We booked this hotel for a family skiing holiday and although the staff were friendly and the hotel clean and functional I could not honestly say it was a 4 star hotel.

The food was not bad, but having an 8 year old with us and not any real choice on the menu was a bad thing. The choices as I say were limited and no 'plain' food available. Other hotels in the town had children's menus which gave pasta etc. but this hotel did not have any child-friendly choices.

The room was a standard room and having seen in the doorway of a deluxe room I wish we had booked one of those. Our room was clean but the carpet and rug looked a bit old and tired.

There is no lounge, just a bar, so after supper there is nowhere to go with a child but back to the room.

The other thing to be aware of is that they do not take any credit or debit cards and since you have to pay locally for children (who stay free in room) and for your 'free night' if you have one you will need to have the cash with you. This is something we did not read properly in the small print so found ourselves getting out wads of swiss francs in the resort.

The siting of the hotel is great as the bus to the slopes and around stops just outside.

Arosa itself is lovely for beginner to intermediate skiers but if you want luxury I would book the Kulm which is just by the ski school and looked fantastic.

After discovering that all the less expensive hotel on the "promenade" were way above the main street, and impossible without a car, I simply wandered into the Cristallo. Since it only made sense to take a more expensive room with a view, I checked one out - absolutely worth the money.

Milestegg below wrote a great description of the magnificent view. The spacious room is virtually a suite. Super comfortable bed (looking out the picture window), large living area with table and chairs. great bath, and refrigerator.

From the train station and lake you walk up the main street about 15 minutes, so you are within walking distance of the trails and funiculars, which are free with the Arosa card. There is also a free bus. There is a supermarket (Migros) a short ways from the hotel, and another (Denner) down by the lake and train station.

The train ride to Arosa is beautiful, as is the resort itself. I plan on returning this summer.

The view from the room (if you pay extra and book a room with a view) is nice.

The phone in our room didn't work. They didn't fix it till we left.

There were so many flies in the dining room that we had to ask for a fly swatter

Do NOT be put off by the outside appearance of the Hotel Cristallo. Yes, it’s a concrete box, but that is exactly it’s good point. It’s honest, it’s not a fake alpine chalet, and it’s not a traditional wood construct where you can hear every movement from anyone anywhere in the building and the balconies are at risk of collapse from dry rot. (I won’t tell you the hotel I’m thinking of). It’s modern, it’s clean and it’s very well decorated. Don’t think that being all that makes it characterless, it doesn’t. The bedrooms are excellent, comfortable and well appointed, but their star feature is the view (if you face the valley rather than the street). The whole of one end of the room is a wall to wall, floor to ceiling 50’s style picture window with a door onto the balcony, with a magnificent view over the valley and lake. The view is so dominating that you can feel it.

The front of the hotel is on the main run of shops & banks, which are clean and modern but could be anywhere in Europe with no hint at all of being in the alps. The contrast between the front of the hotel and the back of the hotel is a little surreal.

The hotel dining room is behind the hotel run bistro, and overlooks the valley. Where the meals are concerned I have nothing to complain about, but did find things a little pretentious. Perhaps that was just me, perhaps it was the other guests some of whom overdressed for dinner and were obviously out to impress. Perhaps it was the staff, because although things were relatively ordinary, they seemed to be trying to convey an air of class, perhaps they were just trying too hard. I wasn’t really comfortable at meals, but would put up with this willingly for the rooms.

A word of warning about the dining room particularly if there are children in the party, the walls are decorated with modern pornographic cartoons (why !). Is this art, or is this smut ? It’s pretentious, which only added to the feel that the management were trying to position themselves as “up market”.

Regardless full marks to the place.