Corviglia Ski Resort St Moritz Switzerland

Corviglia ski resort is the closest skiing area to St Moritz Switzerland, with lift access straight from the centre of town. The perfect sunny pistes of Corviglia are exactly the image one's mind conjures up when visualising skiing in St Moritz.

With over 155km of piste trails and 1,337m of vertical, Corviglia is a huge ski resort on its own. To increase the size & diversity of the St Moritz skiing area, it is lift pass linked to several other great local resorts including Corvatsch & Diavolezza Lagalb.

Pros & Cons for Corviglia Ski Resort

Pros

• Superb, perfectly groomed intermediate piste trails.
• Modern lifts.
• No lift lines.
• Particularly good off-piste freeride opportunities.
• Fresh tracks available for days after a snowfall.
• Some challenging, steep off-piste chutes.
• St Moritz's best learn-to-ski areas.
• Excellent transport links to the resort.
• Good après ski on the mountain.
• First rate restaurant food (but .... see below).
• World beating non-ski activities.

Cons

• Expensive lift ticket during peak periods.
• Expensive accommodation & restaurant food.
• Funicular from St Moritz up to Corviglia is awful.
• Limited ski-in / ski-out accommodation.

Pro or Con (depending on your perspective!)

• Incredibly quiet on the slopes before 10am.
• Closest ski resort to the town of St Moritz.
• All terrain south-facing & sunny.

Skiing & Snowboarding, Lifts & Terrain

St Moritz's three separate ski areas of Corviglia, Corvatsch & Diavolezza Lagalb offer completely different skiing experiences. Corviglia is the standout for the majority of skiers & snowboarders with its modern lifts, sunny open terrain & perfect grooming. You can ski the enitre vertical from the top of Piz Nair all the way down to the village of Samedan. Your 'jelly legs' can then recover on the train ride back to St Moritz.

See the Corviglia ski trail map.

Corviglia is a piste skiers paradise directly above St Moritz. Accessed by four different points in the valley, its 155km of sunny south facing slopes are wonderful for combining fast turns & long lunches. The off piste is vast as well & includes everything from expert only chutes to wide open alpine bowls. Small areas of north facing terrain hold fresh lines for many days after the last snowfall.

Strangely, the worst place to access the ski area is from the centre of St Moritz via the two-stage funicular. The villages of Celerina and St Moritz Bad (as in ‘spa’) on the fringes offer a better way up via gondola & cable car. Those starting early are rewarded at Corviglia as the piste trails will be deliciously perfect and totally deserted until after 10:30 am (ish) when the glitterati finally get out.

Corviglia is St Moritz's best place for children and those wanting to learn to ski. Two base area (Celerina & Suvretta) & three higher elevation locations (Salastrains, Corviglia & Marguns) provide a great variety of learn to ski areas. Salastrains is usually accessed via a horse drawn sleigh ride for new skiers - what a beautiful way to start skiing!

There are plans to replace the Corviglia's Signal cable car (St Moritz Bad) with a gondola & also, to lift link Corviglia to Corvatsch via a gondola from the Signal car park to above Corvatsch’s Hahnensee run. A tasty prospect indeed & one that will turn St Moritz Corviglia into truly one of the great ski resorts of the world.

See the Corviglia Skiing & Snowboarding page for more information.

Where is Corviglia Switzerland?

Corviglia is located deep in the Engadin valley of canton Grisons (Graubünden), splendidly surrounded by snow & glacier clad mountains directly above the resort town of St Moritz.

The town of St Moritz is 86km south of Grisons capital Chur & 203km from Zurich by road. Milan Italy is 125km to the southwest of St Moritz as the crow flies.

The best gateway international airports is Zurich (ZRH), but Milan Malpensa (MXP) can also work. Both are linked to Corviglia & St Moritz by train, but if you want the comfort & convenience, search & book private transfers from Zurich airport to St Moritz. Transfer time from the airport is around 2½hr.

St Moritz has its own well-appointed train station with connections to Switzerland & Italy. Aside from landing your own private jet at the local airfield, the train provides the most scenic & comfortable mode of travel to the area & is recommended over other options.

Search & book rail tickets to St Moritz.

Driving to Corviglia & St Moritz in a rental car is not the easiest thing to do in the world. Surrounded by high mountains on three sides, the easiest road access to St Moritz is via the Inn River valley from Landeck or Innsbruck in Austria (drive time <3hr). This route is not particularly useful for most travellers to Corviglia; hence three high mountain passes tend to provide the main driving routes, all of which are questionable in bad weather (take the train!).

For more info on how to get there, see our Travel to St Moritz page.

Corviglia - St Moritz Accommodation

St Moritz provides the directly linked accommodation to Corviglia, but like Davos (but not nearly as bad!), St Moritz has lost much of its traditional architecture & succumbed to some unsightly development. And just like Davos has lovely Klosters to offset it, so does St Moritz have Celerina & other villages to offset it.

Search & book all Corviglia accommodation.

St Moritz has more enormous 5-star hotels (Badrutt's Palace Hotel, Kulm Hotel & Carlton Hotel to name a few) than just about any ski resort in the world and certainly caters to the high-end skier that demands fine dining, excellent service and exquisite comfort. But as with every other ski resort in the world, a full range of accommodation options are available to suit every budget. Case in point are the numerous apartments, hostels and 3-star hotels in & around St Moritz. Well located 3-star hotels include the Hauser Swiss Quality Hotel & the Soldanella Hotel.

Access to the Corviglia ski area from the actual town of St Moritz is via a 2-stage funicular. Better access to Corviglia is available from accommodation in St Moritz Bad via the Signal cable car. A full range of hotel budgets is catered for. from the 5 star Kempinski Grand Hotel to the budget pick - Hostel Pitsch (perfectly situated next to Signal cable car base & the funkiest restaurant in St Moritz, the La Baracca).

Celerina is the best place in St Moritz for a more traditional village experience and comes with the benefit of having the most efficient ski lift access to Corviglia, the best valley run and two train stations. The Cresta Palace Hotel is the pick the accommodation & the boutique Hotelino Petit Chalet as close second.

Above St Moritz, Salastrains is a short walk or horse drawn sleigh ride from the funicular mid station at Chanterella. The Hotel Salastrains at 2048m provides the best on mountain lodging at the ski resort. It is also close to the most comprehensive children’s learn-to-ski area.

Suvretta has the classic Suvretta House an uber traditional 5 star at the western end of Corviglia, providing a sense of the old world in an otherwise thoroughly modern surround.

Other villages near St Moritz offer alternative (and sometimes cheaper) lodging options and are seamlessly connected to the ski areas by buses or trains. Near Corvatsch ski area there is Silvaplana, Surlej and Segl (Sils). Surlej is closest to the ski lifts, but Silvaplana gets the most winter sun.

Between St Moritz & Diavolezza is the surprisingly large village of Pontresina. Masses of cross-country ski enthusiasts stay there, but the bus & train transport links make it a viable option for alpine skiers as well. Further down the valley but also connected by ski trail s & the train line, Samedan offers great value accommodation, even in historic 4-star hotels like the Hotel Bernina 1865.

The small hamlet of Morteratsch at the base of the glacier and ski route of the same name has its own train station & some fabulously quiet accommodation convenient to Diavolezza like the Hotel Morteratsch. For something completely different, stay in the Berghaus on Diavolezza or the intriguing Berghotel Muottas Muragl, perched all by its lonesome above the valley.

Ski Rentals, Lessons & Guiding

Ski rentals are available near the ski lifts throughout the Upper Engadin via our local partners in the centre of St Moritz village near the Corviglia funicular, & near both valley stations at Corvatsch, plus two options in Pontresina. Receive a discount when you search & book via our Corviglia Ski & Snowboard Rental page.

A brain-snapping array of ski instructors ski schools & guides ply their trade in Corviglia & the other St Moritz resorts. There is every kind of ski & snowboard lesson & duration all the way up to full day off piste guiding available. To narrow down the field, search & book private & group lessons or a mountain guide via our Corviglia Ski Lessons & Guiding page.

Other Activities

Whilst Corviglia is just a ski resort, St Moritz is far, far more. The Engadin valley fully embraces winter providing a variety of non-alpine ski activities that is boundless & far exceeds nearly all other ski resorts in the world.

See the St Moritz Activities page for more information.

Nearby Resorts

As if skiing all the brilliant Corviglia & the other St Moritz ski areas wasn’t enough, the Rhaetian train network puts the amazing Davos Klosters & a host of resorts from Chur in play. By car or bus, the secret stash at nearby Bivio & the larger Savognin provide a vastly different ski experience to St Moritz.

The ultimate Swiss ski holiday would involve taking the Glacier Express train from St Moritz all the way to Zermatt via wonderful Andermatt Sedrun & Brig for another week of skiing. Let’s go!

Review

The Powderhounds last reviewed St Moritz & Corviglia several seasons ago & had a cracking time but are probably due to re-visit this coming winter. Click on the review link in the left column (or top of the page if on a mobile) to read its verbose but inciteful ramblings & a few extra photos!

See how Corvatsch & the other St Moritz ski areas compare to the rest of the Swiss resorts on the Switzerland ski resort ratings page, or compare to the rest of Europe on the European ski resort ratings page.

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