Ascension and Whitsun: long weekends in Toggenburg

Ascension and Whitsun are Switzerland’s short holidays. No big packing, no flight, no weeks of planning: Ascension always falls on a Thursday, Whitsun hands you a Monday, and suddenly you have three or four free days in a row. The real question is what actually fits into that time without leaving you more tired on the last evening than you were before you left. Our answer sits around an hour from Zurich, in Alt St. Johann in Toggenburg.

The drive decides your whole first day

When you only have three or four days, you do not want to spend half of the first one in the car. From Zurich you are with us in around an hour, and that shifts the whole calculation. You can set off the evening before after work and still sit down to dinner together, or have a slow breakfast at home and arrive before midday.

Check-in here works on its own with a numeric code. There is no key handover to plan around and no arrival time that suddenly becomes a problem because a child fell asleep halfway. Each apartment comes with a parking space, and the village shop and the bus stop are a two minute walk away. Forget the milk and you can walk there and be back before the coffee is ready.

A rhythm, not a programme

The most common mistake on a long weekend is the full schedule. Four days look like plenty, and then you rush from one highlight to the next. What works better, in our experience, is a simple rhythm: one day on the mountain, one day in the valley, one day with nothing planned.

For the mountain day, our post on hiking in Toggenburg has routes for different leg lengths, and if you want to go high, combine the cable car with a break at the summit restaurant on the Chäserrugg. The valley day can be gentler: a loop around the mountain lakes Schwendisee and Gräppelensee, or a visit to the Klangwelt Toggenburg, where children get to make sounds themselves. And the third day belongs to nobody but you. That is usually the one everyone remembers longest.

Two apartments under one roof

We rent out two holiday apartments in the same building, a historic SutterSport house in the middle of the village. Louisa’s Loft is on the ground floor, around 85 square metres, with room for up to six guests: two bedrooms plus a sofa bed, one bathroom, and an additional room called the Schafberg-Chalet upstairs. It has its own outdoor whirlpool. The Loft starts at CHF 110 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax.

Louisa’s Gallery is the apartment with a gallery level, around 106 square metres for up to six guests, also with two bedrooms and a sofa bed, a bathroom with a bathtub, and a gallery floor with space for table tennis and a desk. The large outdoor whirlpool takes up to five people. The Gallery starts at CHF 130 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax.

When three generations travel together

Long weekends are often the moment the whole family manages to meet: grandparents, parents, children, all free at the same time. For that you can book the whole house, with room for up to twelve guests, two kitchens, two terraces and two whirlpools, from CHF 280 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax.

The real advantage is less about the number of beds than about having two apartments. The little ones can go to bed early without the evening ending for everyone else. Anyone who needs quiet has a door in between. And for dinner there is one table where everybody actually fits.

What makes a short break easy

In three days nobody wants to shop as if for a fortnight, and nobody wants to eat out every single evening either. Both kitchens are fully equipped, a fondue and raclette set are ready to use, and for the evening there is high speed WiFi and a smart TV with Netflix, Disney+ and replay. A washing machine and a tumble dryer take care of wet hiking trousers, so they do not travel home with you.

For families there is a travel cot and a high chair, a children’s play corner and a table football, which has rescued more than one rainy afternoon. Your dog is welcome too, and our Lou is always glad of the company: CHF 40 in the Loft, CHF 50 in the Gallery. We have written up separately how a holiday with a dog in Toggenburg works.

In summer the Schwendisee and the Gräppelensee are the obvious targets for a warm afternoon. In winter the cross country trail is ten metres from the house and the ski school 200 metres away, and our post on the Chäserrugg ski area shows how well that fits together in the snow.

Deciding early pays off

Long weekends can be planned in advance, and that is exactly why they are in demand. We only have two apartments, and over Ascension and Whitsun they tend to be taken earlier than on an ordinary weekend. So if you already know you want to keep those days free, it is better to decide too early than too late.

We are Isabel and Sandro, we live in the same village, and Lou, our Mini Australian Shepherd, is the one the house is named after. On Airbnb we are at 5.0 from 16 reviews and listed as a Guest Favourite. If you have questions about the journey, the rooms or the whirlpool, just write to us. We answer personally, usually faster than you would expect.