Scuol

Scuol is the main village of the Lower Engadin, in the far east of Switzerland near the Austrian border, and it sits on around twenty mineral springs — which is why people have been coming here since the sixteenth century.

This is Romansh country. The fourth national language is the everyday language here, on the shop signs, in the school and in the local paper, and the village is officially Scuol rather than the German Schuls.

The water

Bogn Engiadina is the modern bath complex: indoor and outdoor thermal pools, a large sauna area, and an Irish-Roman circuit — a fixed sequence of steam rooms, baths and rests done over about two hours with an attendant keeping you moving.

The rules about the sauna area apply, and they catch visitors out; see thermal baths.

The other half of the water is free: public fountains around the village run mineral water from different springs, each with a different composition, and you are meant to taste them. Most are strongly sulphurous and frankly unpleasant, which was historically taken as proof they worked. The Büvetta Tarasp, a grand nineteenth-century drinking hall down by the river, is derelict and being restored.

The sgraffito villages

The reason to stay a day rather than an afternoon.

Engadin houses are thick-walled with deep funnel-shaped window recesses, decorated with sgraffito — patterns scratched through white lime plaster to the darker layer beneath, with rosettes, scrolls and mottoes in Romansh.

Guarda is the finest and is a protected site; Ardez, Ftan and Sent are close behind. All are within twenty minutes by post bus, and each takes an hour to walk round.

Tarasp castle stands white on its rock across the valley and is visible from most of them.

The National Park

Half an hour up the valley at Zernez is the Swiss National Park, founded in 1914 and the oldest in the Alps — and the strictest: nothing is managed or planted, you must stay on the marked paths, and dogs and camping are forbidden.

Red deer, ibex, chamois, marmots and reintroduced bearded vultures. The visitor centre at Zernez explains the rules.

Getting there

• By train — Zurich about three hours via Landquart and the Vereina tunnel, which carries the train under the mountains and stays open when the passes are shut.
• By post bus between the villages, on the ordinary ticket.
• The Bernina and Glacier Express run through the same canton; St. Moritz is an hour and a half up the Engadin.

When to go

June to October for walking and the National Park, which closes for the winter.

Winter for cross-country skiing — the Engadin network is the best in Switzerland — and for the baths, which are at their best when it is snowing outside and you are in the open-air pool.

The valley is high, dry and sunny, with the largest day-to-night temperature swings in the country.