Descent from Vereina Mountain Hostel to Monbiel (Klosters) in Canton Graubünden

(DAY 1 of a three-day trip to the Prättigau Region of Canton Graubünden)

Friday July 11, 2025 -- As Urs has a couple of weeks of vacation, we decided to do a three-day stay in the Prättigau or Davos region of Canton Graubünden, as there were a couple of hikes there which we really wanted to do. As we searched for accommodations, we came upon an offering in the village of Fanas, and recognized it from a hike we had done only four weeks earlier, when we ended our walk in this mountain village with its beautiful and very old large houses (photos HERE). We jumped at the opportunity to experience another stay in a historical house (having done this a couple of other times before), and booked two nights from July 11th to 13th, and made plans for three spectacular hikes. (Side note: When we booked our trip five days earlier, the forecast for the coming weekend was for great and sunny weather, which it really wasn't.....)

On the first day, it was Urs' choice to take an alpine taxi from the resort town of Klosters up a side valley to the mountain hostel called Vereinahütte, where we had ended a different hike back in August 2023, and then walk down to Klosters, which would have been a four-hour hike. Because of the difficult terrain, though, (lots of rocks to navigate and water running along the trails making it kind of muddy), it took much longer, and we decided to end our hike at the nearest bus stop in the Monbiel mountain "suburb" of Klosters, what in effect was less than three hours according to our maps, but took us 4½ hours to do. Had the day been sunny, we might have continued on for the last hour or so, but there wasn't much point any more.

After dessert and expensive coffee in the famous Grischuna Hotel in Klosters, we headed to the mountain village of Fanas (one hour travel) to a lovely welcome by our hosts, and a detailed description of the history of the house we were staying in, which was built by a nobelman named Von Sprecher in 1677 and is currently under monument protection. The rooms are HUGE and I think I did more walking from room to room than on the hike that day!

Having left home at 6 a.m., we reached the recreation town of Klosters at 9 a.m. We had to wait half an hour for the bus ride (35 minutes) into the Vereina Valley, to the mountain hostel called Vereinahütte.

A couple of photos from the little bus as it makes its way on a very narrow mountain road. This river is called the Vereinabach. (Bach = Stream).

There is one single small house up here, one which we passed on our hike back down the valley.

This is the van which runs up the valley about four times per day. You have to reserve ahead of time, and it costs 16 Fr. per person. The bus was full (about 15 people). We got here at about 10:05.

Originally we were planning to have coffee here at the Vereina Hostel / mountain restaurant before starting on our walk, but this was the only blue sky and sunshine we had (weather forecast was for cloud cover by noon), so we started off on our walk right away.

Looking straight to the south, we can see where we hiked back in August 2023 when we walked down from the Jöri Lakes to end our hike here at the Vereina mountain hostel.

A close-up look at the mountains to the south. That peak is the Flüela Wisshorn, near the Flüela Pass. The Jöri Lakes are on that upper plateau. We have been there twice!

Starting at about 10:15 at the Vereinahütte, we walked about 10 kilometers down the Vereina Valley. Originally we were going to walk all the way to Klosters, but we ended the hike at the bus stop in Monbiel at 14:44. It took us 4½ hours for this walk, which should have been under three hours. But the trail was very wet with lots of rocks, and we were quite tired by the time we got to Monbiel!

For most of the four hours, we were accompanied by rivers! Here the Vereina River. (It was much colder this day than I had expected).

The little bridge over the Vereina River, where the bus crossed on the way to the Vereina Gasthaus.

Up ahead, we are being watched carefully!

There were very many streams for us to cross! Some were harder to navigate than this one. Not all our crossings had bridges!

Here is just a sample of a section of wet trail which we had to navigate. There were several stretches like this.

A final look behind us to the large Vereina Alp where we had started our hike.

At least here a "boardwalk" was erected on a very wet stretch!

After about 45 minutes, we reached that little building which we had seen from the road on the bus ride up the valley.

This was a good place for a 15-minute break! We got here at about 11 a.m.

There were a couple of small lakes which we passed along the way.

From here on in, we followed a different watercourse called the Inner Ruchbach

Now we can see the valley bottom, a large meadow called Novai.

Crossing the Inner Ruchbach Stream

The stream upriver from the little bridge!

It was a really nice hike, always accompanied by the sound of rushing water!

This was only the second building we passed on the way down to the valley bottom. We found a bench nearby, and took another break here for our picnic lunch at 12:15.

Flowers we could see from our lunch bench!

Right after our lunch break at 12:30 we reached the road, where we had driven up in the bus. On the way up we had seen a beautiful waterfall, so we did a little detour down the road.

Here the Inner Ruchbach stream, which we had been following, creates a waterfall, then passes under the road and enters the Vereina River shortly thereafter.

VIDEO:

The waterfall along the road up the Vereina Valley

This is the narrow road that our bus traveled on. The driver went very quickly, but these drivers are very experienced! Just around the corner, our trail heads steeply down to the right.

The steep section through the forest below the road!

Another crossing of the Inner Ruchbach stream below the road, near where it joins the Vereina River.

We reached the Novai pastures and the Vereina River at about 1:15 p.m.

Another break! Dessert was all around my sitting place: Wild blueberries! It seems much too early for blueberries, but they were ripe and tasted very good!

Wild blueberries! They were very yummy!

Following the Vereina River

Here the Vereina River joins another side river, and from here it continues as the Landquart River, which empties into the Rhine River about 45 kilometers to the west.

A look behind us as we follow the Landquart River now.

VIDEO:

So much water as we cross the Landquart River

At 2:15 p.m. we passed a farm called Baretschrüti, walking along this very nice stone wall. The final look back to the Vereina Valley on the right, before we reach the community of Monbiel, where we caught the 14:44 bus into Klosters.

PART II: Spending an hour in the town of Klosters before heading to our accommodation for the night. We could have taken the 4 p.m. train for the 45-minute trip to Fanas, but we decided to have coffee and dessert at a fancy restaurant instead. (Plus we had to buy our food for the next two days).

There is a little museum (Heimatmuseum) on the bus route, so we stopped here to have a look.

The building which houses the little museum was built in 1565. It is only open two afternoons a week for two hours, including Friday, so we could have gone inside, but 8 Fr. was too much for us, as we have seen many such displays. What was interesting is that a local lady was baking fresh bread in the outdoor oven.

Now, at 3 p.m., we are heading toward the town's Evangelical Church. As early as 1220, there was a monastery here, but only the tower remains from that period. The rest of the building is from 1493. The building is under monument protection and is listed in the inventory of cultural monuments of national importance in Canton Graubünden.

Interior of the Evangelical Church in Klosters Serneus

Interior of the Evangelical Church in Klosters Serneus. Typical of Evangelical churches in this region, the wooden ceilings are stunning.

Detail of the inside of the church. Even though it has a newer more modern organ, the little one on the balcony is very pretty. An inscription on the wall indicates that the original church was burned down by "enemies" in 1624, and rebuilt in 1634.

This is the square in front of the church, with a nice fountain featuring an ibex.

Across from the church square is another historical building built by an important local personage (mayor) in 1680. It was used as a town hall, but is now a library.

After buying all the food we needed for the next two days, we headed to this famous hotel at 3:45 p.m. to have dessert and coffee while waiting for the 5 p.m. train. The hotel is called Chesa Grischuna, rebuilt in the 1930's from the original 1890's "Alpenhof" inn. It had quite a spectacular inside, including a dungeon-like cellar level where you had to find your way to the toilets!

The sun finally came out a bit as we spent about an hour here on the garden terrace at the Grischuna Hotel. (There were no other patrons at this time). Urs' ice cream sundae, although small, wasn't terribly expensive, but at 6 Fr., this was the most expensive cup of coffee which I had ever had! (It must have been the display of various sugar options they provided me with!)

These are all the hikes we have done so far in the region around Davos and Klosters in Canton Graubünden. Vereina to Monbiel is the one we did this day. Had it been a sunnier day, we would have walked the additional hour into Klosters, but the stretch we did seemed to take much longer than expected.

PART III: Our accommodation in the mountain village of Fanas in the Prättigau

From Schiers, a small van-bus takes us up to the village of Fanas along a narrow paved country road. As there are not that many bus runs, we had to fit our program carefully into the bus' schedule. We took the 17:00 train from Klosters Platz for the 45-minute trip to Fanas. This view is down to the town of Schiers on the way up the mountain.

A look down at the town of Schiers from where we caught the little bus up to Fanas, and up the Prättigau Valley.

This is the beautiful historical house (it's under monument protection and cannot be substantially altered). The original build was 1677 by a nobleman named Von Sprecher.

The view out of the entrance of the apartment. The door is HUGE! The owners live next door, also in a historical house which they have had restored to original condition.

View out of the apartment's livingroom window onto the main square of the town. All the houses around the fountain are about 300 years old, and most in the original Valais style. (Note how the sky has cleared, now that we are done with the day's excursion).

Details of the interior of the apartment, with lots of restoration to its original condition. Our host explained that the tiled wood-burning oven is one of only three such original ovens in the region, the two others being currently restored. (The restoration of this one was very costly).

The date inscribed on this door lintel is a reminder that the house got its first upgrade / renovation in 1704!

We were told that this is the original ceiling, but it was sagging badly, so they had to remove the floor on the second storey, and then slowly pull up the ceiling till it was level again.

I have to include this photo of the original wall in the living room: The story is that the original owner of the house (named Von Sprecher) would hold town meetings in this room. There used to be a bench along this wall, where the visitors sat. In winter, the chickens were brought indoors and were kept under the bench. The chickens would then peck at the wood while confined here!

This house on the main square is the only one that is traditional Graubünden. A beautiful house owned by our hosts. They gave us a tour of all the original features and the loving restorations made. (The photo is from the next day, which was the nicest day of the three that we spent here).