St Moritz

Frozen hard and walkable from roughly January to early March, and the venue for horse racing, polo and cricket played on the ice. In summer it is a circuit walk of about an hour with the Engadin peaks upside down in the water.

Horse racing, skijoring behind unmounted horses and a great deal of champagne, staged on the frozen lake across Sundays in February. Beds in the valley go months in advance.

Funicular from Punt Muragl to 2,456 metres and the classic view straight down the chain of Engadin lakes. Walk the Panorama trail from there to Alp Languard and drop into Pontresina.

Cable car to 2,978 metres facing Piz Palü and Piz Bernina, the only four-thousand-metre peak in the Eastern Alps, with the Pers and Morteratsch glaciers spread out below.

A stone rotunda built to hold Giovanni Segantini's unfinished alpine triptych, which is the whole reason to walk up the hill. Closed between seasons, so check before you go.

St Moritz sits on the Rhaetian Railway rather than the SBB main network. From Zurich it is about three and a half hours via Chur, and the Glacier Express from Zermatt takes roughly eight.

The line south over the Bernina Pass to Tirano in Italy is UNESCO-listed. St Moritz to Tirano is CHF 31 one way in second class, plus a compulsory seat reservation of CHF 14 in summer or CHF 10 in winter. The Swiss Travel Pass covers the fare but never the reservation.

St Moritz Dorf sits above the lake and St Moritz Bad below it, with the station between. Buses link the Upper Engadin villages and are usually included with the guest card your accommodation issues.

February and March for snow with real light, and July to September for dry high walking.

Late April to mid-June and late October to November, when the lifts stop and many hotels close entirely.

Christmas to mid-February, and any weekend with an event staged out on the frozen lake.

Walk the lake path round from St Moritz Bad, with Piz Rosatsch reflected if the water has not been touched by wind.

Funicular up Muottas Muragl for the view down the lake chain, then take the Panorama trail towards Alp Languard.

Eat at the mountain hut rather than back in Dorf, where a plain lunch will clear CHF 40 without any effort at all.

Bernina Express as far as Alp Grüm and back, or up Diavolezza for the glacier viewpoint.

One drink in Dorf among the fur coats, then dinner in Pontresina or St Moritz Bad, where the bill is survivable.

A flat valley walk, or a horse-drawn carriage, from Pontresina up to a glacier basin with a hotel restaurant at the end of it. About two hours each way on foot.

Down the pass towards Italy: chestnut woods, the Giacometti family's home valley, and villages that painters kept coming back to. Postbus from St Moritz.