New Year in Toggenburg: a quiet start to the year

New Year’s Eve can be loud. Crowds in a square, music from speakers, and at midnight you are standing among people you have never met. There is another way to do it: a valley that turns dark and quiet early, an apartment that smells of melted cheese, and a night sky where you can pick out the stars one by one. If that sounds more like your kind of new year, Toggenburg is the right place for it.

We are Isabel and Sandro, and we rent out two holiday apartments in the historic SutterSport building at Hauptstrasse 36 in Alt St. Johann, in the canton of St. Gallen. Our dog Lou, a Mini Australian Shepherd, belongs to the house and gave the whole thing its name. Zurich is about an hour away, and yet everything here runs a few notches slower.

Fondue at your own table instead of a fixed dinner slot

A quiet new year starts in the afternoon: shopping, setting the table, lighting the candles. The village shop is two minutes on foot, so you never have to get into the car. Both apartments come with a fondue and a raclette set, the kitchens are fully equipped, and that removes most of what makes New Year’s Eve out of the house stressful. No reserved table, no time slot, no “we really have to leave now”.

For families that is the whole difference. The children eat when they are hungry, not when the kitchen has decided. Whoever is tired at eight goes to bed without ending the evening for everyone else. And if a gap opens up between the cheese and midnight, there is table football and a play corner for the children, plus a travel cot and a high chair you do not have to pack.

Midnight in warm water

Each apartment has its own outdoor hot tub, and in winter that is where the evening turns. Cold air around you, warm water beneath you, and above you a sky you simply do not get in the city. The Churfirsten and the Schafberg stand around the valley as dark silhouettes, with the Säntis and the Chäserrugg further off.

The hot tub at Louisa’s Gallery is the large one and fits up to five people, so you can actually share the moment at twelve in the water. Louisa’s Loft has its own tub on its own terrace, a little smaller and very private. Put out two warm towels, and that is all the preparation it needs.

The first of January is yours

On New Year’s Day you do not have to choose between active and lazy, because both are right outside the door. The cross-country trail starts around ten metres from the house, the ski school is about two hundred metres further on, and in winter the house is ski-in/out. So if someone wakes up wanting snow underfoot, they are outside in minutes. How a ski day works here is described in our piece on the ski area at the Chäserrugg.

The other option is just as good: a walk into the valley with no particular destination, cold noses, and hot tea afterwards. If you want to go higher, the summit restaurant on the Chäserrugg lets you look out over a good deal of the new year. And what in summer are the swimming lakes Schwendisee and Gräppelensee is the same landscape in winter, only quieter.

Room for everyone, across three generations

New Year’s Eve is often the evening when the whole family comes together, and that is exactly what these two apartments were made for. Louisa’s Loft is on the ground floor, measures around 85 m² and sleeps up to six guests, with two bedrooms, a sofa bed and one bathroom, plus the additional room “Schafberg-Chalet” on the upper floor. From CHF 110 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax.

Louisa’s Gallery is the apartment with a gallery level, around 106 m², up to six guests, two bedrooms plus a sofa bed and a bathroom with a bathtub. The gallery floor holds a table tennis table and a work desk, in case someone still has something to finish. From CHF 130 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax.

If you really want everyone together, you can take the whole house: up to twelve guests, two hot tubs, two kitchens, two terraces, from CHF 280 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax. The grandparents keep their own apartment and their own bedtime, the children have space to run, and for meals everyone simply meets one floor away. That mix is usually what makes a multi-generation gathering relaxed instead of crowded.

Arriving without anyone waiting up for you

Over the holidays nobody wants to keep a handover appointment. That is why check-in here works on your own, with a numeric code, however late you end up arriving. Each apartment comes with a parking space, the bus stop is two minutes on foot, and if you travel by train you can get through the whole stay without driving once.

Inside you will find high-speed Wi-Fi and a smart TV with Netflix, Disney+ and Replay, for the morning when nobody feels like getting up. There is a washing machine and a tumble dryer, which is worth more than it sounds when ski clothes come home wet. Dogs are welcome for a fee of CHF 40 at the Loft and CHF 50 at the Gallery, and how we handle that is described in our post about holidays with a dog in Toggenburg.

On Airbnb we currently sit at 5.0 out of 16 reviews and carry the Guest Favourite badge. For us that mainly means one thing: guests who came here to change years quietly found exactly that.