old town chur

We spent a couple of hours walking round the narrow cobbled streets in the old town and loved it. An afternoon here would probably be enough time, but there were plenty of independent shops and little restaurants.

Chur is a beautiful old town, some lovely narrow streets, restaurants and shopping places. but nothing special to see. you may stay there for one night and move to another place in the mountains. but don't expect a lot of activities for a full week stay.

Reading a couple reviews saying that this is "boring" is laughable; I lived here for five months (February 2014- July 2014) and was never bored. All the big cities in Switzerland, like Lucerne, Geneva, and Zurich do offer more traditional excitement and attractions, but if you want the real feel of Switzerland I suggest Chur. I had the opportunity to travel all over Switzerland, to all the major cities, larger towns, and a vast majority of villages; I still hold Chur as the most authentic. The town square, the view of the city, hiking the numerous trails offered, and the cable car to Brambruesch are just a few of the things to do. Come here to immerse yourself in the culture, or go to the larger cities to be with the other tourists - the choice is yours.

We arrived in Chur about an hour and twenty minutes after leaving Zurich. Our hotel, the Romantik Hotel Stern, was only a short distance from therail station, but I was turned around when we arrived and set out through the middle of the old town, thinking it on the far side. Had I taken a left at the entrance to the old town and walked a block, it would have saved us much walking and searching. Fortunately, the old town isrelatively flat and devoid of stairs, and has little vehicle traffic to deal with. Most of the streets are pedestrian routes, though they are shared by the occasional vehicle.Once we found the hotel, we checked in and unburdened ourselves of our luggage. We then set out to explore Chur. Our first afternoon was spent walking the streets of the old town, and then to the city immediately beyond the old town. We limited our explorations of it to the area immediately across the river that divides the city, and to the area near the rail station. The remainder of the city beyond that was, as far as we could see, nothing but residences, and most of them of a more modern build. The first thing I noticed about the town was the bells. Church bells chimed on the hour and half hour and quarter hour. Then there were the chimes - a series of small bells mounted aside one of the buildings in the old town, which rang out a tune at some hour, a sweet melody that rang softly. It was chiming as we left the hotel, and continued for quite some time, long enough for me to be aware that it seemed to be audible throughout most of the old town area. Chur is somewhat off the beaten path for tourists, or so we were told. “How did you come to choose Chur?”, we were asked by locals. Partly, I suppose, this was because it was off-season for them. Chur probably attracts some tourism in the Summer, and more so in the ski-season, but theyseemed surprised to find a vacationing American couple there in late September. The town does not particularly cater to Americans, or indeed to English-speaking tourists. That is not say English is not spoken there, as we had no difficulty in that regard, but English-language signs are not socommon, and English-language menus or other amenities are lacking. This was explained by the lady from Landquart we met, who told us that Switzerland has four official languages, none of which is English. All of them are spoken regularly in the Canton in which we found ourselves. With four local languages to deal with, they had little energy to spare printing signs for the less-frequent English-speaking visitor. Finding a good dinner was difficult our first evening there. Because it was Sunday, and it was off-season, many restaurants were closed. We were also hungry well ahead of the local dining custom, which saw many of the restaurants not opening until 7:00 pm or later. We did, eventually,find a fine little restaurant just outside of the old town The Retaurant Ratushof, near the rail station, where we the English-speaking waiters were patient with us and happily recommended local dishes, which were excellent!

Beautiful. Walk it at night for the wonderful and romantic lighting! Take your camera, you will need it.

we chose to stay in Chur because it was convenient for our rail tour. Arrived from Lucerne. Although Chur was indeed more convenient, we heartily wished we had stayed in Lucerne. Lucerne is famous - for a reason, it is beautiful. Chur is unknown - for a reason, it is boring. Nothing actually wrong, just small-town boring.Bit like a Swiss visitor planning to stay in Stratford but ending up in Coventry instead.

Our stop in Chur was more of necessity since we were able to pick up our rental car here after arriving by train on the Glacier Express from Zermatt. From what I had read, my expectations were not too high, however we were pleased and surprised during our one night stay here. The people were very friendly and there weren't hoards of tourists clogging the streets. The outdoor eating establishments were very inviting with their sheep skin lined seats, and the amiance was set off by the spotlessly clean streets (it is Switzerland after all). It is pleasant to stroll through old town and enjoy a glass of wine on the main promenade to watch the locals go by on their bikes. Everyone seems so happy here!! We really didn't want to leave! Our accomodations were at the ABC Swiss Hotel and dinner was a delicious fondue at the Zollhaus.

The oldest city in Switzerland with a charming historic centre, old traditional buildings, nicely painted and decorated. Narrow cobbled streets full of shops, bakeries and cafes, all sorts of nooks and crannies to explore. Lots of character, well worth visiting.

The old town has lovely cobbled stoned walkways, quite a variety of shops, everything from clothing to model train shops. Friendly people willing to help you.

We were sorry we had only one night in Chur. It is such a beautiful city, full of history, and beautiful surrounding scenery.

The Bernina Express stops here. We loved Tirano, Italy and thoroughly enjoyed the train trip. We were hoping the town of Chur would have offered a little more as far as character had entertainment. We stayed two nights but could have seen everything in one night and day.

We took a train from Zurich to Chur and was happy about that. Not only Chur is a transportation hub, but a really nice city also with charming buildings. We walked around for a few hours but came through on many times in route for other destinations.One such destination was Tarasp where we checked out the castle.

A reminder of the old days, take time to look up and wonder at the buildings and decorations alow your imagination to go back several hunred years, easy to do here. Lots of good cafes and restaurants.

Walk up through the old town to the viewpoint for great views of the city. We loved the cathedral, you can take photographs. There are beautiful painted buildings, signs and artwork to see and plenty of places to stop for a break. You can download an audio guide in English to give you more information about each major location. There is also a useful map in hotels and available from the tourist information located at the railway station.

Yes we had a lovely afternoon strolling through the old town even manage to see 2 weddings one up at the Cathedral had relaxing coffee in the old square