Why Adelboden?

If the combination of a breadth of excellent skiing, a classically attractive small town, and one of the best hotels we have ever stayed in – on a mountain or anywhere – is not a winning package, we’re not sure what is.

But the real kicker to make Adelboden an attractive ski area came in spring of last year when daily direct flights from London to Berne made this brilliant ski area not just a feasible, short-transfer option for the week, but also the weekend. Take an early flight from London City and you could be skiing by noon.

The village

Adelboden is both a thriving mountain town and a preserved, traditional, camera-friendly resort. It’s a year-round destination rather than being a one-trick-pony winter station and the balance that brings to the town is to the real benefit of tourists.

It has a fascinating history, having attracted alpine enthusasists from Switzerland and further abroad for a century. Many WW2 Allied airmen and soldiers were ‘guests’ in the town having failed to make their way across Switzerland and on to safety.

Essentially, the town is arranged along a main road, with the ski lifts being at the far (western) end, servicing the main ski area, and also in the middle, which will get you up to Tschetchen Alp.

The feeling that there’s more to life than skiing is also felt in the surrounding areas, with the notion of a broader ‘alpine’ lifestyle which includes farming, hiking, well-being, and generally enjoying the outdoor life.

Orientation

At the end point of a long valley, it’s a further longish ride in a gondola up the valley to the ski area from the old town of Adelboden. Standing in the town looking down at the valley, the ski lift takes you out to the right towards the big bowl and beyond. There’s a ski area (closed when we visited in warm spring temerpatures) at your ‘back’ and the lift there takes you up and over the ridge to access it.

The slopes

Our ability to report accurately on all the beginner and improver slopes in Adelboden was compromised by a very warm spell at the beginning of April 2011 when we visited. Our timing itself was determined by the start of regular flights to Berne, which cuts the transfer time from Zurich or Geneva from 3 hours to 45 minutes.

However, unlike more western resorts which struggled all season with thin snow cover, the existing base delivered good snow coverage even if 15 degrees by two in the afternoon meant it was mainly slush on all but the highest and most northerly slopes.

Getting on to the main part of the ski area (which delivers 117km of pistes) is frankly a bit of a chore. If you’re staying, as we did, at the ‘far’ end of town, then you walk along the high street to pick up the short link gondola to the main base at Oey. Then it’s that long climb up to the first station, and from there you will still want to go higher if you want to get to the real beginner slopes.

That said, there is a bus that will deposit you at Oey, or even take novices and kids up to Geils. It may mean slightly less yomping, but it takes about the same time.

The long and the short of it is, if you’re up there, stay there. If you fancy a quick hour, maybe better just going up to Tschenten.

Once you’re up, the skiing is great. The infrastucture has had a lot of money spent on it and the way the resort links together is great. Most lifts are quick and there are relatively few drag lifts. Freeze-thaw conditions meant some testing early-morning teeth-rattlers, but excellent piste management and clever bashing (often just after the slopes had closed) meant that the snow was in as good nick as you could hope.

The resort is broken down into five ski areas, and the main area for beginners and intermediates is the Silleren-Buhlberg area. Having been deposited at the top of the Oey-Sillerenbuhl gondola you’ll want to head down towards Geils, on a fairly easy blue track. Total beginners will be taken to the nursery slope at Brenggen to practise on a wide, gentle incline but from here you can get all over the mountain easily.

Taking lifts from Geils, there are lovely, cruisey blue runs to take you down from Hahnenmoos to the Buhlberg lift (our favourite run in the resort) or up to Luegli which is a little more intimidating.

Once you feel your confidence building, a good challenge is the steep, wide, straight red run down to Metschmaad – it’s called FIS, so we assume it’s a World Cup slalom!

Other reds in the resort, especially down towards Aebi and the run off Luegli, are stern tests of nerve with very steep roller-coaster sections. Ask your instructor if you’re up to it!

Our recommendations

The Cambrian

This is simply a brilliant hotel. As an inveterate nit-picker and former travel editor it’s my job (and considerable pleasure) to locate and report upon the failings that I all-too-often come across, but the Cambrian is virtually faultless.

The style of the hotel speaks to its mountain location with the use of wood and stone in contemporary settings, thus avoiding the Alps-By-The-Yard design default of almost every other altitude hotel.

Staff are upbeat, helpful, genuinely pleased to be of service. Rooms are stylish, big, and comfortable. We only ate one night in the hotel and we can’t accurately comment on that because there was a limited menu and we were in a function room due to the restaurant being occupied by two wedding parties (a rarity, we are told). We had been warned this was the case.

There’s a range of spa treatments and therapies, a beautiful pool, and an outdoor thermal pool with a jet function and infinity lip that puts the mountains on your horizon – magical. The bar, a centrepoint of après ski, is both chic and cosy with its heavy wood furniture and cowhide seat covers.

Any hotelier thinking about a mountain hotel should be made to come to the Cambrian to see what excellence looks like. We’ll be back. www.thecambrianadelboden.com

Restaurant – Hohliebe-Stubli

A ten minute drive outside of Adelboden (past Our Chalet, for you former Girl Guides and Brownies) is a unique mountain restaurant which takes to heart the current dual obsessions with local produce and innovative flavour combinations in a centuries-old setting.

There’s no menu, just a procession of wonderfully executed dishes with deep roots in local flavours and life – for example the age-old, but oh-so-modern, use of freshly harvested hay as a cooking medium.

It’s pricey, and worth it. You or your hotel MUST book ahead – no drop-ins.

www.hohliebestuebli.ch

Berghotel Hahnenmoos

If you are desperate to make first tracks in the snow, maybe spend a couple of nights up the mountain at this newly refurbished lodge which is next to the Hahnenmoos lift complex. Rooms are basic, and the evening is based around the restaurant below, but you should be guaranteed some peace and quiet and good value. There are dorm rooms as well as singles and doubles.

www.hahnenmos.ch

Restaurant Hahnenmoos

We found it impossible to drag ourselves to a different location for lunch, eating here twice when our reviewerly duties should have been in finding new places. It’s simply a brilliantly executed self-service restaurant with masses of choice.

Restaurant Geilsbruggli

Just before you get to the Geils lift complex when arriving from the Sillerenbuhl side, this is a lovely old-fashioned pit stop with charming service, a few specials, and a good line in hot punches and cocktails. There’s a handy rope-lift to get you back on track when you’re done, too.

Access to slopes? 12345
Beginner’s area: 12345
Overall: 12345
Cost: Medium
Getting there: Allow 45m-1hr from Bern-Belp Airport