A family weekend in the snowy paradise of Gstaad

The trip to the Saa­nen-Gstaad Youth Hos­tel is an absolute delight in itself. The road winds its way through snow-cov­ered val­leys, past cosy wood­en chalets and fir trees sprin­kled with snow. The route couldn’t be more beau­ti­ful!

Swiss Youth Hostels Our home for the weekend

Dur­ing our long week­end in Gstaad, we stayed at the cosy yet ultra-mod­ern Swiss Youth Hos­tel. Gold­en sun­light streams through the large win­dows, cast­ing a radi­ant glow inside, where the pres­ence of plants and wood ele­ments cre­ates a snug and invit­ing atmos­phere. From the hos­tel, you can watch the skiers on the slopes on the moun­tain­side oppo­site.

We stayed in the fam­i­ly room, which is equipped with a dou­ble bed for us par­ents and a bunk bed for the kids. There is also a show­er and a toi­let in the room. What’s more, break­fast is always includ­ed in the room rate at Swiss Youth Hos­tels! Oth­er high­lights for us were the spa­cious games room and the table foot­ball in the lounge.

Dis­cov­er our range of valu­able tips for your fam­i­ly stay in Saa­nen­land:

Tobogganing fun for the whole family

The Gstaad region offers some cool, fast-paced tobog­gan runs – as well as some leisure­ly runs that are par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for fam­i­lies. Our pro­gramme orig­i­nal­ly includ­ed the Eggli Run – the longest fam­i­ly-friend­ly tobog­gan run. How­ev­er, it was closed due to insuf­fi­cient snow. That’s why we decid­ed on the Saan­er­sloch Run – the longest run in the entire region. Although it is not des­ig­nat­ed as a fam­i­ly run, we believe it is still suit­able for fam­i­lies with old­er chil­dren (please note: Some sec­tions are steep­er!).

Once you arrive at the Saan­er­sloch sum­mit sta­tion, a beau­ti­ful win­ter land­scape awaits you, and after a few min­utes’ walk you can stop for refresh­ments on some beau­ti­ful­ly sun­ny ter­races. If you buy a day tobog­gan tick­et like we do, you can enjoy the descent as often as you like – it’s def­i­nite­ly worth it if you’re going to do three or more rides.

Aquatic adventures at the sports centre in Gstaad

If the thrill of tobog­gan­ing or ski­ing hasn’t worn you out, or if you’re in the mood for some extra relax­ation, the spa­cious indoor swim­ming pool at the Sportzen­trum Gstaad is just the place for you. As we didn’t get there too late in the after­noon, we had the pools almost to our­selves. There’s some­thing for the whole fam­i­ly to enjoy at the indoor pool. Whether the baby pool, the non-swim­mer pool or the out­door pool with water jet fea­tures – every­thing you could wish for is right here. The XXL water slide is anoth­er attrac­tion that brings joy to children’s eyes – it was def­i­nite­ly a high­light for us! Admis­sion to the well­ness area can be pur­chased sep­a­rate­ly.

Kids in the spotlight at the Station in Saanen

A con­trast to the action-packed win­ter pro­gramme can be found in the for­mer fire sta­tion in Saa­nen. A real par­adise for fam­i­lies has been cre­at­ed at the Sta­tion. Here you can play to your heart’s con­tent with your kids, unleash your cre­ativ­i­ty and enjoy a few peace­ful hours in this wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment. The high­lights of this expe­ri­ence for us are the cre­ative­ly designed mar­ble runs, which we can try out our­selves, as well as the numer­ous craft sta­tions on the upper floor and the fan­tas­tic Mär­li gon­do­la. The Sta­tion was a real high­light for us and we would high­ly rec­om­mend it to fam­i­lies.

Culinary delights

Do your kids get bored when you go to a restau­rant? This won’t be the case at Michel’s Stall­bei­zli in Gstaad! This small and cosy restau­rant is only sep­a­rat­ed from the adja­cent cow shed by a large pane of glass. This means there’s always some­thing to see, from cows eat­ing hay to calves drink­ing milk. You can indulge in the creamy delight of gen­uine Gstaad cheese fon­due and the children’s menus cater to every desire. We also real­ly like the friend­ly, per­son­al atmos­phere and the rea­son­able prices.

Round-up of our long weekend in Saanen

The two-night stay at the Swiss Youth Hos­tel in Saa­nen was per­fect for us, as we were not focus­ing on ski­ing or snow­board­ing. If that were the case, you could eas­i­ly spend a week or more in the region. We are impressed by the many fam­i­ly-friend­ly offers and will def­i­nite­ly be back soon – in the sum­mer at the lat­est so that we can dis­cov­er the many fan­tas­tic hik­ing trails!

Pre­fer the city?
Basel offers an incred­i­ble amount of vari­ety for young and old.