Villars
A relaxed family resort with a view of Mont Blanc.
- Top of the skiingThe lowest top of the skiing in Switzerland.
- 2,074m
- Lift-linked from the village59km below the median of 146km across the 24 resorts we have a connected figure for. That is piste you can reach from the village without a bus, not what the pass covers.
- 87km
- The village50m below the median of 1,350m across the 55 resorts we cover.
- 1,300m
- SeasonThe standard Alpine season, shared by 42 of the 55 resorts we cover.
- December to April
Is Villars right for you?
Villars is a friendly, sunny resort on a balcony above the Rhône valley, with a lovely view across to Mont Blanc. The village sits at 1,300m and the skiing tops out at 2,074m, and the season runs December to April. Gentle and forgiving, which is why improvers love it and why strong skiers run out of road by Thursday.
Villars at a glance
- Ski area
- Villars-Gryon-Les Diablerets
- Best for
- Families with young children · Beginners · Non skiers
- Fly to
- Geneva or Zurich
- Transfer
- About 1h30 by road from Geneva
- Doorstep skiing
- Limited, use lifts
Who Villars suits, and who it suits less
Best for
- Families with young children. The tourist office calls Villars an ideal resort for families, with snow gardens and beginners' areas in Villars, Gryon and Les Diablerets and a relaxed village.
- Beginners. We measure 68 percent of the piste as easy, the highest share of any resort we cover, and the cog railway climbs from the village to gentle slopes at Bretaye.
- Non skiers. Les Bains de Villars has saunas, a 25 metre pool and a heated outdoor pool facing the Dents du Midi, and the Bretaye train carries walkers up for lunch.
Less good for
- Snow sure. The village sits at 1,300 metres and the linked skiing tops out at 2,074 metres, so the slopes depend more on the weather than in higher resorts.
- Après. Villars is a family resort and the evenings reflect it, relaxed and friendly at the bars, so groups after a party week should look elsewhere.
Skiing from 1,200m to 2,074m, village at 1,300m.
Where these heights are
- Lowest skiing
- 1,200mLowest lift-served point of the linked domain.
- Village
- 1,300m
- Top of the skiing
- 2,074mOur measurement of the highest marked piste.
- 48km blue68%
- 22km red30%
- 1.5km black2%
We found no official split by colour for Villars, so this is our own measurement of the marked runs around it, from the piste map.
No green: Swiss pistes are graded from blue.
- Black piste
- 1.5km, 2% of the pisteThe smallest share of black of the 55 resorts we cover.
- Ski area
- Villars-Gryon-Les Diablerets, 100kmGlacier 3000 separate.
- Cross country
- 44km of trails
Sources
- Village height: myswitzerland.com
- Lowest skiing: tvgd.ch
- Cross country: onthesnow.co.uk
- Ski area: tvgd.ch
- Top of the skiing: our measurement of the highest marked piste
- Piste by colour and the steep end: our measurement of the OpenStreetMap piste map
The published figures were read on 29 October 2026.
87km, and you can ski all of it.
- 48km blue68%
- 22km red30%
- 1.5km black2%
- Improvers, blue into redFine
- Confident intermediatesFine
- Strong skiersThin
The spreadA resort that knows what it is. 68% of the piste is blue, and it scores 0.64 for evenness, where 1 is a perfect three way split between blue, red and black. Wonderful if that is your speed, and worth knowing if your group is mixed.
Longest piste40 Populaire Gryon, 2.2km of blue with 397m of vertical.
Villars-Gryon-Les Diablerets is one lift-connected domain, so 87km is what you can ski from Villars without a bus. The official figure is 104km. 87km is what an independent survey measures as graded piste, and the two are counting different things.
Our own measurement of the run geometry around Villars comes to 71km of graded piste, and that is what the profile below is drawn from.
Sources: skiresort.com
Villars among its Swiss peers
Of these five, Villars has the lowest top of the skiing, 2,074m. The median across the 55 resorts we cover is 2,697m.
Who should look elsewhere
If you want steep skiing
Look hard before booking. Only 1.5km of the 71km of piste we measure here is graded black, about 2%. Chamonix, in France, has 23km of black and 44km of marked off-piste itinerary.
Know the mountain before you go.
The skiing
The terrain is mostly easy and intermediate, perfect for families and improvers, with the Glacier 3000 nearby for snow sure high altitude runs. It is calm and welcoming rather than demanding.
The village and the evenings
The village has a number of international schools, which gives it a settled, year round feel, and the atmosphere is comfortable and unhurried. It is a place to relax with the family.
Getting there
Geneva is under two hours away, with a mountain railway climbing to the resort from Bex.
- Genevaabout 1h30 by road
- Zurichabout 2h35 by road