Frank Kane’s Notebook: world’s brightest in Europe’s highest city – but cheap, it isn’t

I've always made it to Davos in the daytime, enjoying the pleasant scenery. But this time around, I expect to arrive at the Alpine resort around midnight, right in the middle of a blizzard.

By the time you read this, I will, hopefully,have completed a journey that at the moment sparks just a little trepidation.

The internet tells me it’s 4,651 kilometres from Dubai to Davos, where I will be attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting this week. The first 4,500km of those are no problem, thanks to those lovely people at Emirates Airline. But the final 150km are a little worrying.

Not that it’s the first time I have done the journey. On previous visits I’ve had a daytime arrival, with no deadlines to meet and no pressing need to consult the Swiss railway schedule. Just get on whatever train comes, sit back and enjoy the Alpine scenery, about as different from Dubai as it’s possible to be.

This time, unavoidably, I arrive at night, and have about an hour to clear customs and immigration at Zurich airport, make the train ride to the city’s central railway station, and board the last train to Davos.

Assuming I make that, there is then a 45-minute trip through Alpine lakeland – beautiful by day in sunny weather, but an unknown at nighttime – and with snow storms promised, too.

Then a change of trains at the desolate little town of Landquart, where the railway splits, before boarding the special train that climbs the 1,500 metres to Davos. Again, the scenery is mind-blowing during the day, but at night, with temperatures now below zero and with a likely blizzard blowing at this height, those steep, frozen inclines threaten to be rather less picturesque than perilous.

However, the Swiss have been doing this kind of thing for centuries, and are rightly renowned for the quality and punctuality of their railways in some of the most difficult terrain in the world, and I put my trust in them.

If all goes well, I will reach the bahnhof at Davos Platz just before midnight. Too late, I’m sorry to say, for the media reception taking place that evening, but no doubt relieved just to have arrived.

I suppose I could have tried for a seat on the helicopter that frequently plies the route between Zurich and Davos during the WEF, but at about 2,000 Swiss francs (Dh8,046) per trip, I will leave that to the “masters of the universe” who annually invade the Alpine city. Yes, city.

The Swiss define a city as any urban conurbation with more than 10,000 permanent inhabitants, and Davos just squeezes in, at a smidgen over 11,000. It claims to be the highest city in Europe.

During the WEF, that population must at least double, what with 2,500 visitors at the event itself and the armies of support staff – drivers, waiters, maids, chefs and general bottle washers – that this upmarket epic requires. Because for a week every January, Davos can hold the world to ransom, with what must surely be some of the most extortionate hotel rates on the planet.

The WEF says it is a not-for-profit organisation, “committed to improving the state of the world”. But the city itself comes with no such disclaimer. For the duration of the annual meeting, it is the perfect monopolistic trap: almost limitless demand from the richest people in the world, compared with a supply line limited by logistics and space in a high Alpine valley.

Still, I wouldn’t miss it. If you’re at all into current affairs, business and economics, this is where you will find the world’s most interesting people. The days are intellectually stimulating, the nights more relaxing and convivial. It’s a bit like being a university student again for a few days.

Just so long as I make those final, crucial 150km.