St. Moritz, Switzerland

The Swiss Alps are literally hotter than ever; there’s never been more to experience in less time as traditions old and new pack late winter weekends when the ice sheet spanning Lake St. Moritz is at its firmest in the face of rising temperatures. The annual White Turf races, held over three weeks each January, see fashionable spectators pack a pop-up casino to toast weekend horse races around a frozen track. Some book midweek lessons in skijoring, the local art of being pulled on skis behind a horse and jockey. White Turf is followed by THE ICE, a new weekend car show, where drivers of vintage Fiats and Ferraris turn the lake into an auto parade where drivers compete for style points. Meanwhile, the annual St. Moritz Gourmet Festival has finally brought back its legendary Gourmet Safaris which pack diners into Porsche limousines as they weave between haute cuisine coursed out across the region’s 19th C palace hotels, including The Carlton, which also offers the festival’s most intense hangover cure: Ice bathing. In February, Nomad Circle’s traveling art show makes its new home at Grace La Margna, St. Moritz’s newest five-star hotel.

A spring visit offers guests the chance to see St. Moritz thaw into a lush landscape perfect for sailing, swimming, and hiking. More shops and restaurants, like coffee haven Super Mountain Market, opened by the manager of the famed Dracula nightclub, are staying open year-round to accommodate a new generation of warm weather revelers attracted to off-season outings like the new EDM dance music festival Sunice, and Roth Bar, a new art installation-cum-watering hole at Swiss art gallery Hauser & Wirth, designed by the Swiss artist Dieter Roth and pouring through September.