Love Villars? Where to go next for the calm, the easy skiing or more snow
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20268 min read
Villars is a relaxed family resort with a view of Mont Blanc. That is our one line on it, and the rest of what we hold agrees: family friendly and calm by our read, quiet and family in the way we class it, and families, views and relaxed on its list of what it does best. You fly to Geneva, and the season runs from December to April.
Ask the families who love it what they love most, though, and the answers split. For some it is the calm. For some it is the easy skiing, a week of blues nobody has to be talked down. For some it is the view. And plenty would keep all of it and add more snow. Each route keeps one of those and pays for it with something else.
Villars, measured
Easy on the map, and mostly on the snow. Sixty eight percent of the piste we measure is blue or easier, 48 kilometres of it, and the blues average 15.8 percent, close to the 15.0 of a typical Swiss blue. The reds are another matter: they average 23.6 percent, the second steepest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, against 19.9 for a typical Swiss red. Those are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, but the step from blue to red here is a real one.
Hardly any black. There are 1.5 kilometres of it, the least of the 55 resorts we cover, and the split, 68 percent easy, 30 red and 2 black, is the least even of the 55. A resort built around the easy end suits a family with young children. A teenager who has started on the steep may want more.
The size. Villars-Gryon-Les Diablerets is 87 kilometres of piste, and its ski routes take the pass figure to 104. Glacier 3000, another 31 kilometres, comes with passes of three days or more. Around Villars itself we measure 71.
The height, which is the catch. The village is at 1,300 metres, and the skiing tops out at 2,074 metres by our measure, the lowest top of any Swiss resort we cover. Only 25 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, and 1 percent above 2,000. On our measure Villars is not snow sure. In a deep winter that costs nothing. In a lean one, you notice.
So "somewhere like Villars" means calm, easy blues, a family feel and a view. The routes split on whether you want the same week somewhere new, or the same week with more snow under it.
Wengen: if it is the calm, the families and the view
- VillageVillage
- 1,274 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,320 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 101 km
Wengen: 125 km of piste we measure. 51 km blue and easier 40%54 km red 43%20 km black 16%
Our engine puts Wengen closer to Villars than any other resort we cover, and of its five closest it is the only one that keeps both the quiet and the family feel we class Villars by. Our read is peaceful and car free, a car free balcony village under the Jungfrau, with scenery and families on its list. If the view from Villars is half the point, scenery is the headline here.
The village sits at 1,274 metres, 26 below yours, and on the snow it is gentle in the same way and then some. Thirty nine percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 37, and the blues average 13.9 percent, against 15.8. The reds are where it differs most: they average 20.1 percent, against Villars's 23.6, a good deal kinder than the ones you know. And there is a proper top end for an older child, 20 kilometres of black against 1.5. The split is the most even of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, where Villars's is the least even of the 55.
It is bigger, too: Wengen's own sector is 101 kilometres, against Villars's 87, on a pass of 211 across three areas, though Mürren is not joined to it by lift.
The trade is a snow call we have not made. Our map of Wengen's area runs up to the Jungfraujoch, and Wengen's own skiing tops out far lower; its stored top lift is 2,320 metres. On that map 66 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 25, but we are not calling Wengen snow sure, or not, until that figure is checked. And a car free village means leaving the car behind. You fly to Zurich or Geneva.
Crans-Montana: if it is the family week, with the snow higher up
- VillageVillage
- 1,500 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,000 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 140 km
Crans-Montana: 85 km of piste we measure. 22 km blue and easier 26%50 km red 59%13 km black 15%
If the one thing you would change about Villars is the snow, Crans-Montana changes it and keeps nearly everything else. We class it as a family resort, our read is sunny and smart, and our one line is a sunny plateau with wide views over the Rhône. You fly to Geneva, as you do now.
The height is the difference. The village is at 1,500 metres, 200 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,868 metres by our measure, 794 above Villars's top. Seventy nine percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, more than three times Villars's 25, so on our measure it is snow sure. It is one linked area of 140 kilometres, a figure three independent sources agree on, and we measure 85 around the resort, against 71.
Do not judge it by the piste map. It shows only 22 kilometres of blue and easier, 26 percent of the piste, with most of the rest red, so it looks a good deal harder than Villars. Measured, it is not. Thirty six percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, against your 37, and 22 percent is steeper than one in four, against 24. Its reds average 19.2 percent, against Villars's 23.6: the reds that look like a step up are kinder than the ones you know. And there are 12.9 kilometres of black, against 1.5.
The trade is the calm. We class Crans-Montana as family but not quiet, and smart is not quite the same thing as calm. If your family loves Villars for the hush, that is the cost.
Châtel: if it is the easy skiing, on a far bigger circuit
- VillageVillage
- 1,200 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,200 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 580 km
Châtel: 82 km of piste we measure. 45 km green and blue 55%31 km red 38%5 km black 7%
Châtel is our engine's second closest match to Villars, and the closest in France. It is a family resort, rustic and friendly by our read, with farm village character on the Swiss border. You fly to Geneva.
What it adds is room. Châtel sits on the Portes du Soleil, twelve villages across two countries on one linked circuit. The official figure is 600 kilometres; it measures 580, and one independent measurement puts it nearer 426. Even its own sector, the Espace Liberté, shared with Torgon and Morgins, is 120 kilometres, against Villars's 87.
On the snow it is very nearly the same holiday. The village is at 1,200 metres, 100 below yours, and the skiing tops out at 2,084 metres by our measure, 10 above. There are 45 kilometres of green and blue, 55 percent of the piste we measure, against your 48 of blue and easier, and 26 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 24. Its reds average 24.3 percent, against 23.6: much the same bite.
The trade is that nothing changes on snow, and the quiet goes. Twenty three percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 25, so Châtel is no more snow sure on our measure than Villars is. And we do not class it quiet. Choose it for the circuit, not for the weather.
Alta Badia: if it is the gentle cruising, and the food
- VillageVillage
- 1,568 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,778 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 500 km about, our sum
Alta Badia: 125 km of piste we measure. 76 km blue and easier 61%41 km red 33%8 km black 6%
If the best of a Villars week is the whole family cruising blues together, the Dolomites do that on a bigger scale. Alta Badia is a family resort, warm and welcoming by our read, and our one line is gentle Dolomite cruising and world class mountain food.
It is gentler still. Only 15 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 24, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 55 resorts we cover. There are 76 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against your 48.
It sits higher as well. The village is at 1,568 metres, 268 above yours, and the skiing reaches 2,509 metres by our measure, 435 above. Sixty five percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 25, so on our measure it is snow sure, though the top clears our line by only 9 metres. Its own sector is 130 kilometres, and from a base on the Sellaronda around 500 is reachable by lift, an approximate sum of measured kilometres; the 1,200 on the Dolomiti Superski pass covers twelve areas, only four of them joined.
The trade is the quiet and the journey. We class Alta Badia family but not quiet, and you fly to Venice or Innsbruck rather than Geneva.
So, which one
the calm and the view are the point, you would like gentler reds and some proper black for the older ones, and a snow call that is still open does not worry you.
you want the same family week from the same airport, on skiing that measures just as gentle, with most of the piste above 1,800 metres.
what you love is easy skiing and you would like a far bigger circuit of it, and the snow can stay a Villars sort of gamble.
gentle cruising and good food are the week, and Venice or Innsbruck suits you as an airport.
It keeps the airport, the family week and, measured if not on the map, the same gentle skiing, and it turns 25 percent of the piste above 1,800 metres into 79, with the skiing reaching 2,868. What changes is the calm, and for most families that is a fair trade for the snow.