This Swiss Movement Is Quiet and Well-Oiled

Take a few 13th-Century farms, connect them with what natives even today still call squirrel paths, drop them all at the dead end of a remote and lovely Grisons valley, and it’s little wonder that it took about 500 years for this place to break out of isolation and be “discovered.”

Not only does the Plessur Valley stop here but the little feeder railway that brings you up from the main line does a U-turn in town and heads back to the bright lights again. Swiss families get off, take a horse carriage or sleigh to their hotels and fully expect to meet other families they’ve shared holidays with for years.

All this family emphasis makes for a very low-key, informal style. Walk the village main street, where shop windows appear to be stocked with not-necessarily designer clothing and sporting gear that you can afford, hardly the case in many European resorts.

So what brings year-round visitors back time and again? Start with 50 miles of ski runs, six to 10 hours of daily sunshine in winter, summer golf, tennis, horseback riding and a fine lake at the village’s center for swimming and sailing. The air should be bottled.

Here to there: Take Pan Am, Air Canada, TWA or a number of European carriers to Zurich; domestics to New York or Chicago for a change to Swissair. Balair flies weekly LAX-Zurich during summer months. Trains leave the Zurich airport hourly for the hour’s run to Chur, change there for another hour up to Arosa.

How long/how much? Stay at least a week in winter for skiing; half that should do you in summer. Lodging prices are moderate to expensive, dining the former except in best hotels.

A few fast facts: The Swiss franc was recently valued at 61 cents, 1.63 to our dollar. Come any time of year except during the mid-April to June 1 flat spot when many hotels are shuttered. Walk anywhere in the village, or perhaps hire a taxi to mountainside hotels.

Getting settled in: Most Swiss-hotel rate sheets are split four ways: summer, then three winter tariffs. Our first price is for a summer double, the second a mid-winter rate; both include half-pension for two.

Alpina (mid-village; $67-$98) is our idea of Arosa’s best in its category. Owner Hans Eberhard has taken great care to see that authentic Swiss decor and traditional food are the standards here. All rooms with balconies and mountain views, extensive use of hand-carved wood paneling, gorgeous furnishings, lots of pewter, flowers, stag heads, old clocks and such about.

Hans is quick to pour out a welcoming splash of budner chruter, a clear cabbage schnapps, or roteli, a marvelous liqueur of wild cherries; he is also very proud of his new whirlpool and solarium.

Astoria (near rail station; $67-$98) is also in the chalet style of Alpina, with entry and bar a contemporary treatment of Swiss wood and stone, bedrooms fresh and functional. Outside buffet in summer, close to lift station.

Central (mid-village; $72-$127) is yet another in the chalet style inside and out, although the bar and lounge have a modern look. Hot whirlpool and sauna, dining room hailed for its food (see below).

Regional food and drink: All the usual fondues, raclettes and other Swiss specialties here, but have a go at some typical Bundnerspezialitaten from Graubunden (the Grisons). Try gerstensuppe, a thick, creamy, barley-vegetable soup loaded with several kinds of meat and beloved by mountain folks.

Pizokels are a type of spatzle made of potatoes and flour mixed with bacon and onions and cooked at least an hour and served with cheese on top. We could hardly stop spearing them. Just as delicious are the plain in pigna, a local version of the staple Swiss rosti or pan-fried potato cakes, these mixed with polenta and laced with salami and bacon. More heaven on a plate.

Tortes for dessert are as plentiful around here as ski instructors in winter. Every kind imaginable, a few even made with the ever-present potato.

Moderate-cost dining: For all of the above and many Bundner dishes we’ve missed, head for Orelli’s, a simple and very friendly place where the food is scrumptious, menu endless, dessert case a still life of temptation. We went for the plain in pigna cun ardoffels, the dish mentioned above in local Romanisch dialect. En gueta, bon appetit at Orelli’s, on their $5-$14 three-course menus.

Hotel Central’s stubli is where locals find the best in typical Swiss food, particularly game, on the four-course menus from $9 to $12, a Bundner plate of regional fare for $7. Cozy rooms with wood fireplace, blond-wood panels, wainscoting lined with handsome pewter pieces.

If your taste buds can’t reach a decision, stop in Post Hotel beside the station. You’ll find separate restaurants for Chinese, Italian, fondue-raclette and the freshest fish.

Going first-class: Hotel Excelsior (village; $116 and $147) has spent the last eight decades hosting the likes of the Maharaja of Hyderabad, former German Chancellor Adenauer’s family and other notables with discretion, superb service and a friendly family atmosphere. Any comfort you could want: indoor pool, sauna, free van service to lifts, a dining room far superior to those in most hotels. Their half-pension meals can run to five or six courses, all served beautifully. Club-like lounge, cozy bar and Bundner stubli are frosting on the cake.

On your own: In keeping with Arosa’s relaxed style, most night life is confined to hotels, with hardly a disco in sight. Days are about what you’d expect in a summer-winter resort: taking the cable car up to the 8,700-foot Weisshorn for spectacular ski runs back to the front door of your hotel; walking those squirrel paths among summer wildflowers that fill a local book; making a half-hour trek up for a look at the 15th-Century Arosa Mountain Chapel that is one of the most beautiful in style and setting that you can imagine.

For more information: Call the Swiss National Tourist Office at (415) 362-2260, or write (250 Stockton St., San Francisco 94108) for a brochure on Arosa, another on the Grisons, plus information on the Swiss Holiday Card for getting around the country. Ask for the Arosa Package.