Gstaad or Megève: the same calm, not the same mountain
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
Gstaad and Megève get put side by side for good reason. Both are old, low, quietly wealthy villages where lunch is taken seriously and the evenings are for dinner rather than dancing. Both run from December to April, and Geneva serves both. Choosing between them, you have already picked calm and charm over altitude and noise.
So the question is narrower than it looks. It is how much skiing you want from the door, how gentle it needs to be for the least confident in the group, and whether you would rather a Swiss valley with a train through it or a French village with cobbles. The numbers first.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Gstaad | Megève |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,050 m | 1,113 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 2,149 m | 2,402 m |
| Linked ski area | Not linked. Gstaad Mountain Rides is 200 km on one pass, across around nine sectors | Evasion Mont Blanc, a pass across several villages. Megève's own domain measures about 189 km |
| Piste we measure around the village | 128 km | 189 km |
| Green and blue | 73 km of blue and easier, 57% of the piste | 104 km, 55% of the piste, 35 km of it green |
| Black | 18 km | 23 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | 1.8 km | 5.2 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 25% | 20% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 20% | 32% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 15% | 15% |
| Season | December to April | December to April |
| Nearest airport | Geneva or Zurich | Geneva |
Two rows carry this one. The piste row says Megève has more skiing around the village by our measure. The gentle row says it is also the kinder of the two at the easy end, which few people expect.
Size: Megève skis further from the door
Gstaad Mountain Rides is 200 kilometres on one pass, and our own measurement makes it 201, so the figure is honest. What it is not is joined up. It spreads across around nine sectors, and most of them are reached by train, bus or car rather than by lift: Eggli and Wispile close to the village, Wasserngrat, the run of skiing from Saanenmöser to Zweisimmen, and Glacier 3000 at Les Diablerets. Around Gstaad itself we measure 128 kilometres of piste.
Megève's own domain, across its three sectors of Rochebrune, Mont d'Arbois and Le Jaillet, measures about 189 kilometres, the eighth most of the 55 resorts we cover. That is 61 kilometres more than around Gstaad. You will see a bigger figure quoted for Evasion Mont Blanc, and that one is a pass across several villages, not what you ski from Megève on an ordinary day.
So a week in Gstaad is planned a sector at a time, with the ski bus and the train as part of the day. A week in Megève has more to roam from where you sleep, and a group that judges a holiday in kilometres will be happier there.
Altitude: both low, and level on the measure that matters
Gstaad's village sits at 1,050 metres and Megève's at 1,113, both below the 1,350 of a typical resort we cover. Megève's skiing goes higher, to 2,402 metres by our measure against 2,149 around Gstaad, 253 metres more.
On snow, the two are level. At each, 15 percent of the piste we measure sits at or above 1,800 metres, which puts both joint 49th of the 55 resorts we cover. Neither is snow sure on our measure, and neither pretends to be.
You will often see Gstaad listed with a 3,000 metre top. That is Glacier 3000, on the same pass but a separate area, and getting there is a proper excursion rather than a quick hop. It is a fine day out when the lower sectors are thin, with the Peak Walk suspension bridge for anyone not skiing, but it is not the home mountain. Megève's answer for the strong skiers is different: Chamonix is a short drive away, for a day of much steeper ground.
The skiing: Megève has more of everything, Gstaad more bite
A Swiss blue and a French blue are not graded the same way, so we compare on measured steepness. A quarter of Gstaad's piste is steeper than one in four, against 20 percent at Megève and 26 at a typical resort we cover. Neither is a steep resort. Gstaad is simply the steeper of the two.
73 km blue and easier 57%37 km red 28%18 km black 14%
104 km blue and easier 55%62 km red 33%23 km black 12%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Gstaad 1.8 km, Megève 5 km.
Megève has more at both ends. Its 104 kilometres of easy running is 31 more than Gstaad's 73, and 35 kilometres of it is green, a figure we trust there. Gstaad's green is not reliably tagged, so its easy figure is blue and easier together. Megève also has more black, 23 kilometres against 18, both above the 14.1 at a typical resort we cover, and 5.2 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary against 1.8, the longest of it the Piste Emile Allais.
Gstaad's blacks measure steeper, though. The gradients are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as how the week feels rather than a verdict on any one run. Gstaad's blacks average 28.0 percent, against a Swiss average of 26.7. Megève's average 23.3, the second gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, and its reds 23.1. A black at Megève skis much like a red, on average. For someone ready to try their first black of the week, that is a kind place to do it. For a strong skier, the test is the drive to Chamonix.
Who each one actually suits
Gstaad suits couples, families whose children are already past the nursery slopes, and multi generational groups who want a beautiful, unhurried week and do not mind planning it. The village is car light, built round a traffic free promenade of galleries and chocolatiers, and the Saanenland villages around it, Saanen, Schönried and Saanenmöser, are quieter and linked by bus and train. Non skiers do especially well: winter walks, sleigh rides and hotel spas that take day guests. Evenings are an aperitif in a hotel bar, a fondue, and an early enough night.
Megève suits families with children still learning, couples, and anyone for whom lunch is the main event. It grew from a genuine medieval village of cobbled lanes and a stone church tower, and the mountain restaurants are a large part of why people come back. Stay in the village centre for the sociable week, or on the Mont d'Arbois side for space and a leafier, smarter address. Evenings are wine bars and long dinners, grown up rather than loud, and the strong skiers in the group have Chamonix close by.
The bit nobody tells you
Gstaad has a name for gentle skiing, and the setting earns it: tree lined runs, sunny sectors and nobody in a hurry. The measurements say something different about the easy end.
Gstaad's blues average a gradient of 17.8 percent, the joint fourth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover and the steepest of the 15 Swiss ones, where a typical Swiss blue averages 15.0. Only 20 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the smallest share of any Swiss resort we cover. Its longest piste is a blue of 3.7 kilometres that drops 780 metres, a proper descent for a blue. Megève's blues average 16.3, near the French average of 16.2, and its longest, La Croix, is a 2.6 kilometre blue with 395 metres of drop.
For a confident skier this barely matters, and a long Gstaad blue through the trees is a lovely thing. For someone in their first week off the nursery slopes, it is the difference between a blue that feels like a blue and one that feels like a step up.
So, which one
you want a car light Swiss village and a slow, scenic week, everyone in the group is past the nursery slopes, and a train between mountains and a day at Glacier 3000 sound like part of the holiday. Also if someone in the party will not ski at all.
you want more skiing from the door, gentler easy running for children and nervous beginners, more black and itinerary for the confident, and lunch as the centrepiece of the day. Also if a shorter run from Geneva matters.
It gives more skiing to more of the group, 61 kilometres more by our measure, with the gentler blues and more of the black. Gstaad is the right answer when it is the Swiss valley, the train and the glacier day you are after, and you will know if it is.