Places to Explore

• Aletsch

  Ice-capped peaks with small mountain resorts staggered up their spines rim the Aletsch, a glacier that shares its name with the area surrounding it, paralleling the valley floor. A variety of ecological... (more)

• Brig

  A rail and road junction joining four cantons, this small but vital town for centuries has been a center of trade with Italy. Often overlooked as merely a transit point, the town has a legacy that can... (more)

• Col du Grand St-Bernard

• Crans-Montana

  This well-known twin sports center rises above the valley on a steep, sheltered shelf at 4,904 feet. It commands a broad view across the Rhône Valley to the peaks of the Valaisan Alps, and its grassy... (more)

• Leukerbad

  At 4,628 feet, Leukerbad, called Loèche-les-Bains in French, is Europe's highest spa village; travelers have been ascending to this Alpine retreat for centuries to take the curative waters and fill... (more)

• Martigny

  At the foot of the Col du Grand St-Bernard, Martigny has long been a commercial crossroads. Testimony to this are the Gallo-Roman ruins discovered in 1976 by engineer Leonard Gianadda. When Gianadda's... (more)

• Saas-Fee

  At the end of the switchback road from Saas-Grund lies a parking garage where visitors must abandon their cars for the length of their stay in Saas-Fee. But even by the garage you'll be amazed, for the... (more)

• Simplon Pass

  Beginning just outside Brig, this historic road meanders through deep gorges and wide, barren, rock-strewn pastures to offer increasingly beautiful views back toward Brig. At the summit (6,593 feet), the... (more)

• Sion

  Rearing up in the otherwise deltalike flatlands of the western Valais, two otherworldly twin hills flank the ancient city of Sion. The two hills together are a powerful emblem of the city's 1,500-year... (more)

• St-Maurice

  Pushed up against a stern, gray rock face, this small town is quiet and peaceful, with patrician homes lining its Grand-Rue. Once a customs station along the Roman route over the Col du Grand St-Bernard... (more)

• Val d'Anniviers

  If you drive east of Sierre and south of the Rhône, following signs for Vissoie, you enter a wild and craggy valley called Val d'Anniviers. The name is said to come from its curious and famous (among... (more)

• Verbier

  A big part of Verbier's appeal is the skiing on sunny slopes and the fact that it's a high-tech, state-of-the-art sports complex that links Quatre Vallées (four valleys) and multiple ski areas... (more)

• Zermatt and the Matterhorn

  Despite its fame—which stems from that mythic mountain, the Matterhorn, and from its excellent ski facilities—Zermatt is a resort with its feet on the ground. It protects its regional quirks... (more)