6 best swiss ski resorts near Geneva
Want to fly into Geneva and ski in Switzerland? These are your best bets for a ski holiday with simple transfers, and the list is full of bucket list resorts.
There are 6 areas with over 100km of slopes in the cantons of Vaud & Valais, meaning there's enough slope for at least a week.
Save the planet + Extortionate private transfer fees
Take a train direct from the airport, with 1 or 2 changes you'll be at the doorstep. Leave the long and expensive taxi's behind. If that's not your style, we've also added the transfer times by car.
What are the timings?
Between 2.5hr to Verbier - 4hrs to Zermatt via train
Swiss train tickets are released 60 days in advance, you're looking at aprox. £60 - £80 return to get to any of these. Buy as early as possible for cheapest prices and most availability.
What are the Ski Areas?
4 Vallées (400 km)
Connected area
6 day pass: 366 Euro
4 Vallees pass is the best value ski pass per Km in the whole of Switzerland This ski area is a combination of 5 different resorts, connected across (you guessed it) 4 valleys. Due to the spread of locations, there's different options depending on your choice of resort.
Verbier ( The most famous choice, a Freeride mecca)
By Car: 1 hour and 50 minutes
Public Transport: Take a train from Geneva Airport to Martigny, then transfer to a regional train to Le Châble. From Le Châble, you can take a cable car or shuttle bus up to Verbier.
Le Châble - Verbier cable car will be considered as public transport. This means that the cable cars will run from 5.15 am until 11.50 pm from Monday to Sunday, and as well as that, you can use your Half Fare and GA travelcards on this route. There's also buses that do this route.
**Alpybus** do shared transfers to Verbier from 54.50 CHF if you'd prefer a drive
The journey takes around 2 hours and 30 minutes.
La Tzoumaz
Train from Genevea to Riddes
Take the cable car from Riddes up to Isérables, with its panoramic view it will transport you in a record time of 6 minutes. From there, CarPostal buses will allow you to reach La Tzoumaz.
Nendaz, Veysonnaz & Thyon can be reached by taking the train to Sion.
Geneva to Sion is around 2 hours direct.
There are daily bus connections between Sion railway station and the resorts.
Crans Montana (140km)
6 day pass: 465 euro
Connect ski area
By Car: The driving time is approximately 2 hours.
Public Transport:
Get a train to Sierre (or Sion) then the Funicular railway up to Montana
Ski buses when you get there to get around the town
The total journey time is around 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Villars - Gryon // Les Diablerets - Glacier 3000 (232 km)
Multi-area collection
6 day pass: 348 Euro
Les Diablerets - Glacier 3000
By Car: The driving time is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Public Transport: Take a train from Geneva Airport to Aigle, then transfer to a regional train to Les Diablerets. From Les Diablerets, you can take a bus or taxi to reach the Glacier 3000 ski area.
The total journey time is around 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Villars - Gryon
By Car: 1 h 15 min. from Geneva
Public Transport: Take a train from Geneva Airport to Aigle, then transfer to a regional bus (144) to take you up to the resort.
The total time is aprox. 2hrs
Saas Valley (150km)
Multi-area collection
6 day pass: 404 Euro
By Car: The driving time is approximately 3 hours.
Arrival by public transport From the airport you get a train to Visp (2.5 hrs)
From Visp, you can take the PostBus (Bus 511 - direction Saas-Fee) every half hour directly to Saas-Fee/Saas Valley. Aprox. 3 to 4 hours
Zermatt - Cervinia (360km)
Connected area
6 day pass: 458 Euro
Geneva to Zermatt - aprox 3.5 to 4 hours
From the airport change to mountain railway in Visp (2.5 hrs) to get to Zermatt (1 hr)
Val d' Anniviers (200km)
Multi-area collection
6 day pass: 299 Euro
By Car: The driving time is approximately 2 hours.
By Train:
Geneva to Sierre (2.25 hrs)
Bus to Grimentz (1hr)
***We know - Champéry (Les Portes du Soleil) is also in Switzerland, and on the same train line ( but the majority of the skiing in France so we've kept it off the list.
2 hr 23 min with a train all the way to the resort, change at Aigle
Of course, depending on your preference, you can narrow it down by area size and ski pass price - the range of value per km is quite substantial!
Check out how they compare with our pass price comparison tool:
