Spring Travel To Switzerland: Where To Go And What To Do In 2023

Spring is just around the corner in Switzerland, a time when relatively few people think of visiting. If only they knew.

At the Tschuggen Grand Hotel in Arosa, the slopes are covered with a generous snowpack. All 43 ski lifts in Arosa are open, including the resort’s private funicular railway that shuttles resort guests to the top of the mountain.

Spring may be the perfect time of the year to visit. The crush of winter tourists has come and gone. Resorts like Arosa will stay open for a while — the last day of skiing was April 18 last year. That offers almost perfect spring skiing conditions: great snow, warmer temperatures and plenty of daylight.

“Switzerland comes to life in the spring,” says Nadine van Riet-Campbell, owner of Ovations Travel. “You still have all the beauty of the snow-covered Alps as the flowers bloom everywhere.”

What’s new in Switzerland this spring?

What should you expect from a spring trip to Switzerland?

• The spring skiing is exceptional. “The ski season usually lasts through early April,” says Joe Cronin, president of International Citizens Insurance. “By March, it has snowed several times, so even if there have been a few warm weeks or days, the snow will not yet have melted.”
• Spring festivals. In April and May, you can catch the Tulip Festival in Lake Geneva, the Classic Music Festival in Interlaken, and Zermatt Unplugged. While these festivals attract a fair number of locals, spring remains a relatively quiet time for tourism. So you’re less likely to find yourself in a crowd with American tourists.
• There are lots of new attractions for 2023. From hotels like the Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern, which opened just a few months ago, to Zermatt’s new Matterhorn Alpine Crossing, which will link the resort to Cervinia, Italy, there’s no shortage of new things to try this year.

“Switzerland is a beautiful country that offers breathtaking scenery and a wide range of activities,” says Adeel Khan, a product manager for the hotel search engine BusinessClass.com. “During spring, there are blooming flowers, scenic hiking trails, and warmer weather, making it the perfect time to visit.”

The Tschuggen Grand Hotel’s mountain oasis

The Tschuggen Grand Hotel is one of the ideal places to spend a spring weekend. It’s said that the Tschuggen Grand Hotel is on the sunny side of Arosa, so there are constant reminders to bring plenty of sunblock with you. On a bluebird day in spring, after a fresh dusting of powder snow, it’s hard to get any better than the resort’s apres ski experience, with its five restaurants and a cigar lounge.

After a long day on the slopes, guests return to one of the most acclaimed spas in the Alps. The Tschuggen Bergoase — Tschuggen mountain oasis — is as much an architectural experience as it is a spa. Carved into the mountain, it features granite and handcrafted maple wood. The building, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, looks like a glass sail reflecting against the snow-capped mountains.

But the Tschuggen Grand Hotel’s biggest “wow” amenity is the private ski lift, the Tschuggen Mountain Express, which connects guests to the mountain without making them wait in a long line. There’s no lift attendant; you just use your room key to call the funicular. The trip to the top takes only 2 1/2 minutes, depositing you near the top of the mountain and giving you full access to the famous Arosa Lenzerheide ski resort.

New hotels in Switzerland this spring

There are plenty of new properties in Switzerland this spring.

A two-hour drive from Geneva, you’ll find the French-speaking resort of Valais. Here, the brand new Six Senses Crans-Montana has just opened. It offers direct ski-in and ski-out access to the ski area. The area is known for skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and events, plus scenic views across the Rhone Valley.

The Mandarin Oriental Palace is an iconic Belle Époque landmark, first opened in 1906, that’s newly restored. It offers a million-dollar view of the Swiss Alps and 136 rooms and suites, dining and a holistic spa. There’s been a lot of buzz about this new property, and luxury travel advisors have been talking about it for months.

The Ambassador Zürich, a small luxury hotel, is scheduled to open during the first quarter of 2023. The property, located a stone’s throw from the opera, offers a commanding view of Lake Zürich.

And there are newish hotels, like the FIVE Zürich, which opened last summer. The property is part of a hotel group that includes the über-trendy FIVE Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, and as I’ve already noted, it’s easily the most instagrammable property on this side of the Alps. Neon lights illuminate the hallways, glass art hangs from the ceilings and floor-to-ceiling murals of celebrities who stayed at the hotel before it became the FIVE adorn the walls.

Check out these spring festivals in Switzerland

There’s no shortage of special events and festivals in Switzerland this spring.

Basel hosts Infinity Festival from March 7 to April 5, which brings together top-class international artists and presents cross-disciplinary concerts from baroque, classical and romantic to contemporary music.

The Tulip Festival in Morges, which takes place from April 1 to May 14, is one of the oldest festivals of its kind in the world. At the Parc de l’Indépendance, you’ll find hundreds of thousands of tulips — more than 275 different varieties.

The Cully Jazz Festival from April 14 to 22 takes place in a wine-growing village in the Lavaux vineyards on the shores of Lake Geneva. There are more than 150 concerts, and many of them are free. Singers this year include Barbara Hendricks, Gambian singer Sona Jobarteh, the American hip-hop group Slum Village and soul singer Summer Pearl.

The Tschuggen Collection hosts a Race for Nature from March 15 to 18, an event celebrating the group’s sustainability mission. The Race for Nature is a ski race and weekend of events championing climate conservation organizations and businesses that are committed to making a positive impact on stopping climate change.

Zermatt Unplugged, from April 11 to 15, is another popular festival, featuring exclusively acoustic performances from international artists. This year’s acts include Yīn Yīn, Sean Riley & The Slowriders and Valentino Vivace, among others.

One of the most famous spring festivals is the Sechseläuten, which takes place April 17 in Zürich, commemorates the end of winter. It’s a four-day event filled with parades, parties, fireworks, knights on horses, and food. There’s an annual ritual you can’t miss, in which local firefighters gather and stuff a 100-foot-tall snowman-like figure called a Boog, an ancient symbol of winter, with straw. Then the Boog is set ablaze. (Technically, his head explodes.)

Only in Switzerland.

Is spring a good time to visit Switzerland?

You mean, even if you don’t ski? Yes, say people who have been there recently.

Rhonda Mincey and her husband visited Switzerland last March, and she says the visit was “breathtaking.”

She boarded the Glacier Express in Chur, not so far from Arosa.

“The train, with its massive windows and transparent top, gave us spectacular views of the mountains, bridges, and homes along the route,” she recalls. “The villages covered with snow reminded me of gingerbread houses, painting the ideal image of winter wonderlands.”

She says the experience left an indelible impression.

“It was overwhelming,” says Mincey, a brand strategist from Bluffton, S.C. “I could hardly contain my excitement.”

Switzerland has that effect on visitors. Switzerland in spring — with its festivals, flowers, bluebird days and endless ski runs — might just make you want to relocate to Switzerland permanently.