Whether it’s an area of top class skiing or the backdrop for a electronic music festival, Crans-Montana, the resort that Roger Moore called home, knows how to attract the crowds with its particularly wide variety of activities year round.
An ideal ski destination from the UK, it only takes a couple of hours by train from Geneva to Sierre train station, where a 100 year-old funicular line whisks you up to this chic Swiss ski resort. With a 927 metre elevation, the route takes just 10 minutes into Montana Gare. Looking out over the Rhone Valley, the resort is at an altitude of 1,500m and claims the sun shines 300 days a year!
Once we dropped our luggage at hotel ELITE we walked in the centre to discover a busy and lively town. The two neighbouring villages of Crans and Montana (Crans to the West and Montana to the East) benefit from an urban lifestyle mixed to a traditional alpine architecture. Shopping fans will be delighted to discover a large selection of designer boutiques, alongside a wide choice of restaurants and bars.
Top Destination For Skiing
Through 4 ski areas (the family area, the fun area, the glacier area and the nature area) Crans Montana offers 140km of alpine skiing slopes of various grades. You can even challenge yourself on World Cup level tracks. You’ll feel those legs burning!
On the way up to the glacier area, located at almost 3,000 metres above sea level, you can enjoy a breathtaking view featuring a string of the most famous peaks in the Alps. The Mont-Blanc and the Matterhorn are the easiest to spot. Easily accessible from the gondolas arrival station it offers a high-altitude experience to both skiers and pedestrians. The restaurant Plaine Morte on the Glacier is a perfect lunch spot to grab a cheese fondue with impressive surroundings. You can ski down from the glacier straight to the village via an 8km run.
For the more adventurous, Crans Montana is a paradise for freestylers, from beginners to experienced riders. Its snowpark – the biggest in French-speaking Switzerland – includes a boardercross course, slope style jumps and the only Olympic superpipe in the Valais Alps. Easy to access it is located just at The Cry d’Er ski lifts arrival station.
Thanks to the resort’s south-oriented situation, skiers can benefit from plenty of sunshine.
Promenade HIVER neige raquette Crans-Montana tourisme Valais – 2010 Omaire (PHOTO-GENIC.CH/ OLIVIER MAIRE)
New “Rando Parc” in Crans-Montana
Crans-Montana offers another way to enjoy its fantasic ski area and has created a unique playground, the Rando Parc, made of 15 ski touring trails with varying levels of difficulty (from blue, to red and black) across the area with over 40 km of marked itineraries – ideal place to start, those new to ski touring can get used to the technique and the equipment while remaining in a safe environment and within easy reach of the resort. Avid ski tourers can enjoy «La X’trême» route. The routes are mapped so you’ll be able to navigate and explore through the wilds without fearing to get lost! The Crans-Montana Rando Parc routes were developed in collaboration with local Alpine skiing champion Séverine Pont-Combe. On the road down to Aminona, you can find a little hidden restaurant, Mayen De La Cure, with great Swiss food. There beautiful terrace has fantastic view over the valley.
What’s New
For the 2019/20 winter season Crans-Montana will remain in the Magic pass – a unique seasonal ski pass offering unlimited and unrestricted access to the entirety of lift infrastructure at 30 resorts all around Western Switzerland from May 2019 to the beginning of May 2020.
Crans-Montana has been awarded the Family Destination label for 2019-2021. The renewal of this certification confirms Crans-Montana’s desire to guarantee and promote a particularly special welcome for families.
Crans-Montatana tourisme
(PHOTO-GENIC.CH/ DENIS EMERY)
For more information on Switzerland visit www.MySwitzerland.com
Swiss International Air Lines offers more than 170 weekly flights from London City, Heathrow, Gatwick (seasonal), Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Dublin to Zurich, Geneva or Sion (seasonal). For more information visit swiss.com
