Our first Swiss ski vacation

We just got back from a 4-day trip to Saas Fee, Switzerland, for a little family getaway before Christmas. We had a great time and would definitely recommend a visit to family and friends.  The village is about 3 hours travel time, and we decided to drive. Half the fun was taking a car-train through some serious mountains on the way. We drove onto the train, turned the car off and were in a dark tunnel for 15 minutes as the train pulled us. It was a fun experience for the kids, and I'm glad that I brought a flashlight with us!

Driving onto the car train

Saas Fee is a car-free village, so we drove to a parking garage at the edge of the village and our hotel picked us up in an electric taxi. The village was small, and we could really walk everywhere. The taxis were the only occasional vehicles on the roads.




One of our favorite new experiences from the trip was sledging. We took a gondola up a mountain with small toboggans, and then rode down a 6-km trail down to the village. I rode with Willem in front of me, and Bob rode with Landon. The trail is like a switchback that takes you down the mountain, rather than a "straight-down" sledding hill. We had a blast racing each other and making the turns. It took about 30 minutes to get down. Landon and Bob went up and down 5 times!












One of the reasons that we chose Saas Fee was because of the ski school reputation. Both Landon and Willem took 2 mornings of ski lessons, and although they weren't thanking us initially --they enjoyed it overall, and Landon is doing well on skis now. Bob and I made it out for one day while they were in lessons, and it felt really good to be on skis, after snowboarding for about 8 years or so. I was amazed at the number of lifts on the mountain. It took about 40 minutes to make it up to the summit, which was 3500 meters (approx. 11,500 feet). The trip up included an underground funicular -- another new experience!

And all that skiing means that we ate hearty ski food afterwards. Lots of cheese and bread! I enjoyed learning about the Walliser valley area that Saas Fee is a part of. Dried meats and dense bread are traditional to the region primarily because it has always been fairly isolated. Pictured below is the Walliser Tenner plate, with assorted hams and cheese. We also tried regional wines, which were very good.

Walliser Teller plate

And we couldn't leave the area without a stop in the small village of St. Niklaus just before Christmas. We absolutely felt like we were the Griswold's on their European vacation, as we found the "world's largest Santa Claus"!

So, Merry Christmas! We are excited to have my parents visit for a week. We'll miss being in the US, but of course, we'll make the most of our holiday in Switzerland. 

Frohe Weihnachten!