Winter wellness and skiing in Gstaad, Switzerland

BIG jumpers, hot chocolate, ice patterns in puddles. There's a lot to love about winter, or so I try to convince myself on dark, rainy January mornings on the flu-infested train to work. Thankfully this year I had something to look forward to in the last week of the longest month; a trip to Gstaad in Switzerland. 

This Alpine town and ski region, in the hidden-away Saanenland Valley, is a wintery dream of advent calendar chalets, glittering mountains, and snow-laden fir trees. If you don’t love winter here, you won’t love it anywhere, and not just because it’s off-the-scale beautiful. In the Swiss Alps they know how to make the absolute best of the coldest, harshest time of year. And it starts the moment you step aboard the train.

Crossing Switzerland by train

I flew from Manchester Airport to Zurich on SWISS then travelled by train from the airport station to Spiez on the edge of the Alps. The transfer time from plane-landing to train-boarding was a mind-boggling 25 minutes; my first taste of the famed Swiss efficiency, while the cross-country journey took just a few hours. I had a Travel Switzerland Pass or you can get a single ticket for about £26 if you book in advance. 

Snaking through this narrow canyon into the valley beyond, you feel like you’re entering into a different world.

At Spiez, I boarded the Golden Pass Express, one of Switzerland’s picturesque Alpine railways that make this once inaccessible landscape open to all. With panoramic windows, plush seats, waiter service, and sound-absorbing carriages, it’s a very pleasant way to travel. Northern Rail could learn a lot from The Golden Pass Express. Andy Burnham should send them on a fact-finding mission.  

Daylight was fading as the train climbed into the mountains. I felt cocooned in my near-empty carriage, watching the landscape and the weather get wilder and more wintery. On our way to Gstaad, we passed through the Simmental Valley, which starts at the town of Wimmis. You enter it through a gorge between sheer cliff faces that look like they belong on the cover of a fantasy novel. Snaking through this narrow canyon into the valley beyond, you feel like you’re entering into a different world. It’s magical and mysterious, especially at dusk with the snow starting to fall.

Experiencing a Swiss spa hotel

The four-star superior Golf Hotel Les Hauts de Gstaad, where I was staying, is at Saanenmöser, the highest of ten villages in the Saanenland Valley, and one of the main ski resorts in the Gstaad area. The hotel is a two-minute walk from the station, and like all the buildings in this protected region, it’s built in the traditional Swiss chalet style; wood exterior, limited height, chocolate box cute. Inside it’s as cosy as Heidi’s hayloft though somewhat more luxurious. There’s a spa, three restaurants, a fireplace bar, a cigar room with library, tennis courts (in summer), and I’m guessing from the name, a golf course somewhere nearby. Most importantly, the rooms are comfortable, well-equipped and peaceful. I judge hotel rooms on how long it takes me to go from discombobulated on arrival to happy and calm. Here it was as fast as the transfer time at Zurich Airport. They were a doing a stellar job.

I arrived mid-evening so rather than heading out for dinner, I nestled in with room service followed by spa time. There are four saunas in the hotel spa; your first decision is ‘textile’ or 'no-textile' (clothed or unclothed). I went for textile because I’m English. But as this limits you to only one of the four, I later compromised by taking a towel in to the non-textiles (it’s allowed) and doing the awkward Brit thing of being somewhere in between. 

It was worth it for the extreme, detoxifying heat of the Finnish sauna (90 degrees celsius), the fragrant and more gentle flower and herbal sauna which stimulates the metabolism at 55 degrees, and the very alpine hay sauna (70 degrees). With a quiet relaxation room, swimming pool, gym, and nine treatment rooms, you could spend all day here if you wanted a break from skiing. Access is included for hotel guests for their entire stay. 

Skiing in the Saanenland Valley

The mountains were calling though so the next day, after a wholesome breakfast of Bircher muesli (when in Rome) I walked to the cable car with ski boots already on; it’s just a three-minute hobble from the hotel. 

The Saanenmöser/Schönried ski area offers 105km of pistes with lots of winding, tree-lined blue runs that are perfect for people who want their skiing to be fun and relaxing rather than an adrenalin-filled extreme sport. Over 200km of pistes can be accessed in the valley, and the buses are free with a Gstaad Card which you’re given when you’re staying overnight in a hotel in the area.

It had snowed in the night so the pine trees were blanketed in soft pillowy white and the slopes were pristine. The sun came out and there was no wind; perfect conditions for whizzing down a mountainside. What’s more, it wasn’t even busy. 

I felt incredibly lucky to be there. Jaw-dropping Alpine views have that effect on me. Rather than questioning my life choices on the 7.52am train to Piccadilly, I was congratulating myself on having made a good decision somewhere along the way.  

Still, I soon found someone who had it better than me. Over lunch in a mountain-side restaurant our ski guide Björn told us about his ridiculously enviable life. He combines ski instructing with cheese-making, which sounds like the kind of dream set-up that’d get you laughed out of the room if you suggested it to a careers advisor. In summer, Björn lives high on the Alpine pastures with his cows and in winter he teaches tourists like us how to parallel turn. I wonder who’s the easiest to keep under control. 

Apres-ski at the original Swiss ice hotel

Björn had to skip the après-ski drinks (his cows needed milking) but the rest of us went to the Iglu-Dorf hotel, which, as you might have guessed, is made entirely of ice. We sipped steaming glasses of white gluhwein (ice furniture and red wine spills don’t mix well) then took a tour of the rooms which were all adorned with artist-carved ice sculptures. The theme for the artworks changes each year, and in 2025, it’s animals. I saw hippos, wolves, a sharp-toothed ice shark, and wondered what dreams you’d have with those watching over your frozen bed. 

To keep guests from feeling the cold, there’s thick sheepskin rugs, super-insulated sleeping bags, and the promise of hot tea when you wake in the morning, plus an onsite sauna to really warm your bones. One of the rooms has a private hot tub beneath a disc of skylight. Looking up the POV is seal below the icecaps.

Back in my cosy room at Golf Hotel Les Hauts de Gstaad, I fully appreciated the warmth while perusing the pillow menu that was tucked inside the welcome booklet. Options include pillows filled with Swiss pine, or water, or millet, spelt, and Merino wool, along with your standard memory foam and goose down. I went for bark chippings of Swiss pine and sleep like a log. No silent ice creatures stalked my dreams.

Where to stay in Gstaad

The next day we visited the town of Gstaad which is famous for its international schools, grand palace hotels, and celebrity clientele. Bernie Ecclestone holidays there and patron saint of the Alps Julie Andrews bought the town its municipal Christmas lights. Roger Federer played a tennis tournament here and won a cow. 

It’s got a chi-chi reputation but as our guide Claudia explained, while we toured its surroundings in a horse and carriage, its real riches are found in the stunning scenery not the string of designer shops on the promenade. 

In fact, most of the accommodation in Gstaad is aimed at average spenders, the kind who arrive by train rather than helicopter. We took a tour of the new Hotel Mansard which prices itself as a three-star, mid-range option but could easily pass as a four-star. Most of the hotels here are small, boutique establishments like this, aimed at couples and families rather than big coach tours. It means that Gstaad feels like an affluent village rather than a maxed-out resort town. 

If you’re looking for buzzing après-ski bars and high-energy nightlife, you might find it a bit quiet. Not me though. Give me a pillow menu over a late night any day. I’d rather enjoy a hot chocolate in a pavement cafe or mountain restaurant than be hungover in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. 

That evening we ate fondu at the hotel in its chalet restaurant while snow fell outside. We were moving on the next day but I was already planning a return visit to Gstaad in my head. Next winter, when the grey sets in after Christmas and it’s still months until spring, I’ll be dreaming of this place, if I’m not there already.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarah.tierney5

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