Off-Season Switzerland

Miss the Crowds and Enjoy Budget Prices

By Dolores B. Tillett

For seniors watching their travel budgets, Lenzerheide, Switzerland offers a central location with access to hiking trails, day trips to interesting towns and villages, and--best of all--budget prices. A springtime arrival assures you'll miss the crowds and waiting lines often encountered in busy summer months.

It is still useful to plan ahead. You can obtain a Swiss Hotel Guide from the Swiss Travel Office. If your plans include extensive travel, consider purchasing Swiss Rail Passes (not for sale in Switzerland). Two eight-day, second-class passes cost just over $400 and provide unlimited travel on local and regional trains, postal buses, funiculars, and chairlifts. Other gondolas and trams offer senior discounts, and special trains like the Glacier Express, Bernina Express, and William Tell Express require only small supplements. A railpass can save $200 or more over the prices of individual tickets.

A good plan is to catch the train to Brig from Geneva and transfer to the Glacier Express. Advance reservations are mandatory for the Express--make arrangements in Geneva and pay the supplement of only $5 per person. The Glacier Express is one of the most scenic and famous excursions in the world. The cars offer unrestricted views through large windows which open easily for picture taking. The route to Lenzerheide takes about seven hours and crosses almost 300 bridges and passes through about 100 tunnels.

Rolling up the narrow Nikolai Valley, the train passes quaint alpine villages in flowering fields ringed by high mountain peaks. Suddenly the landscape changes as you climb to the grape-growing area of Visperterminen. The train continues through Tschamut, the first village on the Rhine, and on to Disentis, where the monastery has been a center of culture and education since 765. At Chur, leave the Express and board a postal bus for the trip up the mountain to Lenzerheide.

When choosing a hotel, ask for a room with a shared bath--rates are lower, and there are rarely any problems with the arrangement. We stayed at the Hotel Touring where breakfast consisted of baskets of soft-boiled eggs, platters of sliced cold cuts, rounds of cheese, cereals, buns, croissants, sliced breads, orange and grapefruit juice, marmalades, coffee, tea, and fresh apples or oranges. The cost is only $82 per day for room and breakfast. The view is fantastic.

Lenzerheide is a peaceful little hamlet with a large lake, Heidsee, separated into two parts by a spit of green trees. A paved trail with closely-spaced benches provides opportunities to stroll, relax, and watch the waterfowl.

Lenzerheide is a good base from which to explore other well-known mountain towns, and with your Swiss Rail Passes you pay no additional fares. St. Moritz is a popular health resort with many hot springs, an hour-and-a-half ride by postal bus from Lenzerheide and well worth the views along the way. Chur is Switzerland's oldest city and only 35 minutes from Lenzerheide--the Chur tourist office provides self-guiding tour brochures. You can also visit the lovely mountain resort of Davos or ride a gondola to Pischa and then hike the trail back to town. After dinner, take in the spectacular view of snow-capped mountains and the famed alpen glow.

If you like to stroll, there's Lenz, a picturesque hamlet about a mile away, with streets so narrow a bus barely squeezes through. Window boxes filled with flowers decorate almost every home. The old village church at Lenz sits high on a hill with magnificent views.

When we returned to Geneva for the flight home we sipped wonderful Swiss wine, reminisced about our journeys, and reviewed the advantages of springtime travel in Switzerland. There are fewer travelers, and virtually no lines at restaurants, attractions, and ticket counters. Temperatures are cool, but not cold. Meadows are patchworks of spring flowers where cows, sheep, and goats graze before going to high alpine pastures.