Andermatt, St Moritz and Gstaad are three different ideas of a Swiss winter. One is a young resort built around a single large hotel. One is the oldest name in Alpine winter. One is a village that prefers not to be seen. Choosing between them first is more useful than choosing a hotel, so here is how we would decide.
Hotel details below come from the hotels’ own sites where we could open them. Season dates change, and the lift companies publish their final opening dates in the autumn, so treat anything marked to be confirmed as exactly that.
Andermatt: the newcomer, snow and trains
Andermatt sits in the Urseren valley on the Gotthard route, and has been rebuilt over the last fifteen years as a resort with a large central hotel. The Chedi Andermatt, a five-star hotel, anchors it. The ski area is linked with Sedrun and offers about 100 to 180 km of pistes depending on the source. Our Andermatt winter guide has the details.
It suits people who want to ski seriously and sleep in a modern spa hotel, and who do not need a social scene. It has fewer restaurants and fewer doors than St Moritz or Gstaad, which is a feature for some and not for others. We have not opened the official 2026/27 opening dates for the SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun, so we are not stating them. Third-party snow sites project a late-November opening; to be confirmed with the lift company.
Of the three, Andermatt is the easiest to reach by train, because it is on the Gotthard line. Allow around two hours from Zurich, per Swiss travel press. SBB’s journey planner will confirm the timing for your date.
St Moritz: the grand names, sun and a social week
St Moritz is in the Upper Engadine, at the top of a long valley, and it is the best known of the three. Its identity comes from a handful of grand hotels. Kulm Hotel describes itself as the site where winter tourism began in 1864 and lists, for guests, a complimentary ski and mountain pass valid for as many days as nights booked. It is open for the 2026/27 winter from 4 December 2026 to 29 March 2027, per the hotel. Suvretta House, in the Upper Engadine, offers a Kiddy-Club, a kids’ ski school and mountain restaurants, which makes it the family-minded name, and is open from 4 December 2026 to 29 March 2027, per its website. Badrutt’s Palace sits in the middle of the village and is the one the evening revolves around; we have written about its restaurants and the town’s nights in the St Moritz restaurants guide. We could not open Badrutt’s own site today, so check its winter dates directly.
St Moritz suits a group that wants the town as much as the mountain: lunches on Corviglia, a late dinner, the sense of a resort that is on. The skiing is wide and sunny rather than steep. Our St Moritz ski season guide covers the weeks and the areas. The ski lift opening date for 2026/27 is to be confirmed; independent snow sites project late November, with the upper Engadin areas typically open until around the end of March or early April.
Gstaad: the quiet village, chalets and houses
Gstaad is the discreet one. The skiing is gentle, with Glacier 3000 as the snow-sure exception; Gstaad’s tourism site says the Glacier 3000 ski season opens on 7 November (the page does not state the year, so confirm it). People come for the village, the houses and the dinners.
Gstaad Palace is the older hotel, on the hill above the village at Palacestrasse 28. The Scherz family has owned it for three generations, and its 2026/27 winter season runs from 15 December 2026 to 7 March 2027, per the hotel. Note that this is a shorter season than the St Moritz hotels. The Alpina Gstaad is the newer, harder booking, with a Six Senses spa; we could not confirm its dates from the website, so ask before you plan around it. For the full story on both and on chalets, read our Gstaad hotels and chalets guide, and for dinner the Gstaad restaurants guide.
Gstaad suits a family or a group who want a house, a chef and a quiet week, and who will happily ski an easy mountain. It is the weakest of the three for serious skiers.
What each costs in character, not in francs
We deliberately give no room rates here. They change by the week, by the room and by the length of stay, and a figure printed in October is out of date by December. What we can say is how the three differ in what you are paying for. In St Moritz you pay for the address and the scene around it. In Gstaad you pay for privacy and for a small number of rooms, which is why they are scarce. In Andermatt you pay for a modern hotel and its spa, and for access to a ski area that is quieter than the other two. Tell us your budget and your dates and we will say plainly which of those you are buying.
Which one, in short
- Snow, trains and a modern spa hotel: Andermatt.
- A social week with a grand hotel and a late night: St Moritz.
- Privacy, a chalet and a village that does not perform: Gstaad.
- Strong skiers in a group: Andermatt or St Moritz.
- Families with younger children: St Moritz (Suvretta House advertises children’s clubs) or Gstaad.
Getting there
Zurich is the usual arrival for Andermatt and St Moritz, and Geneva is the usual arrival for Gstaad, though Zurich also works. Gstaad Palace says the hotel is about two to two and a half hours by car from Geneva and Zurich airports, that Gstaad Airport is 5 km away and can take private jets, and that it can collect guests from Gstaad station. All three can be reached by rail; the train is the more reliable option when snow closes a pass.
A helicopter is an option in each, weather and operating limits permitting. It saves the road on the days when the road is slowest, and it is useful for a short stay. We price it against your date and route, and our helicopter transfers page covers how it works. Winter mountain flying depends on weather and daylight, so we plan a road or rail fallback alongside it.
When to book
Christmas, New Year and February half-term are the three periods that fill first, and the grandest hotels fill first of all. At the top end, Christmas is mostly placed by now and New Year availability is very limited for catered chalets, so if you want one of the named hotels for those weeks, ask this week and have a second choice ready. For February half-term, the sensible moment to decide is now rather than after Christmas. Shoulder weeks in January and March are easier and quieter, and you will pay less for the same room.
If you would rather have a house than a hotel room, see villas and chalets. Opening dates for the individual hotels above differ by about ten days, so the first step is to match your dates to a hotel that is open, not the other way round.
Send us your dates, the size of the group and whether anyone skis hard. Message our WhatsApp concierge and we will tell you which resort fits, which hotels we would book for your dates, and how to get there.