![\"Switzerland](\"\/going-places\/wp-content\/uploads\/files\/2014\/11\/shutterstock_92656828.jpg\" "\\"Switzerland")
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Mention Switzerland and most people immediately dream of skiing in the snowed Alps. And that\u2019s just as many folks from there would like you to think of their beautiful home. Indeed, there\u2019s consensus among the Swiss that their country is the original destination for cold weather fun \u2014 and that this coming season marks the 150th<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>anniversary of winter tourism.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the story goes, in the summer of 1864 St Moritz hotelier Johannes Badrutt made a bet with four of English guests that if they came back in the winter they would\u00a0<\/span>enjoy the same sunshine on his terrace, in their shirt sleeves. If not, he would pay all their travel costs. But if so, he would invite them to be his guests for as long as they wanted to stay. The Englishmen agreed and returned to Badrutt\u2019s hotel sometime before \u00a0Christmas and had such a good time they stayed until after Easter, becoming the first\u00a0<\/span>winter<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>tourists<\/span>\u00a0of the Alps ushering in \u2013 and pioneering \u2013 years of downhill skiing, tobogganing, trekking, and more winter sport activities and plenty of\u00a0<\/span>off-piste<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>shenanigans too!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More highlights of this winter in and around St. Moritz will include a retro ski day in Sils, skeleton team competitions on the Cresta Run open to the public, on-site viewings of the Free Fall, the world\u2019s steepest start platform (45 degrees or 100% gradient) on the men\u2019s Alpine World Ski Championships, a light installation by light artist Gerry Hofstetter in Salastrains, fireside discussions with entrepreneur families from the Engadin \u2014 and lots more!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Does this sound like your kind of winter wonderland? Get more details about Switzerland\u2019s 150th<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>anniversary of winter tourism at the official St. Moritz tourism site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mention Switzerland and most people immediately dream of skiing in the snowed Alps. And that\u2019s just as many folks from there would like you to think of their beautiful home. Indeed, there\u2019s consensus among the Swiss that their country is the original destination for cold weather fun \u2014 and that this coming season marks the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7841033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-tips-intel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7841033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98898056,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7841033\/revisions\/98898056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7841033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7841033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7841033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nTo commemorate this first season of Alpine vacationing, St. Moritz and much of the rest of Switzerland are going all out with a winter\u2019s worth of special celebrations and events. Kicking the party off is the Snow Sports Opening from the 5th<\/sup>\u00a0<\/span>to the 7th<\/sup>of December with a variety of events and competitions for celebrities, guests and locals through St. Moritz and its slopes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n