Summer holidays in Toggenburg with children

Summer holidays with children are long, and that is exactly what makes them good. Not a weekend that is over before anyone has properly arrived, but a week or two in which you settle in and plan each day by the weather and the mood at breakfast. We are Isabel and Sandro, and we rent out two apartments in Alt St. Johann in Toggenburg, around an hour from Zurich. Every summer we see the same thing: families arrive with a long list of outings and realise by day three that a mountain lake, an easy walk and a kitchen of their own are enough for a good week.

Swimming days at the mountain lakes

Toggenburg has two swimming lakes that seem made for children: the Schwendisee and the Gräppelensee. Both sit between forest and peaks, both are small enough that you can keep an eye on the children, and both are mountain lakes, so the water is fresh. On warm days that is the point. How the two lakes connect and what you can expect along the way is in our post about the mountain lakes Schwendisee and Gräppelensee.

Plan a lake day as a whole day: swimming things, a snack, a ball, not much more. And when everything comes home wet and sandy in the evening, both apartments have a washing machine and a tumble dryer, so by morning it is all dry again.

Walks the whole family can manage

The big names stand all around the valley: Churfirsten, Schafberg, Säntis, Chäserrugg. You do not have to collect a summit for the week to work. With children, short routes with a goal they understand win: a lake, a bench with a view, a stream to dam up. If you want more choice, our overview of walks and hikes in Toggenburg has easy and longer options, and when you do feel like going high, the summit restaurant on the Chäserrugg is a goal that convinces tired legs too.

The location helps: the village shop is two minutes on foot, so you can still fill the backpack in the morning. The bus stop is the same distance away, so you do not need the car for every trip. And if the family dog is coming along, dogs are welcome with us, our own Lou lives here after all. What that looks like in practice is in our post about holidays with a dog in Toggenburg.

The rainy day that still counts

At some point in every summer week it rains. A good place for that is the Klangwelt Toggenburg, where children and grown-ups make their own sounds, sheltered from the weather and still right in the middle of the region.

Just as often, though, a rainy day needs no programme at all. We have a children’s play corner, a table football table and a smart TV with Netflix, Disney+ and replay. The kitchen is there for an afternoon of baking, and the private outdoor hot tub is almost better in the rain than in the sun: warm water, cool drops on your face, wet mountains all around.

A kitchen and a terrace instead of a hotel room

The real difference to a hotel does not show on the first evening, it shows on the third. You have breakfast when everyone is awake, not before the buffet closes. The mid-morning snack comes out of your own kitchen, and dinner happens when the youngest gets tired rather than an hour later. Both apartments have a fully equipped kitchen, plus a terrace and the meadow in front of the house, where the children can run a lap between two courses.

Two more things take the load off. A travel cot and a high chair are here already, so you do not have to bring them. Check-in works on your own with a number code, so you can arrive whenever it suits you, including late with sleeping children in the car. Each apartment comes with a parking space, and the wifi is fast enough if someone has to work for an hour.

Which apartment fits your family

Both apartments are in the same house, a historic SutterSport building at Hauptstrasse 36. Louisa’s Loft is around 85 m², sits on the ground floor and sleeps up to 6 guests: two bedrooms plus a sofa bed, one bathroom, plus the extra room called Schafberg-Chalet upstairs, which older children tend to claim. It has its own outdoor hot tub. From CHF 110 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax, dog fee CHF 40.

Louisa’s Gallery is the larger one at around 106 m², an apartment with a gallery level for up to 6 guests. Two bedrooms plus a sofa bed, a bathroom with a bathtub, which is welcome with small children, and a gallery floor with table tennis and a work desk. The large outdoor hot tub takes up to 5 people. From CHF 130 per night, plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax, dog fee CHF 50.

Travelling as two families or across three generations, you can take the whole house: up to 12 guests, two hot tubs, two kitchens, two terraces, from CHF 280 per night plus final cleaning and visitor’s tax. Everyone keeps their own retreat, and in the evening you still sit down at one table.

Arrive once, then simply stay

A summer week with children does not get better by fitting more into it. It gets better when you only have to arrive once and can then decide each morning whether the day belongs to the lake, a trail or the terrace.

On Airbnb we have 5.0 from 16 reviews and Guest Favourite status. We are glad about that, but mostly it says how holidays run here: unhurried, with short distances and plenty of time. Isa, Sandro and Lou look forward to having you.