At about 1,560 metres, Davos is often called the highest town in Europe, and it is certainly one of the most unusual. It lies in a long, broad valley of Graubünden, with ski slopes on both sides, a lake, a main street that looks like a motorway, and a mix of grand old sanatoria, apartment blocks and hotels that tells the story of the town.
That story begins with air. In the nineteenth century, doctors began to send patients with tuberculosis to Davos, convinced that the thin, dry, sunny mountain air would help, and sanatoria sprang up along the valley. Thomas Mann stayed here while visiting his wife and went on to write The Magic Mountain, set in a sanatorium very much like these. The painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner also settled nearby after the First World War and painted the mountains. Skiing, and then the World Economic Forum, which meets here each January, turned a health resort into a name known around the world.
For riders, Davos is a good stop at the end of a day over the passes. The Flüela Pass, which climbs from the town toward the Engadin to a height of about 2,383 metres, is one of the finest rides in the area, and the road over the Landwasser valley toward Filisur, with its famous viaduct, is a few minutes away in the opposite direction. Roads near Davos are well surfaced, and traffic can be heavy on summer weekends. Passes are normally open from around June.
The town has about eleven thousand residents and every service you might want: fuel, supermarkets, repair shops, and a large selection of restaurants. Rooms are costly in January and in the high summer. Take a walk by the Davoser See in the evening, when the light turns the slopes pink and the town goes quiet, and you will understand why people kept coming.