THE TOWN

Anyone with any vague interest in freestyle has heard of Laax. For years the Burton European Open, Freeski Open, Dutch Freestyle Championships have been held here while the British Ski & Snowboard Champs called it home for years. It’s easy to see why they pick it. With 235km of pistes, 43km of freeride routes, four terrain parks, one mother of a superpipe and a season that starts in November up on the glacier, there is plenty to keep you coming back. Laax and Flims are the two villages which share the same incredible slopes, located a short distance from the town of Chur in Graubünden. Both are worthy places to stay but it is Laax that tends to get all the headlines over the more chilled Flims. Last season the resort was expanded with two new six-seater chairlifts.

• 100 km² – the largest continuous skiing area in the Grisons
• 235 km of slopes, 29 facilities and 5 snow-secure valley runs
• 70% of the pistes are between 2000 and 3000 metres above sea level, making LAAX one of the winter resorts in Europe with the highest guarantee of snow and sunshine
• 4 snow parks, superpipe & minipipe, freestyle piste and Freestyle Academy - Europe's first indoor freestyle centre
• 19 mountain restaurants and 8 snow bars: with and without stars, but always superb
• 6 rental stations in the valley and on the mountain
• Skiing and snowboarding courses for every level of ability, in groups or on your own.

Take a culinary voyage of discovery: Da Nus in Flims offers Grisons specialities, Nooba in the rocksresort at Laax base station offers pan-Asian cuisine and the Restaurant Epoca in the Waldhaus Flims Mountain Resort and Spa offers fine creations and has been awarded 17 Gault-Millau points. They have something for every taste. More info at www.laax.com/en/resort-info/restaurants-night-life

Laax now has a base much more befitting its reputation in the "Rocks Resort". Architecturally striking, it consists of numerous identical square buildings made from local stone. The lower floors house the various bars, restaurants and shops, and the rest taken up by lavish apartments available for rent. The Crap Bar is still the place to relax after the day and it has also been joined by Il Pup and the Indy Bar which gets going later. Casa Veglia is the nightclub to head to until the early hours. The now slightly overshadowed Riders Palace is still banging though, and has a bar that opens until 4am and a club downstairs opens for events.

Not to be outdone, Flims has the Living Room, which is behind the 'Kiosk' on the main street. It’s the bar of choice if you’re after a chilled out evening. The Iglu bar at the bottom of the Flims slopes pumps out a few euro tunes for après ski, and it’s worth checking out Europe’s highest brewery Surselva Bräu in Flims-Waldhaus. The main club is The Arena which is opposite the lifts on the main road.