Saas Fee

Saas Fee is a high altitude, traditional, traffic free resort sitting at 1800m with skiing on the glaciers at 3600m. It's a classic Alpine village; with narrow streets lined with old chalets, a church and traditional barns set on stones.

Unlike many of Europe’s mega-resorts, this village has a fabulous atmosphere in both summer and winter, and serves as the perfect “small is beautiful” option. The resort boasts a huge selection of good restaurants, traditional tea houses and shops.

Saas Fee also has a great après ski scene, which starts in the snow bars near the lifts and ends with live music in Popcorn or in buzzing bars, like Poison. You can ski ten months of the year and, if you feel like a change of scenery, it is only a short distance from the world famous Zermatt.

Saas Fee has 100km of varied and snow sure slopes spread around it's glacier and basin. With most of the skiing between 2500m and 3500m the resort enjoys one of the longest seasons in the Alps as the lifts are open from July right through autumn until the end of April. In summer all the International teams train on the glacier (even the Austrians!).

The lower slopes provide some gentle blues for beginners and on the upper slopes intermediates will enjoy some magnificent red runs surrounded by glaciers. If you like ski touring and world class off-piste, then this is the perfect place for you. Take a guide and go discover the fantastic back country or ski over to Zermatt. If you drive around then take a change of clothes, leave your skis and boots in a locker, have dinner in Zermatt and drive back. It's one of my favourite days out.

Saas Fee has ambitious plans to extend the ski area by linking to Saas Almagel and from there into Italy. The first stage opened in December  www.saas-fee.ch/en/spielboden/. The mountain restaurants have recently been revamped and the Three Sixty revolving restaurant and the gourmet Spielboden are both highly recommended and can easily be reached by non-skiers too.

Saas Fee is a genuine Swiss village, and the resort is busy almost all year round. Visitors are drawn by the glacier skiing and the 350km of hiking trails, but there are plenty of other outdoor activities too such as climbing and mountain-biking.

The new aqua centre has a lovely pool and the sports and gym facilities are excellent. At the foot of the ski slopes are football pitches and tennis courts which in winter are used to create an ice skating rink and curling pitch.

The resort offers a wide variety of summer activities including mini-golf, a small golf course, trampoline, pétaneque, and a climbing wall. If you want something more challenging try the rope challenge in the forest, the zip wire across the gorge, and the Feeblitz (a children’s roller coaster). In the valley are horse riding and white water rafting.

The village hosts many events both in winter and summer but one of the best is the Nostalgic Culinary Mile which is held every September. Many of the local restaurateurs and farmers dress in nostalgic clothes and serve traditional dishes, local specialities and wine from one of the many stalls which stretch for a mile up the main street.

Prices in Saas Fee are good value and are about one third of what you would pay for an equivalent property in one of the mega resorts such as Verbier. Saas Fee is a mini version of Zermatt and is the closest resort to Zermatt (the best resort in the Alps in my view). You can’t buy in Zermatt unless you are a Swiss resident so Saas Fee is a good alternative.

There is a good choice of resale properties for foreigners ranging from ski in, ski out apartments near the slopes, to beautiful chalets in the sunny Wildi area. Although no more permits for the construction of new second homes will be granted (as a result of the Weber law), a local developer is completely renovating some old chalets which have foreigner permits.

So you can buy what is essentially a new chalet which has been completely refurbished to your personal taste combining traditional charm and modern technology.