"So What is Your Favorite of All the Swiss Ski Resorts?"

One can barely believe it, but the romanticism of Swiss ski Resorts and the beauty with snow covered mountain slopes were discovered in little more than 110 years ago.

Before that, guests only traveled in the summer months to enjoy the unique altitude climate and the breathtaking scenery. Sir Edward Whymper laid the foundation stone for Alpine tourism with his ascent together with locals of Zermatt to the Matterhorn in 1865.

Johannes Badrutt of St. Moritz who purchased a pension faller and upgraded it into the Kulm Hotel in 1856 served the first guests. A few years later, he built curling rinks and the world's first toboggan run and invented Alpine winter tourism. Only 32-years later followed the fashionable Badrutts Palace.

It was at the beginning of September in 1964 when hotel pioneer Johannes Badrutt made a bet with four British summer guests. They should come and visit the Engadine in the wintertime, he said to them. If they do not like it, he will pay back their travel expenses to London.

However, should they like St Moritz in the winter; he will invite them as his guests to stay for as long as they wanted. The Englishmen liked this bet, which they thought they would win anyway. They accepted, came just before Christmas, and stayed until Easter.

They were the first winter tourists of the Alps, and discovered a very new world - the "white winter holidays". Thus, St. Moritz became the cradle of Switzerland tourism and one of the first winter resorts. However, this world famous mountain resort in the Swiss Alps accommodated guests from all over Europe long before that time. This is because St. Moritz discovered the ferrous mineral springs more than 3,000 years ago.

Then the first few English tourists arrived for a stay in the winter. Shortly before the turn of the century, the first skiers traveled also to the Valais resort of Saas Fee and to the Bernese Oberland resorts of Grindelwald and Gstaad. About at the same time other Swiss ski resorts and ski clubs originated known today as Crans-Montana and Verbier.

However, the town of Glarus founded the first ski club in Switzerland in 1893. Five years later at the same location, the first ski race of the Alps took place on two primitive wooden skis and just one long pole. In 1907, the construction of the cable car "Braunwald" (Braunwaldbahn) and the "Grand Hotel" began. However, at that time, not just Alpine skiing developed in Switzerland.

Cross-country skiing and skating took off too. In fact, from all the winter sports and probably all sports, cross-country skiing is dating back to 4,000 years ago and started in Norway. Moreover, the first races were around 1550 in Telemarken, Norway.

From 1898 to 1906 international sledges and bobsleigh races were held from Davos to Klosters. Then after the 1905/06 winter season, the village of Davos constructed its own bobsleigh at the "Schatzalp Davos".

Today, the Swiss ski resorts are very modern and a few are outstanding and more geared to the high-end tourists. With about 5,400 hotels, 4,400 restaurants and countless holiday apartments, it becomes clear that there is something for everybody. Not to mention the many ski lifts, gondolas, chair lifts, aerial cable railways, ski pistes, cross-country ski trails, curling rinks, hiking trails and ...

Nevertheless, the so-called cheap tourism is missing in most of the Swiss ski resorts. Most people visiting Switzerland expect a high standard under the motto that quality is everything. By far the most expensive luxury ski resorts are Gstaad just ahead of St. Moritz and Flims Laax Falera. Zermatt on the other hand is the most successful destination in the Swiss Alps.

According to a study done by the tourism board, guests spend most in Interlaken in Bernese Oberland. On average, the Chinese guests spend every day about 430 Swiss francs. It is somewhat strange because there is not much to see and do in Interlaken. Do not worry; there are more interesting resorts, for example beautiful Arosa or Lenzerheide in the Canton of Grisons or Bettmeralp in the Valais.

Because of currency fluctuations, Switzerland is becoming cheaper and is in fact in many ways less expensive than France, Italy, or Austria, which are our surrounding Alpine neighbors. Some of the guests are coming back regularly for a vacation to one of the many Swiss ski resorts. Than, there are those that end up buying a Swiss chalet and stay here forever.

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