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Istanbul city guide: essential sights, and where to eat, drink and stay

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="element-image__caption">The dazzling interior of the sixth-century Hagia Sophia. Photograph: Emad Aljumah/Getty Images</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Istanbulite tours</b><br />The delightful Eda Sökmen specialises in custom-made private tours of Istanbul, from headline attractions to specialised culinary, art, architecture and in-depth neighbourhood excursions, including a trip around the up-and-coming multi-ethnic Fener and Balat districts. You can plump for a walking tour or be chauffeured around. <br />• Tours from TL400 (£115) for a day tour for up to four people, +90 537 346 6020, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">istanbulite.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Kilic Ali Pasa Hamami</b><br />The stunning 1580s hamam by Mimar Sinan, architect to Suleiman the Magnificent, has been raised from dereliction. Men and women, instead of having different areas, have different visiting times, which has helped to preserve the integrity of the building. After your cleansing and revitalising session, you emerge renewed into the beautiful public space, to drink sherbet, or apple tea.<br />• From £28 a session, women 8am-4pm, men 4.30pm-11.30pm, +90 212 393 8001, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">kilicalipasahamami.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Chora church</b><br />Although Istanbul is laden with Byzantine monuments, this small church in the Fatih district is the most exquisite, with its mosaics and frescoes depicting the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The church has been rebuilt many times and restoration is still under way. The frescoes date from the final period of Byzantine painting, in the 14th century.<br />• Open daily 9am-5pm (7pm in summer), £4pp, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">choramuseum.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Vintage shopping in Çukurcuma</b><br />The winding streets of Çukurcuma, in the European Quarter – particularly Faik Pasa and Çukurcuma Caddesi – are also known as yabanci köy</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(foreigner village), because they are beloved of fashionable foreigners. (Çukurcuma is also the home of The Museum of Innocence, based on Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk’s 2008 novel.) Bijou stores and antiques shops sell everything from old postcards to antique glasses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>SALT Galata</b><br />Housed in the Ottoman Bank (built in 1892), in the heart of the cultural quarter of Galata, the not-for-profit SALT Galata is a contemporary art gallery, workshop space and location for great talks, screenings and programmes. There are also SALT galleries in Beyoglu and Ankara. <br />• saltonline.org</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Naif</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Naif, Istanbul </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With tables and chairs spilling out on to the street and a Mediterranean vibe, Naif is a cosy, whitewashed restaurant brightened with colourful ceramics and flowers. The food is light-touch, mainly organic and great for sharing, from tabbouleh with pomegranate sauce to keskek – </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">wheat cooked with lamb and chickpeas in spicy sauce (about £4). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">• +90 212 251 5335, naifistanbul.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Karaköy Güllüoglu</b> <br />This sweetshop and cafe close to Karaköy pier is constantly filled with every imaginable Istanbulite from every walk of life, here to eat chocolate, chestnut, hazelnut or orange baklava, traditional flan or Turkish delight. The square baklava with pistachios, made with 30 layers of pastry, is particularly recommended. <br />• </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">karakoygulluoglu.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dai Pera</b></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Meze at Dai Pera </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Owner-chef Arzu Gurdamar calls the fare at his eclectic, chic hole-in-the- wall cafe ev yemekleri </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">– home cooking. It’s like a Turkish Ottolenghi: fresh, top-class ingredients prepared to a daily-changing menu, including smoked meats, cheeses, pies and stuffed vines. For a treat, order pit-roasted lamb and rice with onions, nuts, diced liver and currants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">• +90 212 252 8099, Yeni Çarsi Caddesi 54, no website</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Journey</b> <br />This informal two-floor cafe is peppered with interesting books and creative folk conducting their working life at its coffee tables. It’s a perfect brunch spot in the heart of Europeanised Cihangir, offering comfort food such as homemade pastas, pizzas and meatballs. Come for breakfast and choose from pancakes, brioche, granolas, eggs and toasties. <br />• </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">journeycihangir.com </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Ferahfeza</b> <br />Ferahfeza colonises the vast top floor of a modern block in Karaköy, which enjoys views of the Galata Tower out the back and of the Sultanahmet district at the front. It’s an upmarket Mediterranean seafood restaurant, but also an excellent place for a civilised cocktail, best enjoyed from the small, Galata-facing terrace. <br />• +90 212 243 5154, Kemankes Caddesi 31, no website</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Gaspar</b> <br />Münferit’s little sister livens up a quiet backstreet in Karaköy. Its moody, dark interiors, created by layered panels of wood, are the work of Istanbul design studio Autoban. Two floors of a lounge bar-cum-restaurant-cum-club have been carved out of a handsome neo-classical building, which was once a printing press. House music predominates. <br />• +90 212 293 6660, Necatibey Caddesi, Arapoglan Sokak 6, no website</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Münferit</b> <br />The modern take on the meyhane </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">– the traditional Turkish tavern, scene of wild, raki-fuelled dancing and music – has caught on in recent years. Münferit is the most famous, though it’s equally renowned for its meze. It comes into its exuberant own after dinner, when the music ramps up (though you can still order black couscous with calamari). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">• +90 212 252 5067, Yeni Çarsi Caddesi 19, no website</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Reina Club</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The Reina Club. Photograph: Sipa Press/REX </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are countless clubs and bars along the Bosphorus. Among the glitziest – and worth a drink for the skyline views, even if the showy side of Istanbul is not your bag – is this celebrity haunt, with several bars, restaurants and dance floors.<br />• +90 212 259 5919, Muallim Naci Caddesi 44, reina.com.tr</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Vault Karaköy </b>The latest and most grown-up addition to the successful House Hotel brand, 63-room Vault Karaköy takes over a 19th-century bank in Istanbul’s trendiest neighbourhood. Original period detail abounds: marble staircases and fireplaces, stencilled ceilings and mouldings. To this has been added a dash of pared-down luxury – green and white marble bathrooms, and art and photography dotting the rooms. The breakfast buffet is a world-beater. <br />• +90 212 244 3400, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">thehousehotel.com, doubles from €169 B&B</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>SuB Hotel Karaköy </b><br />An industrial-chic nook in the heart of trendy Karaköy. The aesthetic is minimalist yet comfortable: grey polished concrete walls, LEDs and docking stations, designer beds, big factory windows, and anti-stress mattresses. You can linger over the Turkish-style breakfasts (artisanal cheese, eggs, jams, organic honey, olives, heavenly pastries), while the restaurant does excellent, simple Mediterranean food. <br />• +90 212 243 0005, subkarakoy.com, doubles from €99</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Mama Shelter</b><br />On top of a department store on Istikal Caddesi, Istanbul’s throbbing, pedestrianised shopping street, Mama Shelter is the latest offering from the stylish, Philippe Starck-designed chain. There’s a public space with a graffiti-scrawled ceiling that encompasses a pizzeria and terrace with views of the Bosphorus, excellent but affordable food, and small, simple, nattily minimalist rooms.<br />• +90 212 252 0100, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">mamashelter.com, doubles from €99 B&B</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Bunk Beyoglu</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Bunk Beyoglu </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bunk offers dorm living (though there are en suite doubles available too) in surprising style, moments from the Galata Tower in Istanbul’s heaving, culturally vibrant European quarter. Expect impeccable cleanliness, fluffy towels, hairdryers, crisp linen and free Wi-Fi. There’s also a classy street-level cafe that gets lively at night, marble bathrooms, and a roof terrace with Jacuzzi. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Djem Istanbul</b></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> A room at Djem Istanbul </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A classically furnished 11-room town house filled with Ottoman antiques, Djem is a cosy, affordable option in the shadow of the monuments of Sultanahmet. A stone’s throw from the Blue Mosque (you might think the muezzin is being sung just for you), it’s within strolling distance of the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar, and has free Wi-Fi and a 24-hour concierge. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663875/s/404745b5/sc/10/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Ctravel0C20A140Cnov0C0A80Cistanbul0Ecity0Eguide0Eeat0Edrink0Ehotels0Egalleries/story01.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></span></span></div>

Istanbul city guide: essential sights, and where to eat, drink and stay

The dazzling interior of the sixth-century Hagia Sophia. Photograph: Emad Aljumah/Getty Images Istanbulite tours The delightful Eda Sök...

Westbrook Court, Hay-on-Wye: B&B review

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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1210719471368779413" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> One of Westbrook Court’s owners is trained in interior design; her creative touch is on show throughout the B&B <br />
It’s very late and very dark when we arrive at Westbrook Court B&B, three miles outside Hay-on-Wye on a lonely B road, and all I can see is a huge window, bright lights and a bed. It’s too modern and pared-down to be a barn conversion and doesn’t look like the bed and breakfast of its name. But owner Kari Morgan is there to welcome us with a drink and promises to explain all on the morrow.<br />
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Breakfast is communal and very good, thanks to excellent bacon and sausages from the local butcher, eggs from Kari’s chickens, home-baked bread made with Talgarth mill flour, and good granola and salmon for those, like my partner, who don’t want a full breakfast. It’s served in the cosy and wonky-looking 17th-century timber-framed cottage where Kari and her husband, Chris, live with their young daughter, Heidi.<br />
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“I’m from Australia,” Kari says. “We travelled a lot around New Zealand and South Africa and wanted to do the kind of hotel we saw there, something that would look very different from the traditional bed and breakfast. We trialled hospitality here in the cottage at first, and learned a lot. But I think having bedrooms in a separate building is good for guests, and also for us.”<br />
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 Westbrook Court’s rooms benefit from an abundance of natural light <br />
I agree. The guest “space” – and that is the word for it – feels private and peaceful, with five sleek apartment-like suites in a black, wood-framed purpose-built structure. We’re in room one, which is the cheapest (£85), on one floor, with an en suite loo and shower. The high ceiling and windows allow in plenty of natural light and afford good views of the surrounding hillsides.<br />
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Kari, formerly in real estate, retrained in interior decoration. Her creative touch is evident in the scrubbed whitewashed floorboards, modern four-posters, dark wooden crates for shelving, velveteen armchairs, and a high wall of monochrome brick-print wallpaper that gives the room an urban accent. In the bathroom, a movable ladder for storing the towels– looks pretty and is pretty handy too. It all makes a pleasant change from your standard cosy, twee cottage-in-the-country style.<br />
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The other rooms are duplexes, come with claw-foot baths, and cost £5-£15 more. Outside is a pebbled garden and a fence-cum-feature made from railway sleepers. It reminds me of the sort of artful hotel architecture I’ve seen in Arizona and Chile, and not often enough in the UK.<br />
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Some of the rooms feature modern four-posters <br />
By 11am, there’s a steady drizzle falling and I’m glad we’ve got something other than book-shopping planned. I’ve nothing against Hay’s lovely literariness, but as an OCD-grade hoarder I don’t need any more novels, or poetry, or art books or anything with pages in it. Instead We meet Alex Gooch, whose “work” I have tasted on other visits to the Wye valley. He’s the region’s most acclaimed baker and over five hours he teaches us about Neolithic wheat, the chemistry of yeast, the right way to kneed (being “forthright” is the trick) and the wrongness of your average supermarket load, while guidingus through the fine arts of baking chilli pepper, onion and mizuna focaccia, treacly fruit loaf, plain ciabatta and rye sourdough.<br />
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Food takes up quite a lot of the rest of our time, too, with one excellent lamb dinner at the Felin Fach Griffin– half an hour away by car but well worth it – and another fine meal at the Old Black Lion in Hay. The latter is a recommendation from a fellow breakfaster – social networking of the most time-honoured kind.<br />
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There are great views across the Powys countryside from the B&B <br />
On Saturday afternoon Hay is bustling, but far less showy and shouty than during festival week. A visit to the lovely bistro at the back of Booths’ grand bookshop involves running a gauntlet of tempting nature publications. Hay’s other retail strand – antiques and home decoration – is also on offer wherever we look. But after our coffees we decide it’s time to head back to our “bed and breakfast”. With no need to take our shoes off before entering, no creeping up a creaky staircase and no guilt at all about having a quick siesta, it is more like a very un-English country hotel.<br />
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<a href="http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663875/s/40474671/sc/10/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Ctravel0C20A140Cnov0C0A80Cwestbrook0Ecourt0Ehay0Eon0Ewye0Ebed0Ebreakfast0Ereview/story01.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

Westbrook Court, Hay-on-Wye: B&B review

One of Westbrook Court’s owners is trained in interior design; her creative touch is on show throughout the B&B It’s very late and v...

Skiing in Andermatt: changes afoot to a resort with awesome off-piste

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXPH6awEv1PvXfJBfrm_r9ARS087i2CAkSsJz9BdhvW3VkJCCPlAURlV-4cKx68p0NROik8ccH79AtG29IqMecH4nYEYatbNYYqcPAAeP11-_c1-Cjxw7OV-Yb5k9epDDujb3z-dWWVF8/s1600/Andermatts-pistes-are-to--011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXPH6awEv1PvXfJBfrm_r9ARS087i2CAkSsJz9BdhvW3VkJCCPlAURlV-4cKx68p0NROik8ccH79AtG29IqMecH4nYEYatbNYYqcPAAeP11-_c1-Cjxw7OV-Yb5k9epDDujb3z-dWWVF8/s1600/Andermatts-pistes-are-to--011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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 Andermatt’s pistes are to be merged with those of nearby Sedrun. Photograph: Hans Georg Eiben/Getty Images <br />
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Before and after the second world war, the White Hare Ski Club organised for hundreds of Britons to travel by train to a small village in the Ursern Valley, two hours south of Zurich, to learn to ski. Among them, in 1958, was my then 19-year-old mum.</div>
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Andermatt was great value. The club magazine for that year, which mum still has, carries an advert for the Hotel Badus (still going strong today) which offered full board from 16 Swiss francs a day, then just over £1.</div>
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The mountains around Andermatt were said by locals to be riddled with tunnels used to store the nation’s gold, although the only thing Mum brought home from Switzerland was Dad.</div>
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British visitors kept going until the 1980s, when ski resorts elsewhere added new lifts and small, cheap holiday apartments. Andermatt didn’t follow suit, and the Brits were replaced by adventurous Dutch and Scandinavian skiers, who still come for the knee-deep powder, free-riding and the legendary off-piste couloirs on the 2,961-metre Gemsstock mountain.</div>
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Until recently there had been little development of the village or local infrastructure, but a CHF1.8bn (£1.2bn) investment in the resort by Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris is under way. The SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun project will see six new lifts linking Andermatt with the high plateau at Oberalp and the Sedrun ski area by the 2017/18 season, creating the largest ski area in central Switzerland.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-O6FFDBq2f6KlujsAquby6LmYzb3Law9zhJv7r__rC7d_lMlYJBEtc2Hy9DXHFwUWzl9pRhmsTomRB8mfYhFq1qTTb4rkIOB6_gtlX45urGpJpBsYSPZr6bxqe4aa3JR7HQgMgxk4CA/s1600/6a631222-0dda-400c-9fdb-0f240c729686-460x289.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-O6FFDBq2f6KlujsAquby6LmYzb3Law9zhJv7r__rC7d_lMlYJBEtc2Hy9DXHFwUWzl9pRhmsTomRB8mfYhFq1qTTb4rkIOB6_gtlX45urGpJpBsYSPZr6bxqe4aa3JR7HQgMgxk4CA/s1600/6a631222-0dda-400c-9fdb-0f240c729686-460x289.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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 The five-star Chedi Hotel, Andermatt </div>
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Last winter, the resort’s first luxury hotel opened in the oak and granite form of the Chedi. And as part of the lift project, six hotels, a pool, 490 apartments and 25 chalets will be built.</div>
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I prefer the old Andermatt. The Aurora hotel, across the road from the Gemsstock cable car, is warm and cosy. Its sauna and homely restaurant – full, on my trip, of rugged Swedes planning off-piste adventures – makes it a winner.</div>
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For me, a large part of Andermatt’s appeal is that to access some of the best runs you hop on a little red train. Some find this a pain but I think it gives the resort a unique identity, chugging steeply through three tunnels towards ski lifts at Nätschen (10 minutes) and on for a further five minutes, spraying snow, to Oberalp. In the opposite direction, you could alight along the valley at Realp, where the Swiss team trained for the Sochi Olympics, if cross-country skiing is your thing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiol5EXsueyRm1tEZVvMAOtTHritypqw41456SvLIAwGDfyN5nxABMHd9KNAAJjrCCt1ZwhJ9_h7z1EfV9voC80ydbPxdMaOd0hHaYKWtKtedvNOfepu07NboNs7ZxcI3EdWtYFYCH0TLI/s1600/f32ea0f8-3ae6-4980-ba46-8959bc6d3067-460x301.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiol5EXsueyRm1tEZVvMAOtTHritypqw41456SvLIAwGDfyN5nxABMHd9KNAAJjrCCt1ZwhJ9_h7z1EfV9voC80ydbPxdMaOd0hHaYKWtKtedvNOfepu07NboNs7ZxcI3EdWtYFYCH0TLI/s1600/f32ea0f8-3ae6-4980-ba46-8959bc6d3067-460x301.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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 Skiers near the summit of the 2.961-metre Gemsstock mountain, which overlooks Andermatt. Photograph: Martin Ruetschi/Keystone/Corbis </div>
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Here the language changes from Swiss German to Romansh and ski tourers can hire a guide, put on their skins and head in glorious solitude towards the hamlet of Tschamut, while the rest, me included, can zig zag down red runs via Calmut, Val-Val, Cuolm Val, Milez and Mulinatsch to Sedrun, before taking the train back, which is included in the local lift pass.</div>
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To prepare my ski legs I took the open, red Sonnenpiste run to the mid station at Gurschen, politely turning down the Swedes’ invitation to join them on the challenging Guspis off-piste route towards the neighbouring village of Hospental, for lunch in the Gasthaus St Gotthard. In all, Andermatt is better for intermediates and off-pisters than beginners, but the new lifts will really open things up.</div>
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 A cable car takes visitors up Gemsstock. Much of the area’s ski infrastructure is set to be upgraded as part of the SkiArena Andermatt-Sedrun project. Photograph: Alamy </div>
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There’s little in the way of après ski, but I joined the Swedes for a drink in the fun Spycher bar, and you can enjoy traditional Swiss dishes such as Älpermagronen</div>
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(a belt-busting mix of pasta, potatoes, cheese, cream, butter and onions) at the Drei Könige, Toutoune or Sonne – a local told me its menu hadn’t changed in 20 years.</div>
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For the time being, Andermatt remains somewhat hushed and staid. It’s more functional than chocolate-box pretty – although a good dump of snow does wonders on that front, and along Gotthardstrasse there are some handsome buildings including the traditional Sonne Hotel and the old coaching inn, the Drei Könige und Post. Those in the know accept Andermatt for what it is – a base for awesome skiing. But those hardy off-pisters will soon find themselves sharing it.</div>
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Skiing in Andermatt: changes afoot to a resort with awesome off-piste

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