Valais

Our personal travel and photo guide for Switzerland

The Valais - the sunniest canton of Switzerland - offers beautiful mountain scenery and pretty villages. In the past, we have climbed 8 mountains above 4000m in this mountaineering paradise. The highest mountain of Switzerland can also be found in this canton: the Monte Rosa massif with the Dufourspitze (4634m) as the highest point. One of the best lookout points in Switzerland is from the Gornergrat which can be reached by train from Zermatt. From here you can see a parade of majestic mountains: (from right to left) Breithorn, Castor, Pollux, Lyskamm and the bulky Monte Rosa - all mountains above 4000m.

On the way to the Gornergrat you cannot miss the Matterhorn - unless it’s hidden by clouds ;-). Surely one of the most famous and popular mountains in the world, but also one of the deadliest - over 500 mountaineers have lost their lives to date, unfortunately very often because of inexperienced climber-tourists triggering rock fall on to other climbers. A beautiful place to visit it the Riffelsee but go early in the morning around sunrise to see the amazing colours and reflections on the lake.

Zermatt is definitely one of the most spectacular mountain locations in Switzerland. It's a very lively, chic, trendy and fun place with great bars, coffee-shops, eateries and entertainment. The village has kept its authenticity too, and you will enjoy the many traditional wooden chalets in a car-free environment.

Other villages are also of spectacular beauty – two of our favourites are: Saas Fee with fantastic vistas of the alps and Grächen with some great walks and hikes. Saas Fee was our base for many exiting climbs in the late 90s and early noughts. Here are some vintage shots from a couple of the climbs :-).

An easy walk in Grächen is to the Hohtschuggen restaurant where you will be rewarded with a fabulous albeit exhilarating view to the Bietschhorn and deep into the valley below.

A more strenuous hike takes you to the Wannihorn. Along the way and on the top you can enjoy the panoramas of beautiful mountains such as the stunning Weisshorn and Bishorn. For us it had a distinct feeling similar to trekking in the Himalayas! On the photo below, we are sitting in front of two mountains we climbed in the past – the Lagginhorn and the Weissmies. We will never forget the moment when we walked on the ridge of the Weissmies in the midst of the clouds which suddenly disappeared and we could see 1000m vertically down on each side of our path.

Brig lies in the main Rhone valley and the main attraction is the Stockalper Palace which was built in 1532. At that time it was the largest private construction in Switzerland and owned by the Stockalper family. They managed to build up a huge trading empire and owned the salt monopoly by using the Simplon pass to import salt from the Mediterranean Sea. Close to the top of the pass the Simplon village is also worth a stop.

Close to Brig is another highlight of this region. Take a cable car up to Riederalp or Bettmeralp and further to the top of Moosfluh. The walk is a must-do and you will enjoy simply awe inspiring views of the biggest glacier of the Alps: the Aletschgletscher. Today, it's about 23km long and shrinking (about 1.5km in the last 40 years) but it still has a thickness of nearly 1km at a specific place called Concordiaplatz where multiple glaciers meet! This glacier is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There’s an interesting article with simulations of future evolution here:

On the way towards the Furka Pass you can see the abandoned hotel Belvedere. You have to watch this famous movie scene from James Bond – Goldfinger and consider the following 3 facts:

• The hotel was built in 1882 and was already mentioned one year later in the Baedeker travel guide as a place with a panoramic view to the glacier. Look how big the glacier was in 1965! Today, from the same point, you wouldn’t see any ice!

• In the mid 60's the road was improved as cars became more powerful. But this led to a collapse in tourism at the hotel because there was no longer a need to spend the night there. Have a look at the powerful cars in the movie!

• And see the futuristic GPS system in James Bond's car! It was about 40 years later when these systems were introduced to our cars (fortunately nowadays with more accuracy than in the movie ;-)

Another interesting road to enter Valais is from Ticino travelling over the Nufenen Pass. Here on top, a great view awaits you to the Bernese Alps. At the bottom of the pass lies a region called Goms with many interesting villages. A fun but wonky experience is to walk across the suspension bridge at Bellwald which is 280m long and only 1.4m wide.

The Lötschental is a gem of a place a bit off the beaten track and lies above and beyond Goppenstein, accessible from the turn off past the cartrain terminal. Just recently we decided to spend a long weekend and explore it a bit and we were very happy and excited at what we found: Beautiful scenery, great winter hiking opportunities, authentic and traditional villages and a really peaceful atmosphere. One of the highlights is taking the main cable car and then the ski lifts (Sessellifts) from Wiler to the top called Hockenhorn. Here is the start of the highest winter hiking path in Europe at around 3100m. We hiked down around the peak and along the ridge towards the Lötschenpasshütte. This should only be done in good weather and beware of wind-conditions too, as it is quite exposed. The whole hike is truly amazing and the vistas are absolutely fantastic: full panoramas of the ranges of the highest mountains in the alps including Mont Blanc! Beautiful!

Downstream, leaving Brig, people will be speaking French and you will find more and more wineries all the way down to Lake Geneva. There are 55 grape varieties planted in the Valais on 80’000 plots of vineyards and 370 cellars, making this biggest wine producing canton of Switzerland. Beautiful stretches of vineyards are around Chamoson and between Salgesch and Sierre where a hike through the vineyards is very rewarding. We stayed in Savièse above Sion and found a beautiful Boutique Hotel “La Grande Maison” – perfect location with a fantastic view to the west of the Rhone valley.

Sion is the capital of the Valais and it’s where one of the oldest traces of human settlements in Europe from 6200 BC is found. Today, the two rocky hills in the middle of the city offer a great photo opportunity from Mont d’Orge in the early morning. A stroll through the old town, enjoying a drink at one of the many cafés or bars and some shopping in the little boutique stores is a great way to enjoy this town.

Finally at the western end of the canton lies Martigny. From here 2 alpine roads start: One goes to France toward Chamonix and the other over the St Bernard Pass toward Italy, where you will find the famous hospice where the St. Bernhard dog breed were originally bred. Younger dogs would learn how to perform search and rescue operations from the older dogs without receiving any special training from the Monks. Still today, there’s a breeding center there but is no longer managed by the Monks.

We will certainly do more trips to this beautiful canton deep in the Swiss Alps and will add more tips as we go along. One of the next ones will be the lovely village of Grimentz and a winter hike in the snow above the valley Lötschental.

Our other blogs cover the following areas (with links):

Part 1: Berner Oberland

Part 2: Jura

Part 3: Lake Luzern

Part 4: Engadin

Part 5: Appenzell

Part 6: Aargau

Part 7: Emmental

Part 8: Romandie

Part 9: Valais

Part 10: Uri, Schwyz, Glarus

Part 11: Rhein

Part 12: Zürich

"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"

(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)

Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

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