Things to do in Verbier: free rinks, high views and sled dogs
More than the big mountain and the late nights suggest, and a lot of it is free: seven shuttle lines, a rink in the middle of the village, a sledging area for small children and twelve snowshoe routes. For anyone not skiing, Mont-Fort on the first clear morning is the one to do, and the dog teams at Les Ruinettes are worth booking.
Verbier is known for big mountain skiing and long nights, so what surprises people is how much of the rest is free. The village sits on a sunny shelf with a proper Swiss centre, seven free shuttle lines tie it together, and the gondola and the bus both come up from Le Chable. It is a skiers' resort first, so plan a day off around the lifts.
Start with the free things. The Parc de Loisirs rink in the middle of the village costs nothing to skate on, with an ice path and mini hockey, and Les Esserts is a sledging area for small ones with a free carpet beside it. Walkers get twelve marked snowshoe routes and five family walks: St-Christophe is forty minutes from the Patier stop up to the chapel, and Suzette the Cow is a treasure hunt with a small gift for any child who finishes.
For anyone not skiing, go up Mont-Fort on the first clear morning. The glazed platform at 3,330 m looks out to the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, and the zip line launches from the same top, out above the Tortin glacier. That sector is the first to shut in wind, so do not save it for the last day. The dog teams at Les Ruinettes are the other one to book: sit in the sled, or drive your own team.
On a bad weather day, the Piscine de Mondzeu in the centre has a pool, a gym and a sauna, and the Verbier Cinema is a family run house in a listed 1956 building; ring first, because it publishes no times. Two gondolas carry walkers over the top to La Tzoumaz and its free rink, so go in the morning and keep an eye on the lift timetable. After dark the bars take over, and a good part of the crowd comes for exactly that.
Free, and worth knowing
Free to use: the shuttles, two ice rinks, a sledging area for small children, carpet lifts for first timers, and marked walks and snowshoe routes.
The three free magic carpets
Televerbier's beginners page says it plainly: three magic carpets are free of charge, two in Verbier station itself at Les Esserts and Les Moulins, and a third over in La Tzoumaz. That is a lift a first timer can use with no pass of any kind, which is not a sentence you often get to write in Valais. Anybody who outgrows them moves on to the Verbier Station sector, the Les Esserts, Les Moulins and Le Rouge lifts, and that is chargeable.
Les Esserts is on free shuttle line 2 towards Le Hameau
Les Esserts sledging area
One of only two official sledge runs in the whole ski area and the only one that costs nothing. It is a dedicated zone for children and beginners with the free conveyor belt running up beside it, so a small child goes up and down all afternoon and nobody has to carry a sledge uphill. The tourist office answers the obvious question in its own FAQ: there is no fixed price for the carpet lift at Les Esserts, because it is free.
Verbier station. Free shuttle line 2 to Le Hameau
The Parc de Loisirs ice rink
Free to get on the ice, in the middle of the village, and it is three things rather than one: an open skating area, an ice path you can simply stroll along, and a mini hockey area with a soft puck and small goals. A bistronomic buvette sits beside it doing hot food, and there is a giant trampoline next to the rink. Standard ice hockey is kept off the ice for safety, which is why the mini version exists.
Parc de Loisirs, Route de Verbier Station 90, a short walk from Place Centrale
The La Tzoumaz ice rink
An outdoor rink on the central square in the middle of La Tzoumaz, free to skate on, and it opens a full week before the Verbier and La Tzoumaz ski season starts. For an early December stay that makes it the first thing on the list. Skates come from Monnet Sports at five francs an hour.
Rue Centrale, La Tzoumaz village centre
The seven free shuttle lines
TMR runs seven station shuttle lines in Verbier, numbered one to seven, linking the neighbourhoods, the lifts, the activity hubs and the tourist zones, and its own French page puts it in five words: les navettes de station sont gratuites. No card, no pass, no ticket, and the tourist office confirms they run all year. Line 1 goes towards Savoleyres and line 2 towards Le Hameau and Les Esserts, which between them reach most of the things to do in Verbier.
Getting up from Le Chable
Two ways up from the valley floor and they cost the same. The Le Chable to Verbier gondola is classified as public transport, so half fare cards, GA and route travelcards are all valid on it, and it runs from about a quarter past five in the morning until nearly midnight. Bus route 12.251 covers the same twenty minutes and is free to anybody holding a valid Verbier 4 Vallees ski pass. The gondola drops you at Medran, the bus at Station Poste on the central square.
Le Chable railway station
The valley buses and the Sarreyer cable car
The Champsec to Sarreyer cable car is free outright. The tourist office says the journey is free, noting that it is primarily there for the people who live in Sarreyer and that visitors may use it, and that bicycles are not carried. In winter the Verbier 4 Vallees annual and season tickets also carry you on route 12.252 up to Bruson and route 12.253 down the Val de Bagnes through Lourtier and Fionnay to Mauvoisin, which is how you reach the Sarreyer cable car in the first place.
All from Le Chable railway station
The twelve marked snowshoe routes
Twelve routes published with distances, times and climbs one by one: St-Christophe, Les Ruinettes to the Cabane Mont Fort, La Marlene, Clambin, La Crevasse, Bruson to La Cot, the Bisse des Ravines, the Boucle de Champsec, Lourtier to Posodziet to Champsec, Le Levron to the Col du Tronc and the Col du Lein, La Grange a Tienne Oeudan, and Champsec to Lourtier. Several of them start in a village and need no lift at all.
The short one straight out of Verbier is St-Christophe, 1.4 km and forty minutes with 160 m of climb from the Patier bus stop up to the chapel, with the Val de Bagnes underneath you. Clambin is a 4.6 km loop of an hour and forty from Place Centrale, through the forest to the hamlet and back down the Chemin du Scex. The long one is La Marlene, 7.4 km and three hours ten with 465 m of climb, and it finishes conveniently at the Savoleyres lifts at Les Creux.
Verbier, Bruson, Champsec, Lourtier and Le Levron
The five family winter walks
Five are published and the thing that separates them is whether you need a lift. Sonalon to La Marlene is 1.3 km and thirty five minutes with 130 m of climb, past the Mayen du Bry with benches on the way and Verbier laid out below. Suzette the Cow is a children's treasure hunt with eleven stations over an easy 1.5 km, the map comes from the tourist office and there is a small gift at the end for anybody who finishes it. The 3-D Sculpture Park runs from Les Ruinettes to La Chaux and back, 2.2 km at around 2,200 m with only 21 m of climb, with the Verbier 3-D Foundation's outdoor sculptures standing along the way.
Verbier village, Les Ruinettes and La Tzoumaz
The VIP Pass, and what a winter guest gets instead
Verbier's guest card is called the VIP Pass and it is genuinely generous. It is free, it arrives with the tourist tax as a digital Mobile Card issued by your hotel or agency, and it carries pedestrian sections on Le Chable to Verbier, Verbier to Les Ruinettes, Les Creux to Savoleyres, La Tzoumaz to Savoleyres, Le Chable to the Mayens de Bruson and Moay to La Pasay, on a one night equals one day basis, plus both Verbier pools, the Verbier Library and the Musee de Bagnes.
Its window runs from the first of June to the end of October, so it belongs to a summer stay. What a January guest gets for nothing instead is seven shuttle lines, two ice rinks, three magic carpets, the Champsec to Sarreyer cable car, twelve marked snowshoe routes and five family walks, none of which asks for a card of any kind.
On the mountain
Mont-Fort for the view and the zip line off the top, and the dog teams at Les Ruinettes, where you can ride in the sled or drive it.
The Mont-Fort panoramic platform
At 3,330 m, up a flight of steps to a glazed platform, and Televerbier names the Matterhorn, the Dent d'Herens, the Grand Combin and Mont Blanc from it. It is the one genuinely spectacular thing on this mountain for somebody who is not skiing, and it is worth going on the first clear morning of the week rather than saving it for later.
Price on request · Mont-Fort, via Les Ruinettes, La Chaux and the Col des Gentianes · Their page
Mont 4 Zipline
Unusually for a zip line, this one genuinely runs in winter, and Televerbier says so in terms: accessible in winter and in summer whenever the Mont-Fort sector is open. You launch at 3,330 m from the top of Mont-Fort, cross above the Tortin glacier at up to a hundred kilometres an hour and are braked onto a platform at the Col des Gentianes. It is 1.4 km long with a 383 m drop, and at forty five francs for the ride it is the cheapest thrill on this mountain.
CHF 20 to 50 · Top of Mont-Fort, reached via Les Ruinettes, La Chaux and the Col des Gentianes · Their page
Dog sledding with TakiTrek at Les Ruinettes
TakiTrek and the ArcoMushing Team run three quite different outings from the top of the Les Ruinettes gondola at about 2,200 m, and the difference between them matters when somebody is booking. The Tour Panoramique is the one to pick if you want to sit in the sled and be driven: 5 km, about forty five minutes, with a stop halfway to take photographs and make a fuss of the dogs, and the Val de Bagnes and the Combins in front of you.
Over CHF 50 · Top of the Les Ruinettes gondola · Their page
In the village
A pool with a sauna in the middle of the village, and a family run cinema in a listed building for the day the top is shut.
Piscine de Mondzeu, the indoor pool
The tourist office calls this Verbier's main indoor option and confirms it is open all year. It is compact and right in the centre of the village, with a pool, a gym and a sauna, and at eight francs an adult it is comfortably the cheapest indoor hour in Verbier. Sixteen takes the sauna as well, from age sixteen upwards.
Under CHF 20 · Verbier village centre · Their page
Verbier Cinema
An independent cinema in a listed building put up in 1956 by the architect Alexandre Bujard and still run by the same family. Four hundred and forty seats with a hundred and fifty of them on the balcony, rococo styling, and now 4K digital projection with Dolby 5.1. It takes seminars, conferences, one man shows and theatre as well as films.
Price on request · Verbier. The tourist office lists only Case postale 84 as the address · Their page
Nearby
Over the top on two gondolas, the linked village a non skier can get to and back from in a day.
La Tzoumaz, over the top on two gondolas
The one linked village a non skier can genuinely reach and get back from. In winter two gondolas carry pedestrians over the top, Verbier to Savoleyres and then Savoleyres down to La Tzoumaz, with a third for skiers only. What is over there is the free ice rink on the central square, the Winter Trail up to the Bisse de Saxon, Monnet Sports for skates and the bottom of the big toboggan run. Go in the morning and leave plenty of time, because the whole day runs on the lift timetable.
Price on request · Verbier to Savoleyres, then Savoleyres down to La Tzoumaz
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.