A loop from the Obersee in the village out to a mountain lake at 1,933 metres, past a chapel from 1493 and bears at a cable car station.
Eight stops on a 12.6 km loop that starts and ends at the Obersee, with 3 h 16 min of pure walking. With the visits worth making, count on a full day of around seven hours.
The lakes, both churches and the falls are free; only the Heimatmuseum Schanfigg and the Arosa Bear Sanctuary (Arosa Bärenland) charge admission. Route, map and GPS navigation are free in your browser; the optional AI Tour Guide leads the walk as a conversation.
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The walk opens on the Obersee, the upper lake in the middle of Arosa, also called the Oberer Arosasee. It covers 7.1 hectares at 1,734 metres, so the village literally gathers around a mountain lake, with its shore open at any hour and free.
Take a few minutes here to get your bearings, because you will see this water again: the loop ends on this same shore. From here it is 970 metres and about 13 minutes down to the village's second lake.
The Untersee lies at 1,691 metres, a little lower than the Obersee, and it is Arosa's mountain lake for swimming. Its shores are open around the clock and cost nothing, and on a warm day this is where the village comes to cool off.
If you plan to swim, this is the place on the route, not the high lakes later on. From the Untersee you walk 770 metres, about 15 minutes, back up to the Poststrasse and the village church.
Back on the Poststrasse, the village church stands on your left. This is Arosa's working church, in daily use, and its doors stand open to visitors and to anyone who wants a quiet moment. Admission is free, so step inside even if you only have a few minutes.
Keep it in mind for later in the walk. The Dorfkirche is the church that is always open; the Bergkirchli up the hill is older but rarely unlocked. Two churches on one walk, with two very different ideas of welcome.
From here the route leaves the centre for Innerarosa: 1,380 metres and about 24 minutes to the oldest house still ahead of you but one.
In Innerarosa you reach the Egga-Hus, a house from the 16th century that holds the Heimatmuseum Schanfigg and its collection on the local history of the valley. Only the Bergkirchli, a few minutes on, is older, so the building alone tells you a lot before you see a single exhibit.
Admission is low and free with an Arosa Card, so price is never the reason to skip it. The opening hours are: the museum only opens on a few afternoons a week. If your walk passes on one of those afternoons, go in; if not, enjoy the house from outside and move on.
The next leg is the shortest in the village: 340 metres, about 6 minutes, to the chapel.
On your right stands a small late Gothic chapel, consecrated in 1493 and the oldest building in Arosa. Walk around the outside first: the chapel, its walls, its grounds and the pond are free and open all year at any hour.
The interior is a different matter. It opens only for services, concerts and major religious holidays, or for guided tours arranged in advance; Arosa Kultur and Arosa Tourismus handle access, and some concerts need tickets. If a service is on when you pass, step in, because worship costs nothing. Otherwise plan an interior visit around a concert or a holiday.
Now the walk leaves the village behind. It is 1,360 metres and about 26 minutes uphill to the middle station of the Arosa-Weisshorn cable car.
At the middle station of the Arosa-Weisshorn cable car, Arosa keeps bears in a sanctuary run as an animal welfare project. After a chapel from 1493 it is a complete change of scene, and for many families it is the reason to walk the loop at all.
This is the main paid stop, with reduced prices for children and with an Arosa Card. Give it about an hour if you like animals; if you are here mainly for the mountains, the bears are an easy one to skip.
Beyond the sanctuary the route turns into a proper mountain walk: 3,700 metres and about 58 minutes to the Schwellisee.
The Schwellisee lies at 1,933 metres, high above the village, with public shores that are open at any hour and free. The two village lakes come to you; this one you reach on foot.
Take your long break here rather than at the falls. Still water is a better place to sit than falling water, and whatever food you carried up from the village belongs on this shore.
The next leg is 3,850 metres and about 51 minutes; along the way the route passes the Hörnli summit and the Planetenweg before it reaches the falls.
The last new sight of the walk is the Altein falls, where water comes down from the Schiesshorn into the Welschtobel. Mountain trails lead here freely at all hours, with no gate and no ticket, which fits the whole outdoor half of this loop.
Then the circle closes. A final 270 metres, about 4 minutes, bring you back to the Obersee where you began, so there is no journey home to plan. If you started at another stop, keep walking the loop round to it.
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AI Tour Guide
Press start wherever you are, even hundreds of kilometres from Arosa, and the guide begins telling its stories right away. In the city, pick any of the 8 stops to start from: it leads you there, then talks with you the whole route, asking, listening, remembering, and shaping the tour around your answers.
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The loop splits naturally into a village half and a mountain half, so you can walk one and leave the other for another day.
Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
For a morning or an afternoon without the climb. From the Obersee to the Bergkirchli you walk 58 minutes in short legs, and the only entry is the Heimatmuseum. Allow about two hours with the church, the museum and a look around the chapel grounds, and time it for an afternoon when the museum is open.
Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
For families and anyone who wants the bears without the long mountain legs. Walking time to the sanctuary is 1 h 24 min; the museum and the bear sanctuary are the two entries. Plan around three and a half hours, and ride the cable car back down instead of walking.
Stops: 6, 7, 8
For hikers who already know the village. Start at the bear sanctuary, then walk 58 minutes to the Schwellisee, 51 minutes to the falls and 4 minutes back to the Obersee: 1 h 53 min of walking. The sanctuary is the only entry. With a proper pause at the lake, count on about four hours.
The pure walking time is 3 h 16 min for 12.6 km. The village legs are short, never more than 24 minutes; the two mountain legs from the bear sanctuary to the Schwellisee and on to the falls take 58 and 51 minutes. Add about an hour with the bears, three quarters of an hour each for the museum and a pause at the Schwellisee, and shorter stops at the churches, lakes and falls, and the whole loop fills around seven hours.
The museum is the part that needs timing: it only opens in the afternoon. If you want it on a day when you walk everything, start with the mountain half from the bear sanctuary in the morning, finish at the Obersee, and walk the village half after midday so you reach the Egga-Hus once it has opened. Any stop works as a starting point; the order shown is the recommended one.
If you have more days in Graubünden, nearby Chur and Davos have their own walks.
AI Tour Guide
Press start and a voice AI Tour Guide takes it from here: leading the route through Arosa, telling the stories, and turning your walk into a real back-and-forth conversation. No app or download is needed; it runs in your browser.
Free to start · Runs in your browser · No app, no download
The mountain legs are long, and that is where the AI Tour Guide earns its place: it greets you at the Obersee, tells the stories of the Schanfigg valley and the 1493 chapel while you walk, asks what caught your eye and remembers it, so the talk on the way to the Schwellisee follows your interests rather than a script. Ask it how people lived in a house like the Egga-Hus, or what draws walkers to the Welschtobel, and cut in whenever you like. The route itself stays as it is.
