Davos walking tour & city guide

Davos Platz and Davos Dorf

The town stretches for several kilometres along the valley floor and is made of two main parts: Davos Platz in the south-west and Davos Dorf in the north-east, linked by the Promenade, a long street of shops, hotels and flat-roofed buildings. The flat roofs are typical of the town, designed in the sanatorium era to let snow lie as insulation and let patients rest on sun terraces.

In the 19th century doctors sent tuberculosis patients to Davos for its clean, sunny air, and the town filled with sanatoriums. That world inspired Thomas Mann's novel The Magic Mountain. The painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner spent his last years here, and the Kirchner Museum shows the largest collection of his work.

Lake Davos and the mountains

At the Dorf end of town lies Lake Davos, with a path all the way around it through larch and pine woods, a popular walk in every season. A historic funicular climbs from Davos Platz to Schatzalp, a former sanatorium terrace above the town with walking paths and an alpine garden.

In winter Davos and neighbouring Klosters share several ski areas, the largest being Parsenn, reached by funicular from Davos Dorf, with Jakobshorn on the other side of the valley. In summer the same mountains turn into hiking and mountain biking country.

A walking route

Start at Davos Platz station and walk up to the Promenade, passing the Congress Centre where the World Economic Forum is held and the Kirchner Museum on its green lawn. Continue along the Promenade towards Davos Dorf, then drop down to Lake Davos and follow the shore path around the water. Take the train back to Platz, or ride the Schatzalp funicular for a view over the whole valley.

Visiting tips

Davos is on the Rhaetian Railway, about two and a half hours from Zurich by train with a change in Landquart. The line from Davos to Filisur crosses the famous Landwasser Viaduct. During the World Economic Forum in late January the town is under heavy security and accommodation is scarce, and the Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament fills it between Christmas and New Year.