Self-Guided Walking Tour in Davos

A self-guided loop through the highest town in the Alps, from the Saturday market on the Promenade up to the Belle-Epoque Schatzalp and back. Eight stops link the sanatorium-era Kurpark, the Kirchner Museum, two small local museums and Europe's highest alpine garden. This page gives you the map, per-leg walking times, real prices and opening hours, and shorter versions.

8 Stops11.5 km~4 hours walking6-7 hours with stops
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Davos Walking Tour at a Glance

This route is built for anyone who came to Davos for the mountains and never noticed the town itself is worth a slow day on foot. It follows one clear axis, the Promenade, with a funicular detour up to the Schatzalp shelf. Every interior is optional: you can do the whole loop as a free outdoor walk and add only the museums that fit your timing and interest.

StartDavos Weekly Market
FinishDavos Weekly Market
Route typeA there-and-back loop that starts and ends at the same market on the Promenade in Davos Platz. The core direction is north along the valley to Davos Dorf, then a swing west and up to the Schatzalp shelf before returning south, so you cover the main axis without pointless backtracking.
Realistic timeAround 4 hours of pure walking for the 11.5 km, but a realistic full day is 6 to 7 hours once you add the funicular ride, two or three museums, and a lunch stop up on the terrace at 1,900 m.
DifficultyModerate mainly because of length: 11.5 km along mostly flat, paved Promenade, with the one steep climb to the Schatzalp handled entirely by the funicular. The alpine garden paths up top are gravel and rock and they climb, so proper shoes matter more than fitness.
Cost to followThe outdoor walk is free: the market, the Kurpark and the Alpinum alpine garden cost nothing. Paid extras are the Kirchner Museum at CHF 15, the two small local museums, and the Schatzalp funicular at roughly CHF 40-45 round trip, or about CHF 13 with a Davos guest card.
Best for:

First-time visitors who want the cultural side of Davos, the Thomas Mann and Kirchner and tuberculosis threads, rather than just the ski slopes, and who are happy walking a long flat valley with one funicular ride.

The Route

Free Walking Tour Map of Davos

8 stops11.5 kmabout 4 hours
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The 8 stops along this route

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    1Davos Weekly Market
  2. Kurpark Davos in Davos, stop 2 on the self-guided walking tour
    2Kurpark Davos
  3. Kirchner Museum Davos in Davos, stop 3 on the self-guided walking tour
    3Kirchner Museum Davos
  4. Davos local museum (Heimatmuseum Davos) in Davos, stop 4 on the self-guided walking tour
    4Davos local museum (Heimatmuseum Davos)
  5. Mountain Hotel Schatzalp (Berghotel Schatzalp) in Davos, stop 5 on the self-guided walking tour
    5Mountain Hotel Schatzalp (Berghotel Schatzalp)
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    6Alpinum Schatzalp Botanical Garden
  7. Medical Museum Davos (Medizinmuseum Davos) in Davos, stop 7 on the self-guided walking tour
    7Medical Museum Davos (Medizinmuseum Davos)
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    8Davos Weekly Market
  9. That's the complete route.

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Your Davos Walking Tour, Stop by Stop

  1. 1

    Davos Weekly Market

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    Start on the Promenade in Davos Platz on a Saturday morning, when the weekly market sets up along the main pedestrian axis. The market is free and open access, no ticket, just stalls. This is where Graubünden food culture is on display: air-dried Bündnerfleisch sliced paper-thin, Capuns (chard-wrapped dumplings), mountain cheeses, and fresh bread from valley bakeries. Buy a packet of Bündnerfleisch here to eat on the walk later, it travels well and beats anything you will pay restaurant prices for. The market only runs in the morning, so come before midday or you will find traders packing up. Use this stop to get your bearings: the Promenade runs the full length of town, Platz at this end, Dorf at the far end, and you will walk most of it before the day is done. Grab a coffee from one of the Promenade cafés before heading north.

  2. 2

    Kurpark Davos

    Kurpark Davos in Davos, stop 2 on the self-guided walking tour

    A few minutes north along the Promenade brings you to the Kurpark, a green public square that dates from the 1880s sanatorium boom. It is always open and free. The park exists because of the cure: when Davos filled with tuberculosis patients sent here for the thin, dry mountain air, doctors prescribed a daily slow walk, the 'Kurpromenade', and the town built parks and level paths for exactly that. Sit on a bench by the Brunnen (fountain) and you are sitting in the same spot where invalids in deck chairs once took their rest cure. The lawn and trees still function as the town's central breathing space. This is a short stop, five or ten minutes, but it frames everything that follows. Every museum on this walk traces back to the moment a quiet alpine valley reinvented itself around lungs and altitude. From here keep heading along the Promenade toward the modern concrete building set back from the street.

    Hours
    Always open
    Price
    Free
  3. 3

    Kirchner Museum Davos

    Kirchner Museum Davos in Davos, stop 3 on the self-guided walking tour

    The low concrete-and-glass building near the Promenade is the Kirchner Museum, opened in 1992 and built to hold the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938). Kirchner, a founder of German Expressionism, moved to Davos in 1917 to recover and stayed until his death, painting the surrounding mountains, farmers and Alpine light in violent colour. You are looking at his work at the exact place it was made, which is the point of the whole collection. Open Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays, 11:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays. Admission is CHF 15. Budget 45 minutes to an hour. The building itself is worth a look even from outside: frosted glass roofs designed to pull in soft daylight. Tip: go on a grey or wet day, the diffused light inside is best when it is overcast, and you will want an indoor stop if the weather turns. From here the route runs north up the Promenade toward Davos Dorf.

    Hours
    Tu-Su,PH 11:00-18:00
    Price
    CHF 15
  4. 4

    Davos local museum (Heimatmuseum Davos)

    Davos local museum (Heimatmuseum Davos) in Davos, stop 4 on the self-guided walking tour

    The long walk up to Davos Dorf delivers you to the Heimatmuseum at Museumstrasse 1, housed in the Grosses Jenatschhaus, a 16th-century patrician house that is half the attraction. Inside, the collection covers the full arc of Davos: Walser settlers who cleared this high valley in the Middle Ages, alpine farming life, and the transformation into a sanatorium town and sports resort. This is the human-history counterweight to the Medical Museum's narrow medical focus. Opening hours are limited and seasonal: Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, 15:00 to 17:00, so time your walk to land in that window or you will find it shut. Check the website (heimatmuseum-davos.ch) for the current admission price and seasonal opening before you commit the walk up to Dorf. Guided tours are available on request by phone. Budget 30 to 45 minutes. After this, head back toward Davos Platz and the lower station of the Schatzalp funicular for the climb that gives this walk its literary payoff.

  5. 5

    Mountain Hotel Schatzalp (Berghotel Schatzalp)

    Mountain Hotel Schatzalp (Berghotel Schatzalp) in Davos, stop 5 on the self-guided walking tour

    From the Schatzalp funicular station in Davos Platz, a short ride pulls you up to the shelf at 1,900m and the grand hotel that Thomas Mann turned into fiction. The Schatzalp opened in 1900 as a luxury sanatorium and became the 'Berghof' of 'The Magic Mountain' (1924), the closed mountain world where Mann's characters lose track of time. The Belle-Époque facade and Art Nouveau interiors survive, and the terrace gives a clean panorama back over Davos in its valley. This is the climax of the walk and worth lingering: have a coffee or lunch on the terrace and read a page of Mann if you brought it. The funicular runs in summer (roughly late June to early September) and the winter season. Standard cable-car fare runs about CHF 40 to 45 round trip, but with a Davos guest card it drops to around CHF 13, so ask your hotel for the card before you go up. The garden is a five-minute walk along the shelf.

    Hours
    Jun 27 - Sep 6 + winter season
    Price
    Cable car ~CHF 40-45; CHF 13 with guest card
  6. 6

    Alpinum Schatzalp Botanical Garden

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    A level path from the hotel leads to the Alpinum, Europe's highest alpine botanical garden at 1,900m. It is always open and free, no gate, no ticket. Over 5,000 alpine plant species grow here on the terraced slope, gathered from mountain ranges around the world and arranged so that things you would normally have to climb for hours to see are laid out at eye level. Late June through August is peak bloom, when the edelweiss, gentians and saxifrages are out and the colour is genuinely worth the trip up. Wear proper shoes, the garden paths are gravel and rock and they climb. Give it 30 to 45 minutes to wander the loops. Because it is free and shares the funicular with the hotel, there is no reason to skip it once you are up here. When you are done, take the funicular back down to Davos Platz and walk to the small museum that explains why any of this exists.

  7. 7

    Medical Museum Davos (Medizinmuseum Davos)

    Medical Museum Davos (Medizinmuseum Davos) in Davos, stop 7 on the self-guided walking tour

    Back down in Davos Platz, the Medical Museum is the small institution that ties the whole route together. It tells the story of high-altitude tuberculosis treatment and Davos's role from roughly 1865 to 1950 as the world capital of TB cures, the real medical history that fed directly into Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain' in 1924. After the Kirchner paintings, the Schatzalp hotel and the rest cure in the Kurpark, this is where the pieces click: why patients came, what the sanatoria actually did, and why a remote valley filled with the dying and then the famous. The catch is the opening window. It is open only Tuesday and Thursday, 17:00 to 19:00, so most weekend visitors will find the door closed and should treat it as a planned-ahead stop or an exterior note. Check the website (medizinmuseum-davos.com) for the current admission price before you go. From here it is a short walk back along the Promenade to where you started.

    Hours
    Tu,Th 17:00-19:00
    Price
    UNKNOWN_NEEDS_MANUAL
  8. 8

    Davos Weekly Market

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    The loop closes where it opened, back on the Promenade in Davos Platz. By now the Saturday market has likely packed up, but ending here on foot lets you read the town differently than you did at the start. You arrived knowing Davos as a ski resort or a conference name. You leave understanding it as a place built around lungs, altitude and a long literary shadow. This is the moment to eat that Bündnerfleisch you bought hours ago, or to settle into one of the Promenade cafés for a proper meal. The market itself is free and open access, morning only, so if you want to repeat it, come back next Saturday before midday. The Promenade is flat and easy underfoot here, a good place to end tired legs. If the funicular timing or museum hours pushed your day around, this central axis is where everything reconnects.

How Long Does This Walking Tour Really Take?

Walking alone, the 11.5 km loop is about 4 hours. Add the Schatzalp funicular and 90 minutes up top split between the hotel terrace and the alpine garden, plus 45 minutes to an hour in the Kirchner Museum, and you land at a full 6 to 7 hour day. The two Promenade stretches between Platz and Dorf are the longest single legs.

The full loop is about 11.5km with roughly 4 hours of walking, but realistically block out 6 to 7 hours for the whole day once you factor in the funicular, the museums and a terrace lunch. The single longest stretches are the Promenade walks between Davos Platz and Davos Dorf (allow 20-30 minutes each way), so wear comfortable shoes. Spend your time where it counts: 45 minutes to an hour in the Kirchner Museum, and at least 90 minutes up on the Schatzalp shelf split between the hotel terrace and the Alpinum garden. The best break is lunch on the Schatzalp terrace at 1,900m, where the panorama over Davos is the reward for the whole climb. If you need a free rest mid-walk, the benches by the Brunnen in the Kurpark are the spot. Watch the museum windows closely: the local history museum (Tu/We/Su 15:00-17:00) and the Medical Museum (Tu/Th 17:00-19:00) have narrow hours that will dictate your timing more than the walking does.

Full Route, Shorter Walk or Two-Day Version?

The route works as one long day, but the narrow museum hours and the funicular timetable mean most people will want to trim or split it. Here are three ways to walk it depending on how much time you have and whether the Schatzalp is running.

Full loop

The complete Davos day

Stops 1 to 8, about 11.5 km, 6-7 hours with the funicular, museums and a terrace lunch

The whole thing: market, Kurpark, Kirchner Museum, the local history museum up in Dorf, the Schatzalp hotel and alpine garden, and the medical museum back down in Platz. Best done on a Saturday so the market is running, starting around 09:30 to catch it before midday.

Half day

Promenade and Schatzalp only

Stops 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, about 6 km on foot plus the funicular, roughly 4 hours

Cuts the long 2 km walk up to the Davos Dorf history museum (stop 4) and the 2.8 km leg to the medical museum (stop 7), the two least central legs. You keep the market, Kurpark, Kirchner Museum and the Schatzalp payoff with its garden. The tightest way to get the essence in a half day.

Two easy halves

Town day plus mountain day

Day one stops 1-4 in the valley, day two stops 5-8 with the Schatzalp climb

Split at the Schatzalp funicular. Day one stays flat in the valley: market, Kurpark, Kirchner Museum and the walk up to the Dorf history museum. Day two rides up to the Schatzalp, does the hotel and alpine garden at leisure, then the medical museum on the way back. Good if you want the museums without rushing their narrow opening windows.

You can walk it in reverse, starting from the medical museum end, but the given direction is the better read. Beginning at the market and Kurpark sets the sanatorium scene first, so the museums and the Schatzalp hotel land as the payoff rather than the setup. The loop closes back at the same market on the Promenade either way.

Is This Davos Walking Tour Right for You?

This is a long, mostly flat valley walk with one funicular ride and a strong cultural spine. It suits some travellers far better than others, so here is who it is for and how to bend it if you are not that person.

A good fit if you…

  • Walkers comfortable with 11.5 km over a full day, most of it flat paved Promenade
  • Anyone drawn to the cultural Davos: Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, Kirchner's Expressionism, the tuberculosis-cure history
  • Visitors who want a mix of free outdoor stops and cheap, small museums rather than one big paid attraction
  • People who can time a Saturday so the weekly market is running before midday

Adapt the route if you…

  • You have half a day: drop the two outer museums (stops 4 and 7) and do the Promenade-and-Schatzalp version instead
  • You dislike long flat walks: ride the local bus along the Promenade between Platz and Dorf and save your legs for the Schatzalp
  • You visit outside Tuesday to Sunday: the museums close on Mondays and open in narrow windows, so treat them as exterior notes and lean on the outdoor stops
  • The funicular is shut in the shoulder season: skip stops 5 and 6 and keep the walk to the valley town below

Tickets & Skip-the-Line in Davos

Davos has almost no queues to skip, but a few stops cost money or open only in narrow windows, so it pays to plan. Here is what each paid or ticketed stop actually costs, when it opens, and where to check before you commit the walk.

Kirchner Museum DavosAdmission CHF 15. Open Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays 11:00-18:00, closed Mondays. No timed tickets needed, just budget 45 minutes to an hour. Best on a grey day when the diffused-light galleries shine. official ticket site ↗
Davos local museum (Heimatmuseum Davos)Opens in a narrow window: Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday 15:00-17:00, with seasonal variations. Check the site for the current admission price and current opening before you make the long walk up to Davos Dorf. official ticket site ↗
Mountain Hotel Schatzalp (Berghotel Schatzalp)The funicular is the one real cost of the day: about CHF 40-45 round trip, or roughly CHF 13 with a Davos guest card, so ask your hotel for the card first. Runs in summer (roughly late June to early September) and the winter season; it can close in the shoulder weeks. official ticket site ↗
Medical Museum Davos (Medizinmuseum Davos)Very narrow hours: Tuesday and Thursday only, 17:00-19:00, so most weekend visitors will find it shut. Check the site for the current admission price and treat it as a planned-ahead stop or an exterior note. official ticket site ↗
Everything elseThe Davos Weekly Market, Kurpark Davos and the Alpinum Schatzalp Botanical Garden are all free, open-access outdoor spaces with no ticket or booking. The market runs mornings only, so come before midday.
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Tips for Walking in Davos

  • Do the walk on a Saturday morning so the weekly market is actually running on the Promenade. It packs up by midday, so start before 11:00.
  • Ask your hotel for a Davos guest card before going up Schatzalp. It cuts the funicular round trip from about CHF 40-45 down to roughly CHF 13.
  • Wear proper walking shoes, not town flats. Promenade stretches are flat, but the Alpinum garden paths at 1,900m are gravel and rock and they climb.
  • Restrooms: the cleanest reliable option is inside the Kirchner Museum (with your CHF 15 ticket); up top, use the Schatzalp hotel facilities.
  • Buy Bündnerfleisch at the market to eat later, or have lunch on the Schatzalp terrace at 1,900m for the best view-to-price ratio of the day.
  • Best photo: from the Schatzalp hotel terrace facing south-east over the valley, late morning, with Davos laid out below and the far ridges lit.
  • Plan around the museum hours, not the walking. The Heimatmuseum (Tu/We/Su 15:00-17:00) and Medical Museum (Tu/Th 17:00-19:00) open in narrow windows only.

Why Walk This Route?

Davos is two things at once: the highest town in the Alps at around 1,560m, and a name that carries serious cultural weight. Thomas Mann set 'The Magic Mountain' here. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner painted his most important late work on these slopes. Politicians fly in every January for the World Economic Forum. Most visitors come for skiing or hiking and never realise the village itself rewards a slow walk on foot. That is the gap this route fills.

The town stretches long and thin along one valley, split into Davos Platz and Davos Dorf, connected by the dead-straight Promenade. That layout makes it easy to follow on foot: you walk one main axis, with a funicular detour up to the Schatzalp shelf in the middle. This loop links the Saturday market, the Kurpark from the sanatorium boom, the Kirchner Museum, the local history collection up in Dorf, the Belle-Époque Schatzalp hotel, Europe's highest alpine garden, and the small museum that tells the tuberculosis story behind it all.

Walk it instead of wandering because the order matters. The medical and literary history only makes sense in sequence: market and Kurpark set the scene, the museums explain why a farming valley turned into a global sanatorium, and Schatzalp is the payoff where the whole 'Magic Mountain' world becomes real. Do it on a Saturday so the market is running.

Common Questions

Is davos safe to walk around?

Yes, very. Davos is a small, orderly Swiss alpine town with low crime and no tourist-scam culture. The main risks are practical, not personal: thin air at 1,560m can leave you breathless on climbs, and weather turns fast in the mountains. The Promenade is flat and well lit. Just watch traffic at crossings, as the town is also a working through-route.

What if it rains during my davos tour?

The walk has solid indoor anchors. The Kirchner Museum is at its best on grey days, when its diffused-light galleries shine, and it makes an easy 45-minute shelter (CHF 15). The local history and medical museums are also fully indoor if their narrow hours align. Skip the Schatzalp climb in heavy rain or low cloud, the panorama and the open-air Alpinum garden are the whole reason to go up, and there is no point paying the funicular fare for fog.

What's the best time of day for this walking tour?

Start around 09:30 to 10:00 on a Saturday. That catches the market before it closes by midday, puts you on the Schatzalp terrace for a late lunch with the best light over the valley, and lands you back in Davos Platz with time for the museums in their afternoon and evening windows.

How much does the whole davos walk cost?

Less than you would expect. The Kurpark, the Alpinum garden and the market are all free and open access. The Kirchner Museum is CHF 15, the two small museums are low-priced (check their sites). The main spend is the Schatzalp funicular, about CHF 40-45 round trip, or roughly CHF 13 with a Davos guest card. Budget around CHF 30-60 plus food, depending on the card.

Do I need a car or is everything walkable?

No car needed. Davos is laid out along a single Promenade axis with the funicular handling the only real climb. The full loop is about 11.5km on foot, all of it walkable, with the Schatzalpbahn covering the ascent to 1,900m. The two halves of town, Platz and Dorf, are linked by that one straight street.

Is the Schatzalp funicular open year-round?

Not continuously. It runs through the summer season (roughly late June to early September) and again in the winter ski season. In the shoulder weeks of spring and autumn it can close, so check davosklostersmountains.ch before you plan the climb, since the Schatzalp hotel and Alpinum garden depend on it.

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