Gstaad

Gstaad is a village that became famous for its guests rather than its mountains — the boarding school, the grand hotels, the chalets bought by film stars in the sixties — and it has kept its shape remarkably well: a pedestrian main street of wooden chalets, since by local rule nothing else may be built, at 1,050 m on the language border where the Bernese Saanenland meets the French-speaking Pays-d'Enhaut.

The skiing is spread across several separate areas on the surrounding hills, all on one pass and joined by bus and train. Close to Gstaad are Eggli and Wispile; the biggest linked sector runs from Saanenmöser and Schönried to Zweisimmen along the Rinderberg ridge; over the border into Vaud, Rougemont has La Videmanette. None of them is very high — most of the terrain lies between 1,000 and 2,000 m — which is why the region keeps the Glacier 3000 at Les Diablerets on the pass: a half-hour bus away, up to nearly 3,000 m, and reliably white when the valleys are not.

All together it counts around 200 km, with a sizeable cross-country network on the valley floor and a good deal of walking, sledging and eating for anyone who does not ski at all.