Sargans is a small town doing something unexpectedly big. It sits on a low saddle in the Rhine valley where the river, instead of flowing on west toward Lake Constance as it now does, once could just as easily have turned toward the Walensee and Zurich. The ridge between the two directions is barely a rise in the ground, which is why geographers like to point at Sargans and say the whole river's fate depended on a patch of gravel. Today the Rhine runs north, and the town's modest castle on its rocky knoll watches over the valley and the Liechtenstein hills across the water.
For a rider it is a junction more than a destination. The motorway from Zurich arrives along the Walensee, the main railway crosses here, and roads lead north to Liechtenstein and Feldkirch, south to Chur, and east across the border into Austria toward Bludenz and the Montafon valley. That is exactly what makes it a useful meeting point and fuel stop at the start of a trip to the Silvretta. At around five thousand people, it has what you need: a station, fuel, bakeries, supermarkets and cheap, practical meals, with Bad Ragaz and its thermal baths just a few kilometres south.
The surroundings are dramatic, as the Alps rise steeply on both sides of a wide, flat valley. To the west the jagged Churfirsten wall above the Walensee, and to the south the Falknis range above Balzers. In spring the Föhn, a warm, dry wind from the south, can blow strongly down the valley, so gusts may push you around on the open stretches of road, and it is common to see clear sky and stable weather on the Föhn side while rain waits to the north.
Be aware that the vignette is needed in Switzerland, and the nearby crossings into Liechtenstein and Austria are quick but have their own road charges for motorways. Prices at the pumps in Liechtenstein tend to be lower than in Switzerland, which is an open secret among locals. Heidiland, as the area is marketed, is a pastoral name for a valley that is very good for riding, with quiet side roads climbing into the Alpine meadows above the Rhine.