I don't ski but have visited Engelberg. It's nice and high so you should have plenty of snow. It's a very popular skiing resort, and you might have some delays on the road up from the Stanstad valley if traffic is heavy.

I don't know your exact dates, but my zone of France starts its fortnight's winter holiday on Saturday 19, and the one zone is already on holiday and the other due to start on 26 Feb, so there may be quite a few folk there.

Do bring tea bags and a few supplies with you as Switzerland is very expensive! Have a lovely time, and make sure you are covered for WINTER SPORTS/DANGEROUS SPORTS insurance as skiing injuries are often not covered by ordinary travel insurance.

You may find this website helpful. http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/engelberg-titlis.html

Thanks and I like the link, that's my deck chair waiting for me! We are going next weekend but my son says it is the end of the Swiss sports week so they will all be on their way home. When looking for accommodation many of the Engelberg hotels were fully booked and very expensive. We spend quite a lot of time in Switzerland as son lives there but haven't been to this particular village/area yet. We will be arriving by train from Zurich so hopefully that will cut out traffic jams although friends are arriving by car from Italy. We are really pleased with the deal I put together as the airmiles means we haven't actually paid money for the flights and the farm house is charging us about £20'ish a night each for bed and breakfast in an apartment within their organic goat breeding farm. So that will be a bit different and we are expecting to try all sorts of goat cheeses there. We know from other Swiss trips that everything is very expensive especially food but as we have paid so little for the actual travel and accommodation it's not so bad. We have winter sports holidays every year so our annual travel insurance covers that. I have searched the web for Grafenort but I think that as it is such a small place there isn't much information although the train from Lucerne arrives there every hour. I was hoping to find out if there is a small shop there for groceries and such like. It seems there is a restaurant and there is mention of a ski lift although I expect we will have to travel into Engelberg for skiing. It would be great to hear from anyone who has actually stayed on this goat breeding farm in the middle of nowhere lol.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has actually stayed on this goat breeding farm in the middle of nowhere lol.

Stranger things have been known .... but .....

You certainly know how to throw down the gauntlet!!

Can't help with the goats. But I do know there's a Co-Op supermarket near Engelberg station, even open Sundays from 1000. Has a self service restaurant as well.

That's a help Steve, thanks. I have a feeling that once we have driven half way up the mountain to the farm we will want to stay up there for dinner. Oh and the goat farm is Ifaengi. We found it on google earth and just hope our Italian friends are happy to drive up there! They live in mountains so suppose they will be ok about it.

I see what you mean by middle of nowhere! Should get some good sunsets though. Will your friends be able to meet you at the station or does the farm provide a pick up because it's quite a walk up the hill. You might do better for shopping in Stans, it's on the only road up the valley and there's more choice.

ROFL I'm not intending walking up that hill. Our friends are driving from Italy and will pick us up at the station at Engelberg. Yes it does look like a spectacular spot and so I hope we have clear sunny weather. The farm breeds goats and cattle, makes cheese etc so it seems like it'll be an interesting experience - I might change my name to Heidi for a few days!

Now they've got my broadband working I've had a better look. Your farm is actually in the parish of Wolfenschiessen but uses Grafenort as an address since you have to go that way if you use the road and it's the nearest station. See http://www.wolfenschiessen.ch - there are at least a couple of bakers and a butchers plus some restaurants there.

Thanks Steve. This is just a little last minute cheapie holiday in order to see my son who lives in Zurich and we will have a couple of days in his flat at the end. We have been to Zurich several times but wanted to get a couple of days skiing in and see our Italian friends at the same time. However I am now getting OTT excited about it as this middle of nowhere farm house is becoming quite an adventure. Swiss public transport is just amazing making the whole thing very easy.

it won't take you up that hill though!

lol no but that is why we have the Italians in their car with winter tires and snow chains. I asked them if they were ok about it and the answer was 'Of course we are we live in the Italian mountains'! I just hope I don't have to get out and push. The farmer said the road will have had the snow plough on it. So fingers x eigh?

Apologies for back to back posting but I thought some people might be interested to hear about the goat farm.
Well it was great, we arrived in the dark and although there was snow around, the road was clear and we didn't need the snow chains. When we got up the next morning the view took my breath away - just fantastic. The apartment was clean and very Swiss lol. You know lots of wood. There were 3 bedrooms for 5 of us, a large shower room and a kitchen/diner. The goats were housed next door and you could smell them but it wasn't actually an unpleasant smell. We went to see them and they were very cute and all about to have babies. We opted to pay a little extra for the farmers wife to bring us breakfast and it was delicious with home made produce. I think it worked out about £20 a night each for 5 of us - really good value. The skiing area at Engelberg was fine for a weekend and was very high with very good snow cover. We even had sunshine. We loved the farm and will probably return for a summer visit and some walking.

Thanks for your report! It sounds delightful, almost Heidi-esque!! Feel free to post more details ... or pm me the name and address as it would be nice to have a relatively local place to recharge the batteries in the countryside.

http://www.waser-bergwelt.ch/index.htm

It certainly is great if you want a get away from it all holiday and you must have a car.
In summer months you can rent the apartment but the farmer, his wife and all the goats and dogs head off on a 3 hour walk to their alpine hut. They have rooms there and a small restaurant. It is very remote with no electricity and no vehicular access. You can shorten the walk with a cable car trip and 1 hour walking. We are very tempted to return for a holiday there in the summer.

PS the farm house where we stayed has all mod cons, a road leading to it and electricity. It is the alpine hut 3 hours walk away that doesn't have electricity.