Les Diablerets ski resort

Les Diablerets ski resort is in the French-speaking Vaud Alpes in Switzerland. It’s an unspoilt, pretty ‘chocolate box’ village at around 1200m elevation. It links to nearby Villars that itself holds the ‘Families Welcome’ quality mark from the Swiss Tourism Federation as being particularly suitable for families.

There were two things that attracted us to Les Diablerets ski resort. The first was the free lift passes for children aged up to nine – a great saving for the budget conscious. The second was that whilst it is a small resort of some 65kms of piste, the amount of skiing available increases to 125kms when you add in Villars and Gyron.

View from Les Diablerets Glacier 3000 with the Matterhorn in the background.
Image courtesy of robertpaulyoung/Flickr.

Where are the skiing areas?
There are three distinct areas to explore during your family ski holidays:

Isenau
A gondola takes you from the village to the slopes at Isenau, where the Swiss Ski and Snowboard School in Les Diablerets holds the majority of ski lessons. There are some nice gentle blue runs for beginners served by drag lifts, plus a blue tree-lined run back down to the gondola station.

Glacier 3000
There’s a free shuttle bus every half an hour from the village to the Col du Pillon where a cable car takes you up to the Glacier 3000 ski area. You can get to the Col on skis via Isenau, but you have to ride the bus back to the village – there’s no ski run down from the Col or a lift back to Isenau. The runs on the glacier aren't difficult, except for the Combe d'Audon.

There is though, a breathtaking panorama. On a clear day you can see the famous Swiss peaks of the Matterhorn and Eiger and Mont Blanc in France.

Meilleret
The tree-lined blue and red runs down from Meilleret and Les Mazots will appeal to intermediates, and are great confidence builders for children if the weather turns foggy.

The Ski and Snowboard School has a ‘Swiss Snow Kids Village’ with a nursery slope at the foot of Meilleret. If your children are aged between four and eight years old and are complete beginners, they’ll start their lessons here. The link to Villars / Gyron is accessed from Meilleret and the runs here are great for children who like the adventure of going to another resort.

Is there childcare in Les Diablerets?
Ski resort childcare is a kindergarten run by the Swiss Ski and Snowboard School. It takes children from the age of two.

Getting to Les Diablerets
The nearest airports are Geneva at around 150kms away or smaller Sion at 80kms. It takes around an hour and a half to drive from Geneva, and around two and a half hours by train - there's a mountain railway that winds its way up from Aigle. This makes the village an attractive option for ski vacations if you’re looking for a relatively short transfer time.

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