A town where the great outdoors beckons

Spring in Ascona smells of …

It happens sometime in March. The air turns, the lake loses its icy grey, and Ascona sheds its winter silence like a coat that’s no longer needed. Anyone arriving now will experience a town awakening to new, vibrant life.

It starts with the camellias. First the odd one, then everywhere, in white, pink, and deep magenta, in front gardens, along the walls, on the path down to the lake. Ascona isn’t discreet with its flowers. It blossoms lavishly, as if nature had taken out its paintbrush and brightest paints overnight.

And as the flowers bloom, the Lungolago promenade fills up, first with joggers and two- and four-legged walkers in the morning, then with leisure lovers stretching out the morning as if there were no office waiting, no appointment, no reason to hurry. The first sun umbrellas open up on the piazza. Someone puts espresso cups outside. Within a few days, life moves from indoors to outdoors, from the fireplace to the lake.

What stands out: Ascona doesn’t stage its spring. The town glides into it, like a conversation that was never really interrupted. You suddenly find yourself sitting by the lake in front of Vista Lake Front Boutique Hotel with a glass of Merlot and realise that the sun has been shining on your shoulders for an hour. That’s how it starts here.

Out on the water, into the garden
If you sit still, you miss the best parts. So, it’s time to catch a boat. The Brissago Islands are twenty minutes away, and the crossing alone helps give your mind a good spring clean. Then the botanical garden awaits. You climb up the terraces, past bamboo groves and azalea walls, under cypress trees. In April, the flora explodes, and everything blooms at the same time, as if the island is in a hurry. You, on the other hand, have all the time in the world and soak up the sights and smells of the natural splendour. You take a deep breath of spring air.

Stay where the day lasts the longest
In the evening, it’s the terraces’ time to shine. The sun is low over the bay, the light turns from gold to copper, and risotto and pasta dishes or a pizza are steaming on the tables. Somewhere, someone is playing soft music. Somewhere, someone is laughing joyfully. Ascona in the evening has a tone that’s relaxed but alive, as if the town knows that the best hours are just beginning.

Vista Lakefront Boutique Hotel is right at the heart of it all, right on the lake, right in the middle of the action. Anyone who spends spring here soon realises why Ascona is so attractive. Not just because of the view. Because of the feeling of being in the right place at the right time.