St. Moritz — Engadine Chauffeur & ConciergeEngadine Royalty

Winter tourism was invented here on a wager: in 1864, hotelier Johannes Badrutt promised his English summer guests that an Engadine December would be sunnier than London, and offered to pay their way home if he was wrong. Nobody went home. A century and a half later, St. Moritz remains the Alps at their most theatrical — the frozen lake carrying thoroughbreds at White Turf, the Cresta Run still ridden head-first by gentlemen amateurs, the Engadine light so dry and bright it has its own reputation. The world's great families keep returning for that rare combination: genuine sporting tradition, serious gastronomy, and a village that has seen everything and mentions nothing.

From Zurich the journey is part of the pleasure: the A3 along Lake Zurich and the Walensee, the A13 to Chur, then the long, beautifully engineered climb over the Julier Pass — kept open year-round — into the Engadine. Allow a little over three hours. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan was made for this drive: effortless on the pass in February, serene on the valley floor in July. Your chauffeur checks pass conditions and avalanche bulletins before departure, fits chains when the Julier demands them, and times your arrival with the doormen at Badrutt's Palace. For a slower overture, board the Glacier Express's panoramic carriages at Chur while your luggage continues by road.

Badrutt's Palace, the Kulm and Suvretta House divide the village's loyalties; choose by temperament rather than rank. Dine at Da Vittorio in the Carlton for the Cerea family's celebrated Italian cooking, and keep one morning for hot chocolate at Hanselmann, unchanged since the Belle Époque. Come in late January for the Snow Polo World Cup on the frozen lake, or in February for White Turf Sundays; in high summer the same lake fills with sails and the Engadine turns green. The finest hour is the earliest: Corviglia's pistes at nine o'clock, before the village has finished its breakfast.