 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi - going for a cheeky long weekend with a group of friends ( no kids  ) to Laax at the end of Feb. Staying in the hotel Laaxerhof . Have never been in this area so a bit clueless. Would like to get a train to Zurich - what / when is the best way to buy tickets? Also any recommendations for reasonable ski rental ( some of us ski and some snowboard)? Lift passes - looks like these have dynamic pricing- is it really worth buying in advance. Of course any other local tips in terms of both ski area and restaurants would be much appreciated. Thank you!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Bella2015 wrote: |
| Would like to get a train to Zurich - what / when is the best way to buy tickets? |
Meant to say train from Zurich airport to the resort
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Buy tickets online, if you know the trains you want you may get a fixed train cheaper fair. Download the excellent app for timetable and platform info. Train and bus is integrated so you can one ticket including the post bus from Chur. The postbus station is above the rail platforms. Route is ZRH - Zurich Main - Chur - Laax
Skirental - just use the aggregator sites.
Pass- why wouldn't you use the dynamic pricing.
Lunch
A Wurst from the hut on Sattel black on a sunny day is excellent
The place at Startgels is excellent and reasonably priced
Cheapest place is Curnius self service and is still good
Runs, down into Flims and Falera are lovely
And dont forget to giggle like kids because everything is Crap - its part of the experience.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Thu 8-02-24 13:20; edited 2 times in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The station under the airport has manned booking offices with helpful English-speaking people, but there may be better online deals in advance. You need to take any train to Zurich main station (Hauptbahnhof, abbreviated Hbf) and change for a train to Chur. There are regular postbuses from Chur - the Swiss have well coordinated transport - which go from a bus station upstairs from the trains.
We bought lift passes the first day. I am afraid I no longer remember the name of the hire shop we used, I think there were a couple near the lift base. We were self-catering and only ate out a couple of times, and I don't remember the places as particularly exciting. There was a rather smart restaurant for lunch up at the top, called the Elephant as I recall (apparently someone once took an elephant up there!)
Decent ski area with some satisfying reds and blues, but also a few tedious tracks. Easily the most enjoyable run was a black running down a valley on its own, accessed at the right hand side of the glacier as you ski down from the T-bar. There was a simple snack bar at the bottom for an inexpensive lunch.
Have fun!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@j b, your black is the sattel I mentioned
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Sorry @hobbiteater, our previous posts crossed. (To be fair, I was distracted away from my computer, so the half written post took a while to be finished and uploaded).
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@hobbiteater, @j b, thank you both for all the details
Much clearer now! I saw the word Crap on the weather forecast- what does this actually mean ( although kind of makes sense as the weather seems a bit crap;)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Crap is Romansch (the local language) for peak or mountain etc - eg a local mountain Crap Masegn
(edited to correct me putting the wrong language!)
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 8-02-24 21:32; edited 1 time in total
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train tickets booked in advance for specific service are cheaper, but then you are dependent on flight being on time....
If you get the train that gets the last postbus 00:02 from Chur to Flims / Laax, if you haven't bought an advance reserved ticket you have to call ahead to say you want the bus, as they lay on a taxi / minibus instead of a bus. this did confuse the heck out of me on arriving at Chur with the bus station deserted and not having read the small print on the ticket (in german). We did manage to blag our way onto the mini bus that duly arrived for some other parties, one of whom explained that in english to us. (it will have a TX logo next to it in the details on postauto.ch and "R" in box for "mandatory reservation")
Ski hire isnt cheap in swissy land, so shop around a bit
you will save a few francs buying lift pass ahead.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@hobbiteater, ah yes, looking forward to all the crap then;)
@t44tomo, thank you. We are arriving in the morning so should be ok
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| hobbiteater wrote: |
| Crap is Ladin (the local language) for peak or mountain etc - eg a local mountain Crap Masegn |
The language is Sursilvan, local version of Romansch, which exists in a few other dialects (or separate languages, depending on who you ask) mainly further East within Graubunden. It's quite widely spoken in Flims and Laax, even to the extent of hearing people chatting away on chairlifts, and half understandable for someone with a working knowledge of French and Italian. I was going to sign up for local classes to learn it when we were thinking of buying a house there a few years back before settling on Morgins instead.
Anyway, yes, Crap means Rock, and is used extensively there for mountain names; Crap Siogn Gion, in the middle of the ski area, is St. John, as a starter to trying to get your tongue round pronunciations.
(As far as I can tell Ladin is a related language spoken only in parts of Italy; if they use that name locally to refer to Sursilvan Romansch then I've not heard of it).
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Thu 8-02-24 21:16; edited 1 time in total
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doh, got my languages mixed up, Ladin is spoken in Sud Tyrol (corvara etc)
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You know it makes sense.
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@hobbiteater, And there was me being so careful not to offend, just in case I'd got it wrong 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Wow you just never know what you might learn on this forum! Never heard of these languages before
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Bella2015, Romansch is one of the four official Swiss languages, you'll see it written alongside the other three on all Swiss banknotes, for example, and in Graubunden, where it's an official language of the canton, everything official has to be available in it as well. When we were thinking of moving there I was contemplating doing it instead of German for my citizenship tests, whenever we get around to that. My German's not bad, but I hate it, and was rather looking forward to learning another language that I'd be able to use on a daily(ish) basis.
As an aside - good choice. I love the skiing in that area, led quite a few Ski Club holidays there, thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Chaletbeauroc, thank you for the insight - I did know there was a local language in Switzerland but didn’t know what it was called Romansch …
Now looking forward even more to exploring the area!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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we go their every year, will be there for a week from sunday - love the area, fabulous mix of skiing for everyone. The laax app is handy as well, you can order and pay at a bunch of the mountain and station restaurants with it, which helped us beat the queues a lot. I'd also recommend the blue lift pass if budget stretches to it for busy days only (you can i think buy it on the day), as it allows you skip any queues that arise. For rentals, meini sports in laax village are pretty good, decent collection of ski's. Best post ski beers are in flims in the legna, right at the end of the run to flims...
In no particular order, really good runs to do ...
La Siala - Grauberg - Flims (gorgeous red into long old blue to flims)
Vorab - Lavindas (alluded to above, black of the back of the glacier to Lavindas)
Treis Palas - Crap masegn - fabulous empty red you can loop all day, sneaky itinerary to the right that great in condition.
Looping Scansinas - Mutta rotunda via itinerary, blacks, blues or reds, something for everyone
If you can possibly, avoid the shitty old gondola at furcola during end of day, its a big pain in the ass bottleneck you can end up in fairly easily.
I personally avoid the run down to Falera, theres nothing there and the run is fairly dull, but you will have it to yourself.
Enjoy!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@coddlesangers, thank you! Great tips .. will download the app! Re ski rental, I think l will look based on proximity to the hotel
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Bella2015 wrote: |
| @coddlesangers, thank you! Great tips .. will download the app! Re ski rental, I think l will look based on proximity to the hotel |
doesn't the Laaxerhof pretty much back into the gondola station near the Rocks resort? I think there are a couple of rental places in that little square between the two gondolas, I imagine their prices are very similar.
there are some mildly overpriced restaurants in same square. Laax town itself is a short walk down the hill. One dinner option is to walk up the home run ( there is a path up off the side of the piste) to Larnags hut and eat there. Borrow a sledge from the hotel and sledge back down the home piste.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@t44tomo, yes l think there a few rentals next to the hotel indeed
You dinner suggestion sounds fun… we do have a few vegetarians in the group and some pescatarians so will probably be somewhat restricted on dining options
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On the snow report..... surprisingly good above 2000m, somewhat spring like below. Itineraries in great nick, but the whole rhs of the resort closed today cause of wind. Vis bad around crap st goin with a band of cloud there but I'm overall really happy with the snow basis all the on line gloom . .
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| t44tomo wrote: |
doesn't the Laaxerhof pretty much back into the gondola station near the Rocks resort? I think there are a couple of rental places in that little square between the two gondolas, I imagine their prices are very similar.
there are some mildly overpriced restaurants in same square. Laax town itself is a short walk down the hill. One dinner option is to walk up the home run ( there is a path up off the side of the piste) to Larnags hut and eat there. Borrow a sledge from the hotel and sledge back down the home piste. |
Correct on all counts, and although I've never eaten at the Larnags hut in the evening its a good call, lunched there with SCGB groups a number of times, and I believe the bubble lift operates into the evening for those not adventurous or foolhardy enough to ski or sledge down (not certain though so do check).
Also eaten in the Laaxerhof hotel restaurant itself ( stayed there in the summer one time when we were house-hunting) and it was pretty good, but well, proper Swiss prices.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@coddlesangers, thank you . This is reassuring..hopefully will only improve in the next couple of weeks.
@Chaletbeauroc, thank you , yes we expect to eat in the hotel at least once but appreciate it’s not going to be cheap
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@coddlesangers, I don't know whether it was typical but when we were in Laax there were several days with horrible low cloud and low visibility - but half the resort turned out to be in brilliant sunshine above the cloud. We always got some good skiing.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It's typical.... webcam watching becomes a sport
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