Where to stay when skiing with SnowPros
Often when clients come to ski in our region, we are asked for recommendations for hotels and places to stay. Here are some of the best and most friendly hotels in the various resorts that we ski with clients in.
Champoussin
Champoussin Lodge www.champoussinlodge.ch
Champoussin Lodge is the biggest and best hotel in Champoussin and is located right in the centre of Champossin. The hotel has been owned and operated for over 20 years by a good friend of the ski school, Joost.
The hotel has 12 self-catered apartments and 28 rooms and has recently undergone a complete refurbishment, completely refreshing the hotel's public areas and rooms. Guests at the hotel can enjoy the use of the swimming pool, pool table in the lobby, gym, conference facilities and meeting rooms. It has two restaurants and guest lounges.
The jewel in the crown of Champoussin Lodge is the proximity to the pistes. A short 1-minute walk to the pistes ensures that you aren’t really very far away from being able to click into your skis and get going. On snowy days you can ski to the pistes.
The piste that you access is the superb gentle blue piste that we use for a lot of our beginner and lower intermediate skiers. There is also an excellent beginner area as well as a super fun ski cross run.
For advanced skiers, 50m in the other direction, access a black piste and the excellent off-piste terrain served by the two chairlifts in Champoussin. If you know where to look, Champoussin serves up powder for days after snowfalls.
Champoussin Lodge has an excellent atmosphere, and Joost goes out of his way to personally make sure that all of his guests feel personally welcomed and comfortable. I certainly enjoy a morning coffee full of laughs and jokes with Joost and his team each morning when we have groups staying at the Lodge.
Villars
Hotel du Lac www.bretaye.ch
We never tire of being with James and Victoria at Hotel du Lac, sitting on their terrace right on the slopes of Bretaye and marvelling at the views and skiers zooming past.
We go back a long way with James and Victoria, having taught their three children how to ski at various points. It’s amazing to see them all grown up now and running the hotels on some days! We love meeting clients and guests in front of the hotel, which they are kind enough to let us use as our meeting point in Villars. From the hotel, we take clients on adventures all over the Villars-Gryon ski area and beyond.
The hotel is located right in the middle of the beginner area, so non-skiers can also benefit from the hotel terrace and enjoy a hot chocolate whilst their family skis with us.
Of course, Hotel du Lac isn’t just a bar and restaurant, it’s also a hotel, and the 12 en suite rooms are the real hidden gem of the Hotel du Lac. Because you are staying right on the slopes, you beat everyone else up the mountain whilst they wait for the lifts to open and make their way up. This gives you a solid hour or so of super quiet pistes all to yourself before everyone else arrives. Of course, if you are a powder hound and your stay at the hotel coincides with a powder day, you’ll get all of the fresh tracks to yourself!
Staying at the hotel also gives you the excellent hospitality that James and Victoria are famous for. Highly recommended.
Morgins
Hotel Helvetia www.helvetiahotel.ch
The Helvetia in Morgins was constructed in 2015 by the Donnet family and is our preferred hotel in Morgins. Martial Donnet is a local legend in Morgins, having won world cup slalom races for Switzerland. Morgins has a rich history of ski racing success with Didier Defago, Olympic downhill and world cup winner, also hailing from the village.
The Helvetia has a nice mix of rooms, including a penthouse, as well as wellness, conferencing and meeting facilities. It has a bar, lounge and restaurant area to keep guests comfortable. You might describe the style inside as the modern Swiss hotel style, contemporary and, of course, spotlessly clean.
After a long day on the quiet and excellent slopes of Morgins and surrounding areas, guests can return to the hotel and recharge their legs in the jacuzzi, sauna and steam room.
The hotel also does its bit for ecology and benefits from Morgins’ brilliant communal hot water system as well as recycling rainwater, amongst other little efforts that add up to a big impact.
Martial and Jane are great hosts, and you’ll be sure of a warm welcome. I’ve known the family since 2009, and they have been lovely in welcoming me into the region and making me feel at home in Switzerland.
Les Crosets
Mountain Lodge - www.mountain-lodge.co.uk
Mountain Lodge is the nicest hotel in the village, and its ski-in/ski-out location makes it an obvious choice for the keen skier to stay in Les Crosets.
The 23-room hotel has a lovely rustic restaurant and bar area, on-site ski hire and servicing, a cinema, a games room and a gym. More importantly for the skiers and snowboarders, it is literally ski in/ski out so that you can click on your skis and get going without having to walk anywhere in the mornings. In the evenings, you ski right back to the door of the hotel.
It’s great for kids because Mountain Lodge is located just next to the beginner pistes, and once the lifts close, there is plenty of opportunity for sledging fun in the late afternoon.
There is a lovely warm atmosphere at Mountain Lodge, and you really have the impression that the staff in the hotel are doing everything that they can do to make you feel as welcome as possible,
Mountain Lodge is way ahead of the competing hotels in Les Crosets, and the others feel really dated in comparison. Hotels in Les Crosets haven’t yet really caught up with the development going on in other villages, which is strange because the skiing there is fantastic. Mountain Lodge is really something of an outlier and, as such, is really special.
Champery
Hotel National www.lenational.ch
Housed in a grand old building from the Swiss belle epoque, the Hotel National is a magnificent building right on Champery main street, redone in a modern style.
Inside they have something for everyone, including a spa, swimming pool, bar and cigar lounge, conference facilities and meeting rooms. The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant but that seems to work because it sends you out into Champery to explore the numerous different restaurants Champery has to offer. Champery is quite a foodie place so you are sure to find something that suits you.
Skiers are well catered for with the Champery telecabine located 3 mins away in the hotel courtesy shuttle. One of the things that I think is great about Champery is the ease of access up to the Croix de Culet at the top of the telecabine at 2000m. Champery village is really low, lying at 1050m which means the streets are usually quite free of snow, and it’s easy to walk around in the evenings.
The National has some excellent rooms with terraces that look straight out and up at the Dents du Midi, and you have a great view of the (skiable) Jaun couloir that is accessed by extreme skiers later in the winter season.
The hotel retains a sense of style and class from the grand old days, but when you step inside, you find all mod cons and contemporary decor. It’s a great spot.
Montreux
Golf Hotel Rene Capt www.golf-hotel-montreux.ch
Whilst this hotel is not exactly in a ski village or on the slopes, we thought that it deserves a mention because from here, you can put together a superb lake and ski holiday.
The Golf Hotel Rene Capt is located on the shorefront of Lac Leman in Territet, a 5 minute walk from Montreux. It’s ideally located so that you can get to the Swiss Portes du Soleil or Villars in an easy 35 minutes drive. You could ski for the day and then return to the temperate climate of the Lac and take a stroll along the lakefront.
We know the owners of the hotel really well, and it has been in the ownership of 4 generations of the same family dating back to 1941. The Golf Hotel has an amazing old Swiss atmosphere about it, and you get that old sort of grand hotel feeling as soon as you walk into the front door. The hotel has been there since 1883, initially hosting those who came there for the Montreux microclimate and in the early 1900s as well as to play golf in Aigle, hence the name.
The view from the terrace is spectacular, and most of the rooms have an amazing lake view. Montreux is these days famous for the jazz festival, Christmas market and just hanging out by the lake, but we have lots of clients who choose to stay there and then ski, with some even glacier skiing in summer.
The food in the restaurant is outstanding, and whether you are in the dining room or the terrace, you’ll be assured of first class service and attention. The Golf Hotel Rene Capt is definitely worth considering if you are looking to make a ski holiday with a twist.
