Rediscover the serenity of Arosa

Banks of snow were piled high all around the narrow-gauge mountain railway train at the tiny terminus station of Arosa. After a tranquil three-hour ride from Zurich airport up to this Swiss resort, enjoying a glass of wine and a book, I stepped off and gazed out at the frozen Obersee lake. Not for the first time I reflected that, when it comes to finding exceptional mountain resorts, our British forefathers were right first time.

It was founded in the late 19th century as a centre for TB cures, and by the 1920s the diverse winter attractions of Arosa, tucked away in south-east Switzerland, were drawing Brits in their droves. Generation after generation returned year after year until the high value of sterling in the 1980s forced them away. We have since returned to other classic Swiss resorts, yet somehow still neglect Arosa. It's a mystery to me - unlike many modern French resorts, Arosa doesn't go in for braying Brits and stressful dice-with-death road approaches. Reached leisurely by train, it has serene Alpine charm in spades.

It is not, and never has been, just a ski resort. Nor is it merely a winter sports resort. It is a winter playground, and one with huge respect for tradition. Walking up the main street to my hotel in a heavy snowstorm, I passed hundreds of people on toboggans, the best means of transport here. These were not fancy high-tech machines in reinforced plastic or lightweight aluminium, but the real thing: classic, wooden, with steel runners. You can hire the most popular model, the Davos, at the railway station.

I awoke on my first morning to one of those perfect, crisp, clear midwinter days: temperatures well below freezing, blue skies, the sun low in the sky and fresh, light powder snow everywhere. As the day wore on and avalanches were artificially detonated to make the slopes safe, so more and more of the ski area was opened up, enabling us to make first tracks on the kind of dry, squeaky pistes skiers can usually only dream of.

Arosa's ski area is admittedly not awesome, but with a base altitude of over 1,700 metres, a top station at 2,653 metres and an extensive snow-making system, it is certainly respectable; and the 17-lift system is modern overall, with the exception of a few old-fashioned T-bars. As an advanced skier I found more than enough for a long weekend in the sunny, sheltered bowl. Intermediates could happily spend a week here. Experts would probably be bored after a week on-piste. But the real pleasure is the off-piste activity: with a guide, there's so much to explore. I could have happily wandered around the mountainside all weekend, toboggan in tow. Nowhere else have I come across skiers, boarders, walkers and tobogganists sharing the snowy mountainside with such equanimity. Walking paths criss-cross the pistes, marked with striped blue-and-yellow poles, and pedestrians may use selected cable cars and chairlifts with a heavily discounted lift pass. Have you encountered that in any other resort?

Unlike most child-friendly resorts, which all too frequently lack action for skiing and boarding teenies, Arosa is both trad and trendy. It has one of the liveliest boarding scenes in the Alps, with an excellent specialist snowboard school, Bananas, and even a mountain restaurant called the Sit-huette almost totally devoted to boarders. Of the good restaurant alternatives, the finest is the Carmennahuette, which has excellent south-facing wooden sun loungers with integral drinks tables. Here you'll find a very amusing bar set inside a towering tepee, where a glass of Veuve Clicquot cost me a very reasonable £5. Compare that with Courchevel.

Which brings us to the après-ski scene - rest assured, it is as varied as the daytime one. One night I dined on Michelin-starred food and drank very fine inexpensive wine at the Zum Wohl restaurant. On another I feasted on first-rate lemon risotto at the informal Grottino. On the third night I had stomach space only to graze, which I did at the Eden Sushibar.

On into the night, I listened to live jazz at the Excelsior, downed a sedate cocktail in the five-star Tschuggen hotel, drank with the boarders and a live DJ at the Los Cafebar, took in sounds by an American-Swedish band in the lounge bar of the Hotel Eden (one of the Design Hotels), and ended on a high note with a knees-up in the in-house Kitchen disco. How very fitting in Europe's classic winter playground - the forefathers are probably wiggling in their graves.

Way To Go

INghams (020 8780 4433; www.inghams.co.uk) has one-week half-board hotel packages in March from £402 to £883. Ski Solutions A La Carte (020 7471 7777; www.skisolutions.com) can arrange tailor-made trips and weekends. Further information Switzerland Tourism (020 7734 1921; www.myswitzerland.com).