Flims-Laax & Caumasee
Large ski area and turquoise bathing lake
Photo: Daniel Kraft / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Flims-Laax region is one of the largest ski areas in Switzerland and in summer is known for the turquoise Caumasee, one of the most beautiful bathing lakes in the Alps. Nearby runs the Rhine Gorge Ruinaulta, an impressive canyon of the Vorderrhein.
Highlights
- One of the largest ski areas in Switzerland
- Turquoise bathing lake Caumasee
- Rhine Gorge Ruinaulta (Swiss Grand Canyon)
- Known for freestyle and snowparks
Good to know
| Region | Surselva, Graubünden |
| Lake | Caumasee |
| Nature | Rheinschlucht Ruinaulta |
| Winter | large ski area |
Practical info
Getting there: Train to Chur, then by bus; through the Ruinaulta also by train.
Best time: Bathing June to September; skiing December to April.
Cost: Lake partly with admission, mountain railways payable (please verify).
Safety: Bathing lake unproblematic; avalanche situation in winter.
Tips:
- The Rhine Gorge can be experienced by hiking, train or raft
Background & History
Flims and Laax lie on a sunny terrace high above the Vorderrhein in Graubünden, a region where Rhaeto-Romansh is still spoken to this day, that ancient language which emerged from the Latin of Roman times. The whole landscape rests on one of the largest rockslides of the Alps: around nine thousand years ago an enormous mass of rock broke from the mountain and filled the valley, an event whose traces still mark the terrain today. From this body of debris, water and forest shaped those gentle hills and hidden hollows in which the lakes of the area lie.
The most famous among them is Lake Cauma, a brilliantly turquoise-green body of water in the middle of the forest, fed by underground springs, whose colour calls to mind southern lagoons. The surrounding woodland, the Flims Forest, is among the most extensive continuous mountain forests of the region. While Flims was long a tranquil mountain village and an early spa resort, where as early as the 19th century the pure mountain air was praised as a remedy, Laax developed in the 20th century into a pioneer of modern winter and freestyle sport and into a meeting place of the international snowboard scene. Embedded in this ski area lies the rockslide landscape of the Flimserstein, an impressive natural monument that draws geologists from all over the world, because here the mechanics of a vast rockslide can be studied as if in an open book. Thus in Flims and Laax ancient linguistic ground, young mountain culture and an extraordinary geological history meet in an impressive way.
To make your trip run smoothly , our guides and gear tips for this destination:
