Flims Laax
Sept 3
Links to All Switzerland Stories.
Flims Laax is an area in the Graubunden region popular for skiing in the winter and as a local mountain bike and hiking destination in the summer. Two small areas very close together that can be visited in one trip. Flims Laax has 6000 people in the winter, 3000 in the summer. Gondolas run in the summer to take hikers and mountain bikers into the alpine.
This map is available FREE at most hotels.
The area consists of 200km of hiking trails. The trails in the Graubunden region are shared by mountain bikers and hikers unlike the more populated and popular Swiss destinations.
Separating Flims and Laax is an ancient slide that gave rise to the Ruinaulta – the Rhine Gorge or the “Swiss” grand Canyon. Also created by this event are underground springs that create a chain of lakes – Caumasee, Laaxersee and Crestasee – deep-blue through to turquoise-coloured mountain lakes.
Getting Here:
Relatively painless. We flew via Air Berling into Zurich. One question we had was what to do with our bike bags and how to easily pack for our 7:45am flight home in three weeks. The airport does have an office where you can store baggage for extended periods. We just weren’t sure, nor did we want to get to the airport at 5:00am to pack our bikes and catch the plane. We opted to book a hotel room near the airport where we could store our bike bags while we were here. We stayed at the Fly Away Hotel.
From the Fly Away Hotel we caught an Inter City bus from the Kloten station to the Zurich HB where you catch the train to Chur. We activated our Swiss Flexi pass – which allows you three free trips, and discounts on the remaining trips – The Inter City bus has a car where you can take your bike on.
The train to Chur also has a car for bikes.
We caught an SBB bus from Chur to Laax. This bus had 5 bike hooks on the back. They leave fairly regularly so travelling in Switzerland with your bikes is relavtively painless. Our main mistake, we brought too many clothes in our backpacks so lugging those around with our bikes was a bit of a hassle.
Also of note is on Saturday and Sundays the stores close early or are closed. As we fly in on a Saturday we bought food for dinner and the next two days of breakfast so we woudln’t have to worry about it in Laax. This added extra baggage to our luggage.
Fortunately the pubs were open.
