Davos sits at around 1,560 metres in a long high valley in Graubunden, which makes it the highest town in Europe rather than merely a high village. It is there because of tuberculosis: in the nineteenth century the dry cold air was believed to be curative, sanatoria were built along the valley, and the town grew around them. Thomas Mann set The Magic Mountain here after visiting his wife in one. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote part of Treasure Island here. The architecture still shows it, with long south facing balconies on buildings that were designed for patients to lie on them.
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Now it is a ski area with around 300 kilometres of piste shared with Klosters, a serious centre for snow and avalanche research, and for one week each January the venue for the World Economic Forum, when the town becomes unrecognisable and unaffordable. Pack for altitude, for genuine cold, and for a town that is more functional than pretty.
What Makes Davos Different to Pack For
Altitude you will feel
1,560 metres in the town and the lifts go to 2,844 at the Weissfluhgipfel. That is high enough that some people notice shortness of breath on arrival, that the air is very dry, and that the sun is fierce. It is also cold: winter runs minus 12°C to 1°C and the valley holds cold air, with recorded lows well below minus 20°C.
A merino wool base layer for women is the foundation of the kit here in every season, and in winter you want a heavier weight than you would pack for a city.
Dry cold, which behaves differently
Davos cold is dry rather than damp, which makes it more bearable at the same number than a British or Dutch winter, and also means dehydration and cracked skin happen fast. People drink far too little in cold dry air.
Summer is a serious walking season
Around 700 kilometres of marked trails, lakes at Davosersee and Schwarzsee, and the Jakobshorn and Parsenn lifts running for walkers and bikers. Summer here is genuinely excellent and much cheaper than winter.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Davos Packing List
Footwear
In winter, boots with real tread and a waterproof upper, because the town pavements are compacted snow and ice for months. In summer, waterproof hiking shoes with ankle support for the trails, which are rocky and steep above the treeline.
Ski boots are hired unless you are serious, and the hire here is good.
Clothing
A proper layering system: merino base, insulating mid layer, waterproof windproof shell, plus a warm hat, gloves or mitts and a neck gaiter. In deep winter add an insulated jacket for standing about at lift queues, which is where you get cold rather than while moving.
Davos is functional rather than glamorous, noticeably less dressy than St Moritz an hour away. Nobody dresses for dinner.
For the sun
This is the underrated item. High factor sunscreen and a lip balm with protection, applied daily in winter, because snow reflects UV upward onto the underside of the face and at 2,500 metres the radiation is severe. Category 3 or 4 sunglasses, or goggles on the slopes.
For summer
A packable rain jacket and a warm layer even in August, when the high trails can be near freezing in cloud. A wide brim sun hat for the lower valley.
Practical
Cash alongside cards. A large water bottle, because dry air dehydrates invisibly. Moisturiser. A Davos Klosters guest card, given by most accommodation, which covers local transport and some lifts in summer.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Parsenn and the Weissfluhjoch
The Parsennbahn funicular climbs from town to the Weissfluhjoch at 2,663 metres, and a cable car continues to the summit at 2,844. In winter this is the main ski area; in summer it is the high walking.
Practically: genuinely cold and exposed at the top in any month, with snow lying year round in places. The classic descent to Klosters is a long ski run in winter and a long walk in summer. Check the last lift.
The SLF snow and avalanche institute
The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research sits at the Weissfluhjoch and is the body that issues the Swiss avalanche bulletin, which is the authoritative source for the whole country. Its work is why Alpine avalanche forecasting looks the way it does.
Practically: it is a research station rather than an attraction, but the bulletin it publishes is the thing to read every morning if you are going off piste or walking in winter.
The Jakobshorn and the Schatzalp
The Jakobshorn on the south side is the snowboarding mountain and has the livelier mountain restaurants. The Schatzalp is reached by a funicular and is a preserved sanatorium building, now a hotel, which is the one Thomas Mann readers come for, with an alpine botanical garden beside it.
Practically: the Schatzalp is a short funicular and an easy walk, and is the best single hour in Davos for anyone not skiing.
The lakes and the valley walks
The Davosersee at the north end of town has a flat circuit of around four kilometres. The Sertig, Dischma and Fluela valleys run off from the town into quiet high country.
Practically: the lake walk is easy and doable in winter too. The side valleys are much wilder than the resort suggests and are avalanche terrain in winter.
The Kirchner Museum
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the expressionist, came to Davos in 1917 for his health and stayed until his death in 1938, and the museum holds the largest collection of his work.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that a ski town is a glamorous one; Davos is a working high altitude town with a lot of concrete.
Leave any plan to visit during WEF week in January unless you are attending, when the town is sealed, the prices multiply and ordinary tourism stops. Leave a thin sunscreen. Leave cotton socks.
Essential Resources for Women in Davos
Emergency numbers in Switzerland: 112 is the European emergency number. Police 117, ambulance 144, fire 118. Mountain and air rescue is 1414, run by Rega, and the Rega app transmits your coordinates. The avalanche bulletin is published daily by the SLF, which is based here.
Tourist support: Switzerland has no separate tourist police. The Graubunden cantonal police take reports from visitors and English is widely spoken. A stolen passport needs a police report before the consulate can issue a replacement.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Bern at Sulgeneckstrasse 19, telephone +41 31 357 7011, at ch.usembassy.gov, around three hours from Davos by train. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Spital Davos has an emergency department and, unsurprisingly for a ski resort, a great deal of experience with fractures and head injuries. The Kantonsspital Graubunden in Chur is the larger referral hospital an hour away. Rega provides helicopter rescue. Swiss healthcare is excellent and expensive and rescue is billed to the person rescued, so travel insurance covering winter sports, off piste skiing and helicopter evacuation is essential; off piste in particular is excluded by many standard policies.
Official health authority: the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health at bag.admin.ch.
US State Department travel advisory for Switzerland: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Switzerland: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: Switzerland Tourism at myswitzerland.com, with the Davos Klosters board at davos.ch for lift opening, trail status and the guest card, and the SLF avalanche bulletin at slf.ch, which is the one to read daily in winter.
Solo women safety assessment: Davos is very safe for a woman travelling alone. Swiss crime rates are very low, the town is orderly and well lit, public transport runs reliably and late, and solo travellers are common in both the ski and hiking seasons. Violent crime against visitors is essentially unknown, theft is rare, and eating alone is unremarkable. The apres ski scene is milder here than in the Austrian resorts, and the town empties early outside the season. Harassment is not a meaningful concern. The risks are entirely mountain risks and they are substantial. Avalanches are the serious one: this is the town where Swiss avalanche science is done, which tells you something, and people are killed off piste in this area most winters. Read the bulletin, do not go off marked runs without a guide and the equipment to go with it, and understand that a low danger rating is not no danger. On the pistes, collisions and falls are the usual injuries and a helmet is standard. In summer, the high trails are exposed with fast changing weather, afternoon thunderstorms build quickly, and the lifts stop earlier than the daylight does. Altitude affects some people at 1,560 metres and more at 2,800, so take the first day gently. The dry cold dehydrates invisibly and cold injury to fingers and face is common on lift days, so cover up and drink more than you feel like.
Reading On
Davos is the highest town in the Alps and the most serious of the Swiss ski areas for anyone who cares more about the mountain than the scene. The Switzerland travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the rail passes, and the Switzerland packing list for women covers a multi region trip. In the same canton, the Chur packing list for women covers the capital an hour down the valley and the St Moritz packing list for women covers the Engadine over the pass. West, the Zermatt travel guide for women and the Grindelwald packing list for women cover the other great mountain resorts, and the Appenzell packing list for women covers the quieter range to the north. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino is the base of every cold weather system and why weight matters at altitude, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
