An expert’s honest review of every (major) Swiss ski resort
Back in the 1890s, it was the British who pioneered skiing in a handful of villages in Switzerland. These days, you can ride 1,900 lifts to reach nearly 7,000km of slopes scattered across 350 resorts.
Winter holidays here were first popularised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he wrote in The Strand magazine about his experiences on skis in Davos.
Sadly, these days, prices can be prohibitively high. But I still maintain that if you shop around carefully and avoid staying in the biggest name resorts, you can still experience some of the best skiing in Europe, without breaking the bank. Here are 25 of my favourites, where I’ve had the most fun over the years.
Adelboden
This is a smart, but unspoilt village in the Bernese Oberland with a large ski area linked to the spa resort of Lenk and a network of other villages. The lift pass covers some 210km of pistes served by 72 lifts. It suits families looking for a traditional Swiss winter sports holiday. You’ll find plenty of enjoyable blue and red terrain for all standards, as well as some challenging steeps and off-piste.
Andermatt
Andermatt is a traditional Swiss resort with a long-established reputation for challenging powder skiing on the steep 2,961m Gemstock. However, after a £1.2 billion redevelopment organised by Egyptian entrepreneur Samih Sawiris that was set in motion in 2005, it’s now American-owned. Vail Resorts operates the 120km ski area and offers unlimited access to its Epic Pass holders. It’s become a fabulous four-season resort.
Arosa
Arosa is a traditional family destination with some fine hotels. It’s been popular with beginner and intermediate skiers since the 1890s, but also has extensive cross-country tracks, as well as tobogganing and winter walking trails. These days, it’s linked to Lenzerheide and offers a substantial 225km of groomed slopes that give it greatly increased appeal.
Champéry
This is one of the lesser-known villages in the 12-resort Portes du Soleil area, which crisscrosses the frontier between Switzerland and France. It’s been a popular resort with the British since they imported curling here in Edwardian times. Champéry is ideal for intermediate and advanced skiers. Experts will ski the notorious Pas de Chavanette (the Swiss Wall), and all visitors will want to explore the other Swiss resorts of Les Crosets, Champoussin and little Morgins.
Crans-Montana
The two villages have fused over the years into an urban sprawl, easily reached from Geneva, with smart hotels, gourmet restaurants and plenty of scenic and varied skiing. The downside is that much of it is south-facing, although a third of the ski area is covered by snowmaking. Checking conditions in advance, it’s ideal for a week – or better, a long weekend. It’s now included in the Epic Ski Pass, like Andermatt.
Read our Crans-Montana ski guide.
Davos
The annual setting for the World Economic Forum is also one of the oldest and best ski resorts in Switzerland, with a history going back to the 1880s. Davos is linked across the Parsenn ski area to much smaller Klosters, with 300km of pistes included in the lift pass. It’s not ideal for beginners and is best suited to strong intermediates and above.
Read our Davos ski guide.
Engelberg
This high-altitude resort above the beautiful shores of Lake Luzern has a split personality. In winter, it’s a high-altitude ski destination dating back to the 1930s. It now predominantly attracts a youth-oriented clientele to 3,238m Mount Titlas with its 82km ski area. In summer, the resort has been adopted by Indian fans due to its flower-strewn pastures, which are a setting for Bollywood movies. It’s got some dramatic off-piste runs and plenty of more sedate terrain.
Grimentz
Grimentz is a cult resort in the heart of the beautiful Val d’Anniviers, reached by a heart-stopping mountain road up from Sion in the Rhône valley. It has the largest collection of ancient wooden mazots – farmhouses and barns mounted on stone pillars to keep out vermin. The lift pass covers the linked resorts of Zinal, St Luc, and two other ski villages. There’s great skiing for all standards, with 210km of piste and 46 lifts.
Grindelwald
This is one of the world’s oldest and most cosmopolitan resorts dating back to the early 1880s, when Britain’s new Iron Age saw the remarkable feat of building a railway up the Eiger to 3,345m, the highest rail station in Europe. It has fine hotels and two separate ski areas – Kleine Scheidegg, which it shares with Wengen, and the entirely separate First. Both provide scenic terrain that should keep anyone happy for a week.
Gstaad
This quaint and expensive village is dominated by the fairytale Palace Hotel epitomised by Peter Sellers in the 1963 comedy, The Pink Panther. The village became the haunt of the likes of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Roger Moore, and Julie Andrews. But times – and more significantly, climate change – have caused today’s celebrity set to seek fresh pastures. Frankly, the ambience is good, but the 200km of piste lacks a challenging gradient.
Klosters
The unassuming ambience of this farming village with direct cable car access into the giant Parsenn ski area is no doubt what once attracted the Royal family, along with wealthy bankers from Zurich. With some of the most challenging slopes in the 300km area, as well as its separate Madrisa beginner area, it’s no longer the cash cow it once was for the piste paparazzi – and all the better for it.
Laax
Laax and its neighbours, Flims and Falera, form a large and relatively snow-sure glacial ski area of 224km of piste served by 30 lifts. While Flims, with its grand hotels, has been a spa destination since the 1880s, Laax is a cool resort with contemporary youth-oriented appeal. No less than five terrain parks provide world-class freestyle.
La Tzoumaz
The little village of La Tzoumaz is linked on piste to Verbier and the rest of the 410km of skiing in the Four Valleys. Staying here is no substitute for the star resort of the region – but it’s a lot kinder on the wallet.
Check out Boutique Hotel Pap’llon. Prices are less than half those of its exalted neighbour, and at 1,500m, it should be snow-safe.
Lenzerheide
In the 1960s, Lenzerheide attracted British families to its gentle slopes and comfortable hotels. These included Margaret Thatcher and her children before she became Prime Minister. Famously, she said she didn’t enjoy foreign holidays, but this was the exception – and she became a competent skier. These days, it’s linked to Arosa, and the resorts share a joint lift pass accessing 225km of mainly intermediate pistes.
Leysin
A ski holiday in Switzerland is undeniably expensive, but Leysin bucks the trend. Ok, so it lacks the glamour of its big-name counterparts, but it still has 100km of pistes for mainly intermediates, going up to 2,200m. There’s a terrain park with areas to suit all levels, plus a half-pipe. Apart from a scattering of traditional chalets, buildings of an institutional style bear witness to its beginnings in the 1890s as a health tourist destination for TB sufferers.
Meiringen-Hasliberg
If the name sounds familiar then you’re probably a fan of Sherlock Holmes. This is where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective appeared to have met his death at the Reichenbach Falls. The linked villages of Brienz, Axalp, Hasliberg and Meiringen provide 60km of easy intermediate slopes served by 13 modern lifts. You may catch sight of the occasional fan wearing a deerstalker instead of a helmet…and clutching a magnifying glass.
Mürren
In the early 20th century, tennis racquet salesman Sir Henry Lunn had a vision of the future and launched the first ski holiday packages for the British in this picturesque village in the Bernese Oberland. With its Heidi-esque chalets and views of the Eiger, Mönsch and Jungfrau, this is holy ground for purist British skiers and the birthplace of the Kandahar Ski Club. In reality, it offers steep but limited local terrain. Fortunately, it shares a lift pass with the adjoining intermediate resorts of Wengen and Grindelwald.
Riederalp
This pretty village perched on a mountainside in the Valais region feels like a secret destination open only to the privileged few who know of it.
Car-free Riederalp can only be reached by cable car from the valley town of Mörel. It is a key component of the Aletsch Arena ski area lining the majestic Aletsch glacier, the largest in the Alps. The 104km of piste and 15km of ski routes include the Bettmeralp and Fiescheralp villages.
Saas-Fee
This car-free high-altitude village, cut off by road from the outside world until 1951, is a mini Zermatt with its blackened chalets and pedestrianised streets. It’s surrounded by a horseshoe of 13 peaks of 4,000m, and skiing continues throughout the year on its glacier. It’s great for racers-in-training, beginners, and low intermediates, but not expert recreational skiers – the groomed pistes are tame, and the off-piste terrain is heavily crevassed.
Read our Saas-Fee ski guide.
St Moritz
Think St Moritz and what springs to mind is the Cresta Run, golf, polo and horse racing on the frozen lake. Add in its gilded clutch of fabulous five-star hotels and the undimmed opulence of their high-flying guests. But actually the resort has 350km of superb ski terrain at a snowsure 3,000m. St Moritz is now included in the Ikon lift pass, which gives access to over 50 resorts worldwide.
Read our St Moritz ski guide.
Verbier
Other Swiss resorts try to compete, but Verbier’s exotic chalets, vibrant après-ski and challenging terrain continue to hog the limelight. It’s not a place for the faint-hearted – either on or off the slopes. Few competitors can challenge the thrills of its high altitude off-piste and vertiginous itinerary routes, or indeed it’s high octane nightlife that burns at full throttle throughout the night.
Read our Verbier ski guide.
Veysonnaz
Veysonnaz is part of the 410km Four Valleys ski area, of which Verbier is the main resort. It’s used by Swiss national ski teams as a training base, not least because it acts as a useful backdoor into the challenging descent of Mont Fort, the 3,328m dramatic centrepiece of the area. The resort offers a cut-price opportunity to explore this outstanding area.
Villars
Villars became popular with the British during the ski boom years of the 1960s, not least because it was one of the few places in Switzerland where you could buy property without financial restriction. Sadly, at 1,300m, I consider it now too low for certain snow cover on its gentle slopes. However, the ski area is linked to Les Diablerets, which has guaranteed runs on its 3,209m glacier.
Wengen
Car-free Wengen is one of the Edwardian cradles of modern skiing. The rack-and-pinion railway climbing through the granite heart of the Eiger to 3,454m still acts as the basic component of the lift system. This is a classic family resort, much loved by successive generations of British skiers. It shares its mainly blue and red pistes with Grindelwald. The regional lift pass also covers nearby Mürren. Family-friendly activities include extensive toboggan runs and a fine skating rink.
Read our Wengen ski guide.
Zermatt
This quaint resort, reached by cog-railway from the valley town of Visp, is the country’s most iconic destination, and it’s busier in summer than in winter. The majesty of The Matterhorn peeps out at you as you round almost every street corner. It’s got some of best – and most expensive – mountain restaurants in the Alps. The budget option – at half the price – is to lunch on the Italian side of the 338km ski area on the way to Cervinia. However, from there, you miss out on the trademark view of Switzerland’s iconic peak.
Read our Zermatt ski guide.
