Villars Map

Villars, Switzerland is a tasteful, modest small vacation spot . It is connected to Bex , which is in the valley, by a olde worlde Edwardian train, and to Aigle by a far more practical postbus.

It is in no way graceful or stylish, but scores (and has won awards) is for its family-oriented care. Every winter Villars, and its nearby residential district of Gryon , 4km away on the Bex-Villars train line, attract many families on skiing holidays, while still remaining almost unknown to a wider range of customers. The skiing in the town is very good, with the pluses of direct lift connection to Les Diablerets for glacier pistes up to 3000m, and a deal in which multi-day lift passes are also valid in the Gstaad Super Ski Region.

A cable car rises from the threshold of the village up to the Roc d'Orsay (2000m), from where a long blue run delivers you to the center of the skiing at Bretaye, set in a broad bowl and also approachable by a rack railway from Villars centre. Gentle red pistes abound, and from Barboleuse another lift heads up to Les Chaux (1750m), offering a lengthy and gratifying blue run, along with a red or two and a extended steep black down to Sodoleuvre. It's also comfortable to carve your way over to Les Diablerets, from where lifts reach the Scex Rouge and Diablerets Glacier - although be warned that if the snow at Villars and specially Gstaad isn't that good, everybody heads up to the glacier, making things uncomfortable and overcrowded.

Location - Villars just 110km by road from Geneva offers skiing between 1300m and 3000m in the region of Lake Geneva The Gryon which is a slightly lower village offers an alternative base. Along with 120km of pistes there are 200km of walking trails to beat about and several sledging tracks too. Mountain scouts and heli skiing for the more sporting.

Reaching there - The nearest airport is in Geneva and the nearest train station at Aigle. Traveling by car take the motorway and exit at Bex, then observe signs for Villars, and by public transport: take the Bex - Villars - Bretaye (BVB) train from Bex station.

Accommodations - Villars and Gryon together provide 16,000 beds for travelers, chalets and hotels as well as bed and breakfasts are numerous.

Other features - A trail stretching 3 km through the exquisite wood atop the resort of Villars is devoted to prospecting the forest. Twenty information boards targeted at people across all ages render detailed information that makes everybody a true woodland adept: visitors can learn about flora, fauna, odors, occupations in the forest, and much more!

Cities in Switzerland