Where was the first package holiday? Benidorm? Torremolinos? Wrong on both counts… it was to Switzerland.
And this year marks the 150th anniversary since Thomas Cook launched the first “conducted tour”, turning Switzerland in to Europe’s first mass market destination.
Mr Cook’s first group spent 21 days covering the country by boat and train, as well as on foot and horseback. Today, however, it’s possible to replicate that golden age of travel in a little more style and comfort.
The Kulm Hotel St Moritz opened its doors in 1856, seven years before the first Grand Tour, and immediately became popular for summer spa and painting holidays, particularly among the Brits who visited in their droves for some fresh mountain air and made up 75 per cent of tourists.
And it was the owner of the Kulm, Johannes Badrutt who kicked off winter holidays to St Moritz with a 1964 bet.
He promised the last departing summer guests a free stay from December to the following spring, if their winter holiday in St Moritz was not as sunny and as pleasant as in summer.
These days, the trip to St Moritz is far easier for British guests, who can fly into Zurich and then take the narrow-gauge Rhaetian train, part of the famous Glacier Express route and a Unesco World Heritage railway, to St Moritz.
To celebrate the anniversary, the Kulm has put on a Summer Romance package which includes:
- three nights’ accommodation, including a lavish daily breakfast buffet
- Gourmet Dine Around half-board allowing guests to eat in any three of the hotel’s restaurants
- a four-course menu at the Gourmet Restaurant Kronenstübli at the Kulm’s sister hotel Grand Hotel Kronenhof
- two hours’ exclusive use of the hotel’s Private Spa Suite
- a romantic carriage ride through the summer landscape to Lej da Stazan
- afternoon tea in the lobby lounge
- unlimited use of the 9-hole Kulm golf course, driving range and tennis courts
- unlimited use of all open mountain railways in the Engadine/St. Moritz region and public transportation in the valley
The package costs from £810 per person. Reservations must be made by email at [email protected].
