the right on the way up and on the left on the way down for the best snowy views.

Hotel closed

Mid April until the end of June, and from the end of September until the beginning of December.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, indoor tennis court, gym, yoga. In rooms: flatscreen TV, iPod dock, free bottled water, complimentary soft-drink minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, tablet with hotel information.

Our favourite rooms

Private balconies, oak parquet floors, Aztec-print throws and on-point furniture (eg: aviator egg chairs) ensure there’s no trace of twee Alpine trad here. We love the split-level Loft Junior Suites, which have a balcony and bath tub all helpfully arranged to frame the peaky landscape. Even the entry-level suites are a decent size. Families and groups should book the multi-room apartments, which can have extra beds added to sleep up to six.

Poolside

The spa has a heated family-friendly pool, with a wall of windows showcasing the slopes.

Spa

There’s a much-needed spa ready to soothe boot-weary limbs after a day on the piste, with a steam room, sauna and three treatment rooms for Methode Physiodermie rituals. Yoga and fitness classes are held regularly, and there’s a sports club with personal trainers and Technogym machines.

Packing tips

The usual mountain-friendly suspects, plus cosy cashmere for elegant après-ski attire and your gym kit for the PTs to put you through your paces in the flashy sports club.

Also

The hotel is accessible for wheelchairs, except for the pool and tennis hall. Some of the rooms have specially adapted bathrooms.

Pet‐friendly

Dog bowls and blankets can be supplied for 30 francs a night. See more pet-friendly hotels in Arosa.

Children

All ages welcome. Extra beds and cots can be added to some Junior Suites. There are several ski schools in Arosa to start them young. Swimming aids and inflatables can be borrowed in the pool, and the hotel has sledges for toddlers.

Sustainability efforts

All food is locally sourced and seasonal where possible (harder than it looks at 1,800 metres above sea level) – only European wines are served and all of the bread and dairy produce comes from Arosa. Electricity comes courtesy of the local hydro-power plant. The heating system is one of the most environmentally friendly in Europe – the hotel uses geothermal probes and captures waste heat (from other appliances and activities) that’s then stored in an ice battery until it’s needed. Even the hotel's meeting and events rooms are eco-friendly.

Food and Drink

Photos Valsana Hotel & Apartments food and drink

Top Table

Out on the sun terrace if you’re factor-50’d-up or mountain gazing through the windows.

Dress Code

Anything that matches your moon boots.

Hotel restaurant

Twist takes more of the hotel’s signature polished oak floors, hanging lamps, leather chairs and colourful wall fabrics and throws them all together – in a good way. Breakfast is served here; expect a calorific spread of bread, cakes, muesli, smoothies, porridge, eggs and meats to get you through till your first piste-side pitstop. Allergies are well catered for and there are plenty of interesting healthier options should you want them, including pick-your-own-protein salad bowls, vegan-friendly chocolate mousse and unusual-but-tasty dishes such as beetroot couscous with hazelnuts and buttermilk. A New York-based company is behind the music and there are regular DJs and live sets.

Hotel bar

There’s a bar area in Twist, where you can enjoy local gins and wines, including a Swiss sparkling wine made with pinot noir. Food is served here, either from the main restaurant or a series of après-ski snacks, such as steak sandwiches or a falafel salad.

Last orders

Breakfast is served in Twist from 7.30am until 11am. Food is served in the lounge and bar all day until 11pm. Lunch in the main restaurant is between 11.45am and 1.45pm; dinner is from 6pm until 9.30pm. The bar calls time at midnight.

Location

Photos Valsana Hotel & Apartments location
Address
Valsana Hotel & Apartments
Oberseepromenade 2
Arosa
7050
Switzerland

The hotel is in the alpine village of Arosa, in the Swiss canton Graubunden.

Planes

As with most ski resorts, the nearest airport is a significant descending drive away – the one up from Zurich International will take two hours. Hotel transfers in a Mercedes can be arranged on request.

Trains

From Zurich, change trains in Chur and board the small mountain-wending Rhaetian Railway to Arosa – the views are incredible. And it’s not the quickest way to arrive, but you can bet your Swiss-made watch it’ll run like clockwork. The station in Arosa is a three-minute drive from Valsana (pick-ups are complimentary; just let the team know what time you’ll be arriving).

Automobiles

Chur is the closest town, a 45-minute drive away. There’s an underground carpark at the hotel; parking costs 20 francs during the winter, 12 in summer. There are also a few outdoor spaces which are free of charge.

Other

There’s a helipad a five-minute drive from the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Valsana is within the expansive Arosa-Lenzerheide ski area, which has a whopping 225 kilometres of runs. The closest cable car, Weisshorn, is 10 minutes away on foot; there’s also a free sports bus stop in front of the hotel that will cart you directly to the lifts. Stay on the bus a bit longer to read the Kulm and Hörnli Express ski areas. When you’re finished flying through powder for the day, make your way down one of the slopes that leads directly to the hotel. Ski-in, indeed. Back at the hotel, guests can attend a yoga class, use the spa or join one of the film nights in the lounge (popcorn included). Other wintry activities include snowshoeing and ice hockey on the lake. In summer, there are several hiking and mountain biking trails to enjoy – guests can borrow one of the hotel's mountain bikes (free) or e-bikes (CHF20 for a half day, CHF40 for a full day) – and there are pedalos and watersports on the lake. 

 

Local restaurants

Pay homage to everyone’s favourite Swiss cereal with a visit to Alpenblick on the slopes, where the wood-burning grill will ensure adequate ski sustenance is provided. It also wins the prize for restaurant with the most inventive ways to reach it: on skis for lunch, by horse-drawn carriage for dinner and a toboggan race back to the village afterwards. For hearty meals mountainside, try Motta Hütte, or the teen-friendly burgers at Sit Hütte. Other dining and drinking spots close to Valsana include Bullrian and Gütterschuppen.

Local bars

No ski holiday is complete without a rave in your salopettes, AKA après-ski. In Arosa, the best place to crack the magnums of rosé at 4pm is Kuhbar; and if you’re still going later, head to the town’s hottest nightclub, Wandelbar.

Reviews

Photos Valsana Hotel & Apartments reviews
Mike MacEacheran

Anonymous review

By Mike MacEacheran, Travelling scribe

Nudity. Every romance needs it. Lasting ones depend on it. But this amorous weekend started with a little more than Mrs Smith had bargained for. 
 
‘Darling, there’s a naked man in the shower!’ she proclaimed, her eyebrows arched. For a moment, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. There were many things I thought I’d learn on this trip to Arosa, an above-the-clouds Alpine retreat in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Getting to know our fellow guests so intimately was not one of them.
 
Travel demands an open-mind, of course. It teaches you how to expect the unexpected. How to adapt to adverse circumstances. How to roll with the punches. Ditching your small ones is commonplace in European saunas and steam rooms. That, we both knew. And perfect loin cloth squares are provided to cover your dignity. 
 
The next morning, we get our first sight of the shimmering Untersee lake and Weisshorn peak. Ensconced in an aviator egg chair, poised beside our private balcony, she began to fall in love with the Swiss Alps even more. The chalet-style hotel sat wrapped in a summer’s meadow, framed by a ridge of pyramid-like peaks, the middle distance covered with cows grazing on sloping pastures as their bells jangled in the breeze. In winter, of course, this transforms into a ski resort, with 225 kilometres of snow-dusted slopes to assail. But either way, this was the Switzerland we’d hoped for.
 
The playful room design, a spin on the traditional Alpine chalet, helped thaw her out, too. On many ski holidays past, Mrs Smith had hated the stuffiness of the mountain huts, the bare bones aesthetic of heart-shaped farmhouse chairs, gingham tablecloths and marionette dolls. But here there was not a flower box or fondue set in sight: this was Soho House meets the Swiss Alps. 
 
In our Junior Suite, she loved the bold Aztec throws and botanical wall prints. As well as the cinema-sized TV, I made a beeline for the suitcase-box record player and pre-selected vinyl. I brewed her a fresh Nespresso, peeking outside to make sure those mountain views didn’t disappear. She padded across the oak parquet floor to select a Lionel Richie LP. Her choice? ‘Endless Love’. Things were looking up. 
 
From lobby to lounge, the hotel turned out to be the ultimate Alpine fantasy. Given a complete overhaul from the trustworthy Tschuggen group, it reopened in the winter 2017 with 40 rooms and nine family apartments, a worthy newcomer to the sometimes-staid mountain scene. Outside, there were trails to hike, bike or buzz down at full throttle, but inside the narrative was very different. The decor was industrial: a testament to the nation’s obsession with post-modern, sustainable design. Every inch had been considered and nothing was accidental. Trust the Swiss to power a hotel with an energy concept consisting of geothermal probes and an ice battery. Impressive.
 
The open-plan restaurant Twist, with its walk-around bar, polished counter and guilt-free menu was a safe space for veggies, vegans and clean-eaters. As well as channelling the vibe of a New York hipster deli, it was framed by top-to-toe windows, which let the morning and afternoon light flood in. 
 
The rain falling gently the next morning, we paid little lip service to the tennis court and headed instead back to the spa. This time, Mrs Smith and I had hit the jackpot. We found ourselves alone in its luxurious, reclaimed-pine lair, soothed by a herbal footbath and an ice rubdown. Afterwards, naked and perspiring in the aromatherapy sauna, we were transported beyond the windows, straight into the Arosa forest and up to the sky-high peaks. 
 
The temptation to hike above the clouds for a leg stretch lingered. But I was more inclined to savour the dream-like steam with a very nude Mrs Smith. Naked romance, in its purest form.

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Price per night from $930.06