Skiing in the Swiss Alps is magical. Dramatic peaks like the famed Matterhorn
provide magnificent scenery. Big mountain skiing is your playground from high
elevation to peaks for miles into valleys and ski villages as much as 6,000'
vertical below. Delightful ski villages like
Zermatt,
Saas Fee,
Adelboden,
and the Aletsch Arena of Riederalp, Bettmeralp, Fiescheralp,
provide fine hotels, lively après ski and fine dining of Swiss
Fondue and raclette, plus dancing and music into the night.
Skiing in Switzerland is vast, you can ski from Zermatt to Cervinia Italy for
example.
Travelling in Switzerland, flying into Geneva or Zurich with Swiss Air, you can use
the train system with a Swiss Pass - this provides you unlimited travel for 4, 8,
15 days or a month, excellent timely connections, clean safe trains, plus bus and
boat shuttle privileges. Swiss trains really do run like Swiss watches - with
reliability and precision. See our
travel tips for skiing in Switzerland
and our Tips for packing and
skiing in the Alps.
Les 4 Vallées offers extensive extreme skiing
which we recently reviewed along with the most famed town of
Verbier St
Bernard. Verbier's glacier and vast slopes provide an extreme skiers
playground - the highest of which is Mont Fort at nearly 11,000.' The
cosmopolitan alpine town of Verbier is fun for skiers and non skiers alike with
all its top hotels, shops, restaurants and bars.
Zermatt, in Switzerland’s western Alps, borders Italy
and provides tons of ski terrain - cross -country - literally. Zermatt village and ski
resort is best known for The Matterhorn at 14,693-feet, the most photographed
mountain in the world. Zermatt offers the highest skiing in the Alps at
12,739-feet, with 60 ski lifts serving over 350 kilometers of prepared slopes
and even more off-piste. You can ski from Switzerland to Italian
along the Plateau Rosa off the Klein Matterhorn to Cervinia Ski Resort in Italy.
One of the treasures of skiing the Swiss Alps, especially Zermatt, is skiing to a mountainside chalet
serving homemade lunch, just look for the Swiss flag along the trailside. Zermatt
Village is a picture postcard of world-class hotels and loads of upscale Swiss
restaurants and shopping.
The Aletsch Arena offers amazing ski
in, ski out lodging and sundrenched slopes. Ski right in to your hotel here on a
snow-assured, car-free ski vacation to one of three interconnected ski villages
of Bettmeralp, Riederalp or Fiesheralp. Enjoy the magnificent view of the
23 kilometer long Aletsch Glacier, the longest ice stream in the Alps and heart
of this UNESCO World Heritage Swiss Alps.
Saas Fee ski resort is home to the
highest underground railway, the Metro Alpin, which delivers skiers to superbly
scenic skiing on a glacier and the highest revolving restaurant in the world -
aptly called 360. Saas Fee doesn't get the big name recognition of other Swiss
ski resorts, it doesn't get the big crowds either and the charming ski village,
with no cars, is a relaxing retreat for families or romantics.
Adelboden Lenk is located in this
Bernese Oberland region, another large ski center in Switzerland with six
separate areas, we have skied and reviewed for you.
Switzerland’s Jungfrau region offers even more big mountain Swiss Alps skiing,
from Grindelwald’s extensive terrain, to Wengen and Mürren, all on one ski pass.
Shilthorn Mountain’s 9,744’ summit is where you will find the world famous Piz
Gloria lodge, filmed in a James Bond movie scene, a panoramic spot for lunch reached
by cable car. From here it’s a long run down the Bernese Oberland Alps, this is
where the legendary Inferno Race started in 1928, descending 10 miles in
approximately 15 minutes race time. The Super Ski
Region of Gstaad is another one of the largest ski areas in Switzerland.
St. Moritz, in the spectacular Engadin Valley, is revered for its luxury ski
village and wide offering of skiing. St Moritz’s summit is 10,836-feet with the
longest run over 10 kilometers. St Moritz has modern ski lifts and over 350
kilometers of ski runs plus off-piste and glacier skiing on Diavolezza glacier,
and heli-skiing. The village of St Moritz has four and five star ski hotels.
Enjoy our Swiss ski reviews below and our Top
Swiss Ski Hotels, and check back frequently as we add more after
personally visiting each for firsthand ski tips, photos and hotel
recommendations of The Best of the Alps.
