Every January the Swiss mountain town of Davos fills with heads of state, chief executives and the people who work around them. Most visitors will never hold a badge for the Congress Centre, yet a large part of the week happens outside it. This guide explains how that works, when to book, and how to be in Davos for WEF week without a delegate badge.
Davos 2027: dates and what WEF week is
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2027 is listed by Davos tourism for 18–22 January 2027, held at the Davos Congress Centre. The Davos tourism office describes the meeting as bringing together more than 3,000 leaders from business, government, international organisations, civil society, academia, media and the arts.
That is the “official” meeting. Around it, the town runs a second, much looser programme: dinners, receptions, panel discussions and private gatherings hosted by companies, countries and organisations in hotels, restaurants and rented buildings along the Promenade. When people say “Davos week”, they usually mean both layers together.
Who gets a badge, and who does not
Entry to the Congress Centre and the Forum’s own sessions is for people the Forum has invited or accredited: leaders, participants from member organisations, and a limited number of accompanying staff. You cannot buy your way into those sessions.
If you are not on that list, you still have a legitimate route into the week. Side-event access programmes have run in Davos for more than ten years, and they exist for exactly the people who want to be in the room for the surrounding conversations rather than the main hall.
Side events and “houses”
Many countries, companies and industry groups take over a venue for the week and open it as a “house” with a programme of talks, panels and evening events. Some are by invitation only. Others sit inside a wider access programme where one wristband opens several venues.
The scale of one such programme gives a sense of it: it runs 45 of its own events over five days, plus access to around 200 more hosted by other organisations. You will not attend all of them. The practical point is choice: you can pick the sessions on your sector, whether that is technology, energy, finance, health or climate, and plan travel between venues on foot.
A few habits make a difference:
- Plan by venue, not by hour. Davos is long and narrow. Walking between the two ends of the main street in snow takes longer than a map suggests.
- Leave gaps. Queues form, sessions overrun, and some of the best conversations happen in the coffee break.
- Pack for the cold. It is a mountain town in January. Shoes with grip matter more than a second jacket.
How an access wristband with a secure hotel badge works
Davos runs with extra security during the meeting, and access to some roads, hotels and venues is controlled, so a plain hotel booking may not be enough on its own. That is why side-event programmes bundle two things together: the wristband that opens the events, and a secure hotel badge so you can reach your hotel and the venues around it.
For the programme this guide is based on, all access tiers include a secure hotel badge. The conditions that matter right now are the deadlines:
- Access wristbands are refundable until 1 November 2026, with a 5% fee.
- They are transferable until 1 December 2026, which helps if a colleague takes your place.
At 16 October 2026, the refund window closes in about two weeks. If you are weighing a trip, the refund date is the one to watch, because it is the point after which a change of plan costs you the wristband.
Where to stay, and why hotels sell out
Davos is a small town with a limited number of hotel rooms, and demand for one week in January is far larger than supply. Delegations, companies and visitors reserve early, and the rooms closest to the Congress Centre and the Promenade go first. Rooms left late tend to be further out, which means more transport in a week when the roads are restricted.
Three things to weigh when you choose a hotel:
- Distance to your events. Being within walking distance of the Promenade saves the most time.
- Badge compatibility. Check whether your hotel falls inside the secure area your wristband and hotel badge cover, and ask before you pay.
- Terms. Ask for the length of stay, cancellation terms and total price in writing before you pay.
If a rate looks unusually cheap for this week, check the cancellation terms before you trust it. For a wider view of Swiss mountain bases, our note on where to stay in Andermatt, St Moritz and Gstaad compares the alternatives, and the Alps winter page covers the region as a whole.
Getting from Zurich to Davos
Zurich Airport is the usual gateway. Two routes work:
- By train. There is no direct train. You take an SBB service towards Landquart, then change to the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) for Klosters or Davos. Published journey times vary by source, so check the current timetable on SBB and RhB rather than relying on a guess. Leave margin at the Landquart change.
- By road. The drive from Zurich takes about two hours in normal conditions.
Because security is tighter during WEF week, arriving by a pre-arranged transfer or by train is usually easier than driving yourself and looking for parking. If you land in the evening, allow for the onward journey in winter conditions, and do not book a first event for the following morning without a buffer. Our Zurich page covers the city and airport end, and we arrange chauffeur and helicopter transfers for the onward leg.
A sensible plan for the week
People who enjoy Davos most tend to decide their priorities before they land. Pick two or three themes you care about, find the side events on those themes, and book your hotel close to where most of them sit. Then leave the rest of the diary loose. Plans change in Davos: a session overruns, a colleague arrives a day early, an invitation appears at lunchtime.
Bring business cards, a charged phone and a spare battery, because cold weather drains batteries quickly.
Key dates to put in your diary
- 1 November 2026: last day for a refund on an access wristband (5% fee).
- 1 December 2026: last day to transfer a wristband to another person.
- 18–22 January 2027: WEF Annual Meeting dates as listed by Davos tourism. Confirm on weforum.org nearer the time.
How OF.luxury helps with Davos
We do not sell tickets to the Forum, and we do not claim to be connected to it. OF.luxury arranges the trip around the event: hotel, transfers, dining, and access through the organisers’ own routes. We confirm everything in writing before you pay.
Tell us your dates, group size and the kind of events you want to see, and we will come back with a plan. Everything is confirmed in writing before you pay anything, and there is no charge for asking. Because refunds close on 1 November, it is worth messaging us soon if you want that option to stay open.