Like Megève, but in Switzerland: the same manners, with more snow

Klosters is the discreet, pretty neighbour to Davos, and it shares two of the three things we say about Megève: upmarket and quiet. It is a family resort too. The village sits at 1,191 metres, just 78 above Megève's, but the skiing above it goes a long way higher, to 2,808 metres by our measure, and 69 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres. That makes it snow sure on our measure, which Megève is not.

The skiing is, if anything, kinder than yours. Its reds average 17.1 percent and its blacks 21.1, both the gentlest of any resort we cover, so it is the one resort we cover with gentler blacks than Megève. Thirty-eight percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 32, and 15 percent is steeper than one in four, against 20. The map shows a lot of red and only 24 kilometres of blue and easier, but a Klosters red, at 17.1 percent, is closer to a typical French blue, 16.2, than to a French red. There is length in it, too: the longest run we measure is a 4.7 kilometre red that drops 740 metres.

The trade is size and simplicity. We measure 97 kilometres around the village, about half Megève's 189, and 12 kilometres of black against 23. The Davos Klosters pass covers separate mountains. Klosters reaches the Parsenn, which it shares with Davos, by the Gotschna cable car, has Madrisa as its own hill, and needs a train or bus for the rest. You also lose the old village centre that Megève is built around: our read on Klosters is pretty and discreet, not traditional.

Our matching puts Wengen closest to Megève of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and the calm is a big part of it. It is a car free village on a balcony under the Jungfrau, peaceful, quiet and good for families by our read. The mix of skiing is close to yours. Twenty percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, exactly Megève's share, and 39 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 32. There are 20 kilometres of black, the second most of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and the blacks average 24.3 percent against Megève's 23.3. No Swiss resort we cover has a more even split between easy, red and black.

It is also the biggest of the three picks: we measure 125 kilometres around the village, about two thirds of Megève's. Wengen's own sector is 101 kilometres, and the Jungfrau pass adds Mürren, which is not joined by lift. The village sits 161 metres higher than Megève's and the top lift is at 2,320 metres. On our mapped area 66 percent of the piste is above 1,800 metres, but that map reaches the Jungfraujoch, so we are not calling Wengen snow sure until we have measured its own runs alone.

What you give up is the polish and the history. We tag Wengen quiet and car free, not upmarket or traditional, and a car free village is a different kind of calm from Megève's cobbled centre.

If what you love is a traditional village with a warm welcome, Adelboden is the Swiss answer. Our read is traditional and warm, a classic chalet village and a family resort, with a World Cup race on its calendar. The skiing tops out at 2,356 metres by our measure, just 46 below Megève's, and the village is 237 metres higher. Thirty-eight percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover, and the blues average 14.5 percent against Megève's 16.3.

On snow it gets halfway. Fifty-five percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, far more than Megève's 15, but the skiing tops out too low for us to call it snow sure.

The trade is size and polish. From the village you can ski 85 kilometres without transport, including Lenk, which is joined by lift. The 188 kilometres on the pass covers five areas that are not all linked, so do not plan a week on that figure. We measure 115 kilometres around the village and 13 of black, against 23. And we tag Adelboden traditional and family, not upmarket or quiet.