Valais: Places to Explore

Ice-capped peaks with small mountain resorts staggered up their spines rim the Aletsch, a glacier that shares its name with the area surrounding it, paralleling the valley floor. A variety of ecological... Read more

A rail and road junction joining four cantons, this small but vital town for centuries has been a center of trade with Italy. Often overlooked as merely a transit point, the town has a legacy that can... Read more

This well-known twin sports center rises above the valley on a steep, sheltered shelf at 4,904 feet. It commands a broad view across the Rhône Valley to the peaks of the Valaisan Alps, and its grassy... Read more

At 4,628 feet, Leukerbad, called Loèche-les-Bains in French, is Europe's highest spa village; travelers have been ascending to this Alpine retreat for centuries to take the curative waters and fill... Read more

At the foot of the Col du Grand St-Bernard, Martigny has long been a commercial crossroads. Testimony to this are the Gallo-Roman ruins discovered in 1976 by engineer Leonard Gianadda. When Gianadda's... Read more

At the end of the switchback road from Saas-Grund lies a parking garage where visitors must abandon their cars for the length of their stay in Saas-Fee. But even by the garage you'll be amazed, for the... Read more

Beginning just outside Brig, this historic road meanders through deep gorges and wide, barren, rock-strewn pastures to offer increasingly beautiful views back toward Brig. At the summit (6,593 feet), the... Read more

Rearing up in the otherwise deltalike flatlands of the western Valais, two otherworldly twin hills flank the ancient city of Sion. The two hills together are a powerful emblem of the city's 1,500-year... Read more

Pushed up against a stern, gray rock face, this small town is quiet and peaceful, with patrician homes lining its Grand-Rue. Once a customs station along the Roman route over the Col du Grand St-Bernard... Read more

If you drive east of Sierre and south of the Rhône, following signs for Vissoie, you enter a wild and craggy valley called Val d'Anniviers. The name is said to come from its curious and famous (among... Read more

A big part of Verbier's appeal is the skiing on sunny slopes and the fact that it's a high-tech, state-of-the-art sports complex that links Quatre Vallées (four valleys) and multiple ski areas... Read more

Despite its fame—which stems from that mythic mountain, the Matterhorn, and from its excellent ski facilities—Zermatt is a resort with its feet on the ground. It protects its regional quirks... Read more