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Bernina Express: the perfect first solo trip for a woman in her thirties?
First stop: Grand Resort, Bad Ragaz (double rooms from £756, resortragaz.ch), which is renowned for its detoxifying thermal water supply, or ‘liquid gold’ as the hotel staff call it. It runs through the pretty Heidi town which gives the hotel its name, and a spring on-site supplies the hotel’s ornate Helenabad baths, and pools in the Tamina Therme. The 233-bedroom stay, which sprawls over 200 acres, is also a renowned medi-spa, with its recently opened Tamina Health Centre attracting many wealthy guests who come to recoup after surgery, or to take one of its advanced programmes, for everything from longevity to weight loss. Seeing many of your fellow guests navigating the hotel’s corridors in crutches took some getting used to – though after an afternoon spent administering myself some contrast therapy in the spas, dipping in and out of its six saunas, baths and ice grotto, my shoulders were firmly lowered, and I was blissfully in my own world when I floated back to room to read and order sushi.