Our Aussie friends from New Castle, NSW want to come to CH for a white Christmas. They are looking for a "magical place" which is not a ski resort and not very touristy.
I cant think of any and am at my wits end. Any suggestions? Many thanks in advance.
You really need to go above 1'800 meters to be sure of snow at Christmas, and even then it is risky. There are many villages in the Jura, perhaps Odile can help you, she lives in Fleurier NE. The hills around are too steep to ski!
The problem is a village without skiing has low tourism, and apart from walking, there is not much to do.
Otherwise Les Mosses looks to me to be a fairly low key ski resort.
You will find the Swiss like to stay home at Christmas, but will ski the following weekend, so this year you should plan on leaving the resort on Boxing day 26th December.
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Last edited by Ittigen; 13.08.2011 at 00:28.
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Magical Place + Christmas + Snow + No Skiing + No Tourists = a pretty unsolvable problem to be honest - by definition, what they want is what everybody else wants too!
And even more specifically - if they want to be sure of snow they need to be high, so in the mountains.....so there will ALWAYS be a degree of skiing and if there isn't, as Ittigen says, there will be nothing to do.
Maybe the thing to recommend is a chalet outside the main resort village - eg as Biff says, Wengen is a beautiful place but is ski based - but there are some great chalets 20-30 minutes walk away in Wengwald so you can walk or talk the train into the town when you need contact or food, but you are away from it when you need peace. And from experience, a clear night up there with snow under your feet and stars like you have never seen is a great experience.
The only other point is that Christmas is still pretty early for guaranteed snow - so you may want to go up even higher
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Perfect! Except for the skiing, tourists, magical and snow in the village....its ideal
But my family from Cairns came to Grindlewald for Christmas a few years ago, and there was no snow at all in the village.
The hotel kindly brought a truckload of snow down from somewhere higher up, because the Aussie children had never touched snow, but it wasn't quite the same as a 'white Christmas'.
Then, to make matters worse, it snowed the day they left.
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Ittigen, a/ I do not live in Fleurier, but in the mountains fairly near and b/ the next village to Fleurier is Buttes and it does have quite a good little ski resort, lol, called La Robella where I learnt to ski as a toddler.
The Jura is not so touristy, but a white Christmas is not always guaranteed.
Not sure if Les Cernets will be opened at Christmas - it is not far from us, up in the mountains, and you can rent some snow shoes, or crosscountry skis. But there is nothing else there, so you'd have to make your own entertainment.
Another nice place is just over the French border- so in Euros. It is called Le Tillau- lovely old farm style hotel again up in the hills, nothing else around.
For something more Alpine- why not get in touch with my friends Madeleine and Patrick, who own a B&B in the hamlet of La Tour, between Evolène and Les Haudères (accessible by public transport, train to Sion then bus)- The B&B is called 'La Grande Peur dans la montagne' - beautiful waterfall at the back - breathtaking mountains and easy access to other villages. Evolène is one of the most typical old Swiss alpine village + of course midnight mass, etc. BOOK EARLY though as they are very popular.
From the B&B you can walk up to either Les haudères or Evolène for restaus and bars.
They only have 5 bedrooms and a small family apartment. The apartment has its own kitchen. P and M will let you cook in their kitchen if you request it though, unlike most B&Bs. (they are in their early 40s).
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I'd like to rekindle this thread as my OH and I are going somewhere just for the day on Saturday, but we don't know where. I had Château d'Oex on my list, but I don't think it will be snowy. Grindelwald was also a possibility, but I thought if we got up really early, we could go to Zermatt. We're not too bothered about there being tourists there, but more about whether or not we'll be able to find somewhere to eat/some inside in general that isn't completely booked up. We'll only be there for a few hours, but I think he'd like to see the Matterhorn.
Evolène in the Val d'Hérens above Sion would be lovely for a romantic Christmas. A very old village, real Heidi style, with lots of excellent value restaurants. We like the Restaurant Central - lovely fireplace, oldie worldie chalet style dining room and excellent steak + excellent value. Have some vin chaud, they make it with white wine in Evolène, surprisingly good. Train to Sion and bus up (buses wait right next to station). Wonderful.
And for an extra 60 CHF for 2 with breakfast, stay in a lovely old-fashioned traditional hotel, built 1901 - all wood inside- simple but sooo cute and really friendly owners. Evolène is Switzerland as it used to be - enjoy it because it won't last (sadly).
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