bethinmilan

I'm planning to take my family to Switzerland in February for a week. What are the best resorts in terms of family accommodations and skiing (moderately priced as well - not too high-end)? We're all experienced skiers (in the US) and it would be great to find a ski school that my kids can attend everyday. Ski in-Ski out lodging is also a bonus. I've read on other posts that Zermatt is supposed to be great - any other suggestions for a family resort and lodging?

swandav2000

Hi bethinmilan,

Well I think I'm in the minority, but I hated Zermatt. I went skiing there once in April, and it was ***ffffreezinggg***. The wind cut through all my layers of clothing -- and messed around the snow so that I couldn't see. But I'm just a bad intermediate skier, and I think more advanced skiers love it. I don't think it would be particularly great for the kids, though.

On the other hand, Wengen is ideal. The ski slopes are sunny & warm, and the village is postcard-perfect. However, there are fewer hotels, so finding moderate lodging won't be very easy. Grindelwald may be the best bet for a moderate hotel because there are more hotels. Grindelwald and Wengen share the same slopes & trails, but the wonderful, sunny, easy trails of the "First" station are easiest to get to from Grindelwald.

Neither Grindelwald nor Wengen have real "ski-out" hotels; you have to plod along from your hotel through the village to get to the cable car to the slopes. I usually store my skis in lockers at the cable car station to make that trek easier. But you can ski-in, at least *into* the village and usually along the streets at least for a little ways.

Both Wengen and Grindelwald have the Swiss Ski School with classes for the kids. You can get lots of information on ski classes & ski trails at the villages' web sites (look for the "winter" pages, etc): www.grindelwald.com and www.wengen.com.

Let me know if I can help further --

s

FlyFish

Good advice from swandav2000 (as usual). I'm also not a great fan of Zermatt, but have only skied the relatively limited Kleine Matterhorn sector because I was accessing the area from the Italian side (Cervinia).

I'm going to enthusiastically second the recommendation for the Jungfrau Region as a ski destination, particularly with kids. It was the first place I skied in Europe years ago and I've been back several times since. I'm a reasonably proficient skier, but I save my knee-pounding for places closer to home - when I'm on vacation I turn into a cruiser, and the Grindelwald-Wengen-Murren area provides that in abundance, along with a great deal of variety. You also have the option of getting off your skis for a while and heading up to the Jungfraujoch or the Piz Gloria restaurant on the Schilthorn above Murren. There's skiing from the latter on the ominously named "Inferno" - seriously nasty when they let it go bumpy, but otherwise not too bad.

Hotels are limited in Wengen and Murren, and they tend to be pretty quiet - particularly the latter. We've always stayed in Grindelwald at the Hotel Eiger, which is a short walk from the gondola to First and a short shuttle bus from the one to Mannlichen. I have to confess I like the feeling of walking out of the hotel ski room in the morning with my boots on and skis over my shoulder and clomping up to the lift station with everyone else. Skiing back to the village at the end of the day is iffy sometimes because of limited snow at Grindelwald's relatively low altitude - I would say we have been able to do so about two times out of three (we always go the second week in March).

All in all, it's a great place and, while it doesn't have the Matterhorn, other than that the scenery is much better than Zermatt.

Cicerone

In my experience living and skiing here, it is hard to find a bad ski experience in Switzerland. Even Flumserberg less than an hour from Zurich is great for a day. Note that Switzerland is fairly expensive to begin with, and the weak US Dollar doesn?t help. Lots of Swiss go to Austria to ski as it is cheaper and there are numerous great ski areas there as well, esp the St Anton area.

I am a big fan of Zermatt (FlyFish you are right that the Kleine Matterhorn area is not at all good), esp the Gornegrat and Sunegga areas. I am an intermediate who did not ski for 10 years and have no trouble at all at Zermatt. Lots of wide sunny trails. Zermatt on average has a lot of sunny days, I think only St Moritz gets more sun. St Moritz is also a great place to ski. Your choice might depend on which city you fly into, whether you want any activities other than skiing (like cross country, horseback riding, sleigh rides, snow polo, skating etc, then a place like St Moritz is a good choice; if you want nothing much then Saas Fee might be a good choice). Verbier is another great place. Klosters is another. Really the list is kind of endless. I think you will find ski schools in every place, and English ones at that.

Zermatt does not have a lot of hotels with ski in and ski out, most are located in the village itself. Other than the three hotels listed below, you are looking at taking a bus or walking to the nearest lift. Unless there is a ton of snow, you can't ski very far down into the village of Zermatt itself at the end of the day, but have to take a bus from the trail end into town.

The three hotels which I am aware of which are on the mountain and have ski in and ski out are:

Riffelalp 222m, 5 star luxury, great rooms, views and amenities. Website is Riffelalp.com. The Seiler group, which runs this hotel, has several other good 4 and 5 star hotels in town, esp. the Monte Rosa hotel and the Mount Cervin hotel. Website for the group is www.zermatt/ch/seiler, or seilerhotels.com or www.seilerhotels.ch. The Riffelalp is expensive but worth it, IMO as you save a lot of time not having to get to the lifts. The food is excellent and they have an indoor pool.

Riffleberg, 3 star, have not been in the rooms, but lobby and restaurants are charming in Swiss style. http://www.matterhorn-group.ch. Great Matterhorn views. This group has other hotels in the town of Zermatt.

Klum Gornegrat. 2 stars, great location at the top of the Gornegrat with stunning views. I have not seen the rooms, but the restaurants and public areas are nice. Run by the same group which operates the Riffelberg hotel.

The Romantik Hotel Julen in town in Zermatt gets good reviews on this site. Take a look at http://www.romantikhotels.com/Zermatt

The Italian side of the Matterhorn, the Cervinia area, is another thought. It should be cheaper than the Swiss side, and I think many of the trails are as good or sometimes better than the Swiss side. The view of the Matterhorn is nothing at all (it?s the back and you don't even know its actually the Matterhorn), but the little village seems nice and there are lots of hotels. I think you would fly into Milan and train from there, not too sure. You can then ski over to the Swiss side for a day (or vice versa from the Swiss side.)

There is a website called goski.com that has a chat room where you could post your question as well. Go to http://www.goski.com/talk/chat

Ingo

Good advice as usual, although I cannot agree with Cicerone on one thing: You don't want to say that St. Anton is cheaper than Switzerland, do you?

I second the recommendations of Wengen and St. Moritz. If you book a hotel close to the cog-railway station in Wengen you can even ski in.

My favourite area is the St. Moritz region - not St. Moritz itself, but the villages around. Celerina and Silvaplana-Surlej have accommodation at the end of the runs and near the valley stations of the gondolas.

I don't recommend Zermatt. Windy, cold, not the best snow conditions (at least not before mid March), expensive.

bethinmilan

Thanks for this great insight - but having just returned from my first visit to Switzerland, I'm not sure I can afford it. I could not believe how expensive everything was! (I paid 56Fr for a family of 4 to go to the movies.) Now I'm not sure if I can afford a ski week in Switzerland - the meals are what add up. St Moritz was sounding great (as was Wengen which I visited last week). But I'm assuming I'm going to run into the same kinds of expenses in the ski areas - do you happen to know what lift ticket prices are? Am I better off looking at Austria or is it as expensive as Switzerland in terms of meals, etc.? What about Garmisch?

MzPossum

Dear bethinmilan
If you're thinking about changing to Austria, check out the village of Lermoos in the Austrian Tyrol. We stayed there this summer. It is about 40 miles from Innsbruck and about 30 from Garmisch. Ski resort village with what appeared to be several ski out/ ski in hotels and inns and I believe a ski school. Don't have any idea of lift ticket prices; I'm sure there is something on the internet to give you an idea. We stayed at the Gasthof Rose/ 29 Euros per (adult)person per night--probably a bit more during ski season.

bethinmilan

I should add that I'd like to be able to drive there from Milan. Garmisch is about as far as I'd want to go.

swandav2000

Hi Again bethinmilan,

In season, most hotels offer great deals: lodging, half-board, and ski tickets. So don't write off Swiss skiing yet! You can find the packages at the town's tourist shop (the town's website usually run by the tourist office). So for Wengen, go to www.wengen.ch. If you don't want to go for half-board, you can cut costs by having your big meal at lunchtime and getting your dinner at a supermarket.

I just checked at www.wengen.ch (under "accommodation" then "hotel packages" then "Wengen&quot and found a package for seven night's lodging with half-board and six days' ski pass for 1271 chf at the three-star Alpenrose. There are other hotels.

I think Grindelwald will be cheaper --

Let me know if I can help further!

s

Andre

Bethinmilan,

Since you specifically mention moderately priced <i>family</i> accomodations, I feel that you should really consider renting a self-catering apartment rather than staying at a hotel. You'll have much more space and if you're willing to cook a few meals yourselves, the savings can be quite substantial.

Zermatt for example has an excellent selection of apartments which have star ratings according to amenities. The database is searchable on:
www.zermatt.ch
where you will also find the prices for lift tickets. The tourist office sites are always a good starting food for accomodation searches.

If you're looking for ski-in ski-out, your best bet is France, where purpose-built resorts such as Avoriaz, Courchevel and Val d'Isere are low on charm but high on convenience and offer superb slopes and lift networks. In France, Pierre et Vacances has a large selection of moderately priced apartments:
http://www.pierreetvacances.com/
(they don't appear to have loaded their winter dates yet)

Additionally, Interhome has quite a few listings available throughout the Alps:
www.interhome.com

BTW, I think the skiing in Zermatt is excellent and really appreciate the added bonus of the Cervinia area in Italy, which also has fantastic slopes. While the Klein Matterhorn area can turn real ugly and cold real fast weather-wise due to its extremely high altitude, the Sunegga area in particular is quite a bit lower and has excellent weather conditions.

In the past I've skied among others in Avoriaz, Courchevel, Crans-Montana, Lenzerheide and Verbier - Zermatt is definitely right up there with the best IMO.

Finally, all resorts offer at least 1 ski school, so that is not really a factor in your choice IMO.

Hope this helps,
Andre

Lenore1

We once spent a wonderful Xmas/New Years vacation skiing and winter hiking in Lenk im Simmental. In case you're not familiar with this town, it's in Switzerland, about an hour from Gstaad by train (closer if you drive since you have to change trains). It's not your usual tourist location and you won't find too many Americans there but the skiing was great, prices lower than at the major ski areas, the town is charming and there are definitely family style hotels. It's also a spa town so you have the chance to indulge in baths etc.

bethinmilan

[email protected] and others:
I'm really liking the thought of Wengen and there seem to be several apartments/chalets in the area. Can you just give me a bit more info on the logistics of getting around the area - ie. many chalets say x minutes to Wengen train station or near Mannlichen cable car, etc. Which cable car should I be looking for that will get us to good intermediate slopes? Or which side of Wengen should I be looking at to get closest to the slopes?
Thanks!

bethinmilan

Me again...I just found an old post from Ingo that seems to suggest that Grindelwald might be a better location to get around to the slopes, although there are fewer accommodations. Am I better off in terms of getting around easily, looking at Grindelwald chalets? I've been to Wengen and know it's a quaint town for walking around - is Grindelwald the same? What about getting groceries for the week? Will both towns offer small supermarkets?

laverendrye

Have you looked at Saas Fee as an alternative to Zermatt?

swandav2000

Hi again,

Well you know it's a bit of a trade-off. In my opinion, the best intermediate slopes are around the cable-car station &quot;First,&quot; and that's easiest to get to from Grindelwald. But, no, Grindelwald is not as cozy or charming as Wengen is -- for one thing, there is vehicular traffic, more buildings (more hotels), more folks, etc. But it's still VERY charming, I think.

Maybe you can take a look at each town's map -- go to each town's website or maybe to mappy.com and maybe map one or two of the hotels (after you get the hotel's address). The Michelin site (www.viamichelin) has a function that will map some hotels at one click.

In any case, I found the nicest hotels in both Grindelwald and Wengen were some ways away from the transport to the lift, and I always had a bit of a walk in the am. But, as I said, I just left my skis in a locker at night and picked em up in the am to make it easier. I don't know about apartment locations though.

Maybe you can get the address of an apartment or two and then map them at mappy.com so you can get a relative idea.

Sorry not much help!

s

swandav2000

Hi Again,

Maybe this will help.

Here's a link to a city map of Grindelwald.

http://www9.mappy.com/sidBspQW8kMuP3...;x=23&amp;y=13

Note on the far left is the gondola to Mannlichen, on the far right is the gondola to First, and even farther right and down is the gondola to Pfingstegg (the gondolas are indicated by a beige square with a circle inside).

Here's a link to the map of Wengen: http://www9.mappy.com/sidBspQW8kMuP3...;x=19&amp;y=15

Note the gongola to Mannlichen on the outskirts of town.

Here's a link to a link to the ski-map of the area, to help you see where the great intermediate runs are: http://www.wengen.com/

Just under the big photo is a link called &quot;ski map.&quot; Click on that and then click on &quot;big map&quot; to get an overview and then &quot;large map&quot; or &quot;huge map&quot; to get the details of the ski runs.

If you bookmark the mappy.com site, plug in the chalet addresses to see where they are relative to the gondolas.

Hope this helps.

s

bethinmilan

this is great info - thanks so much!

FlyFish

Just to add a bit to the information on Grindelwald and Wengen. The First gondola is pretty much in the middle of Grindelwald, just off the main street and is within walking distance of most of the hotels in town. The other gondola, to Mannlichen, is not conveniently walkable from town but is a short and simple ride on the shuttle bus. The cog rail (which takes you to Kleine Scheidegg) is also used as a ski lift, albeit a slow one, and the station is also walkable from most places in town. We have always stayed at the Hotel Eiger, which I recommend highly - it's pretty much in the center of town and an easy walk to either the First gondola or the cog station. The Pfingstegg gondola is not used for skiing and does not access any pistes.

On the Wengen side, the gondola (it's really a tram that holds about 75 people) is easily walkable from most of town, as is the cog rail station. The skiing in the Mannlichen sector is all on the east slope (i.e., facing Grindelwald, not Wengen) and the entire area from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg is an intermediate's paradise with many runs easily negotiated by competent beginners - the same is true for First. That's what makes Grindelwald such an ideal base for skiing - though Wengen has other advantages, it's a bit of a long way from the First slopes and there's no way to get from one to the other without a rail (a fun trip, but slow) or bus ride.