When you think of Switzerland, you probably think of verdant valleys, snow capped mountains, fondue, exceptional chocolate and very expensive watches. You probably don’t think of budget family holidays…

So I was pretty surprised to find out that a budget family holiday in Switzerland is a thing. And that includes skiing too (or in my case snowboarding).

But what do you get with a budget ski break in Switzerland? 

We headed to the Alpine region of Pays St Bernard, in the Valais Canton, a stone’s throw from the Italian border, to find out exactly what you get on a budget family ski break in Switzerland.

The deal: Ski hostel in Pays St Bernard

While you might be able to find some pretty good ski deals in Switzerland these days, the guys at Ski-Hostel.com are offering a package that is pretty hard to beat. 

With half board accommodation, a ski pass to three ski areas, four hours of tuition for beginners, plus transfers to and from the slopes…. And transfers from Geneva airport! It’s the kind of deal you might not believe at first glance.

In fact, with this package going for 800 CHF (around £715), it’s the kind of deal you’d find in an Eastern European ski resort, not Switzerland.

So how does Ski Hostel fare?

Relais de Dranse 

Our digs for the week are to be the Relais de Dranse, in the village of Liddes. This converted restaurant is now a hostel, with space for up to 60 guests. And with a choice of three rooms with 4 beds, or two with 6 beds, the hostel makes for a surprisingly good family stay location.

Now branded as Ski Hostel, the Relais de Dranse is one of three locations run by business partners Stefan and Philip. And it’s about as classic Swiss picture postcard as you can get. The hostel itself is in a quiet corner of an already pretty sleepy village, with epic mountain views both to the front and back.

As a family of four, we get a four bed dorm to ourselves, just across the hall from the bathrooms. None of the rooms are en-suite, but there is a good sized shared bathroom with nice hot showers and adequate toilet facilities.

Stefan is our host, the co-owner of the Ski Hostel, who lives just around the corner from the hostel. He’s one of those people who you instantly feel like you’ve been mates with for years, even if you’ve just met him.

Our two kids instantly take a shine to him and he is clearly a natural with youngsters.

As Stefan tells me, “In the summer we have language and hiking camps for kids, so we have a lot of children passing through here. It’s a great spot for them, there is so much to do”.

At the moment though it’s ankle deep with snow, so my two spend time making snow angels and sledging with the hostel sledge.

“There are lots of great walks around here”, Stefan tells me, “And we’re right next to the ski touring route so you’ll often see walkers on skis”.

My kids are not quite ready for ski touring though, so they spend time decorating the hostel Christmas tree, playing pool on the already heavily scuffed pool table and making up songs on the piano. 

Budget skiing in Switzerland

One of the main offers with Ski Hostel is the opportunity to ski in the Swiss Alps for budget prices. And the ski area we’ll be exploring is the Pays St Bernard, which is made up of three ski areas:

• La Fouly
• Champex Lac
• Vicheres (Liddes)

Each of these individual areas offers around 15-20 kms of pistes, with a total skiable area of around 50 kms between all of them.

Vicheres is the closest to the ski hostel, just a 5 minute drive, but is unfortunately closed when we arrive. 

But we do get to head to the biggest of the three, La Fouly.

Although it’s a bit cliché, this entire region is very much chocolate box/winter wonderland territory, with lots of picturesque wooden buildings in front of stunning snow capped peaks. And La Fouly looks just the part too.

First off, my five year old and my better half get stuck into lessons with Stefan. From the car park we’re straight onto the learner slopes at the bottom of the mountain, with no need to even get a lift pass for the magic carpet.

My partner is particularly impressed with his tuition style, having previously only had lessons on the dry ski slopes in the UK.

“I got more from him in 10 minutes than I did back home in 2 hours”, she later tells me. And no it’s not just because we’re on real snow!

One of the main reasons we came to La Fouly is because of the beginner terrain. And as Stefan explains, “This is such a good place for beginners to learn because it’s much less crowded than Verbier (which is 20 minutes down the road). So you can really go at your own pace and not worry about crashing into a ski school”.

So, La Fouly is great for beginners. What about us experienced snow hounds?

Snowboarding at La Fouly

An old style 2 person chairlift drops us up onto the mountain for my first run of the season. Although Stefan has been skiing for weeks, I’m still warming up so I’ve got Bambi legs (on a snowboard) for pretty much my whole time at La Fouly.

That said, the main run back down from the first chairlift is a snaking blue run which finishes with a sun kissed red back to the lift. It’s a fun and fast descent through a tree lined corridor, and we do this one relatively quickly a couple of times.

Having got my head around standing on a snowboard again, I’m ready to tackle the t-bar drag lift to the top of the mountain. And actually, it’s quite a smooth ride up. 

Once on top, we’re rewarded with the views from the peak, and a lovely wide red run all the way back down to the bottom. 

La Fouly also offers several black runs, as well as a yellow run. If you’ve not encountered a yellow run before, then it’s a black piste which is ungroomed, which obviously means it’s a bit of a challenge.

At La Fouly, the yellows and blacks were unfortunately closed when we were there, so we didn’t get to check them out. But as Stefan points out, “Although it’s a bit of a challenge, it’s a really fun route and quite fast too”. 

So maybe next time…

Verbier calling

Down in this part of the Alps, there are pretty much ski resorts in every valley. And as it turns out, we’re just 20 minutes from Verbier. On our second day, Stefan takes us to do some ski lessons at the (relatively cheap at CHF 22) learner slopes where my partner and daughter go for part two of their one to one lessons.

This is where I can see the benefits of learning at La Fouly. Despite the fact that Verbier has the prestige, it is much busier with ski schools and trains of youngsters snaking across the learner slopes. But saying that, the girls enjoy their lessons and soon get to grips with turning and sliding. Maybe not quite mountain confident yet, but it’s a good start…

On day three, me and Stefan come back to Verbier to do some grown up skiing and snowboarding which is, as you would expect, excellent.

Day passes for Verbier don’t come cheap though, costing CHF 82 for a one day pass to the 4 Vallees – a pass for the Verbier section alone is CHF 80, and the smaller Bruson section is just CHF 55.

In all honesty, the 4 Vallees pass is well worth it, and we definitely make the most of our time exploring the valleys and getting me up to speed. Sort of… Stefan is still about three times faster than I am, at least.

But hey, I had fun.

Hostel life

The communal living in the hostel means it’s quite easy for us to keep the kids fed and watered. If you’ve ever travelled using hostels then you’ll know that they can be great for self catering.

Although the Relais de Dranse is offering half board, we’re slightly out of season here, so it’s on a semi-help yourself arrangement. But that suits us fine. Breakfast was usually a simple affair of cereals and DIY tea and coffee with optional fruit or toast too.

Stefan and the team also put together a classic Swiss spread on several nights, including raclette and fondue.

While we were there, it was mostly just volunteers working at the hostel helping to get ready for the season, so there were no other guests. As such we mostly had the amenities to ourselves, which was nice. 

Although the dorm rooms are pretty basic, there is a very large living area, with three massive sofas, a big TV and also a projector to watch movies. For the kids, they were happy to play in the snow, have fun with the gaming tables and play with the books and toys we bought. 

Getting to Pays St Bernard

The Pays St Bernard ski region is around 30-40 minutes outside of Martigny, in the south west of Switzerland.

We took a train from Geneva Airport direct to Martigny, which took 1 hours 40 minutes. From there we were picked up and driven to the hostel in Liddes, a drive of 20 minutes. 

Ski Hostel do offer airport transfers as part of their deal, so getting door to door service makes this even more of a great package.

If you’re looking for a family friendly ski trip in Switzerland, check out Ski-Hostel.com.

Flights from Bristol to Geneva with EasyJet cost around £200 (plus baggage)