culture.shabu: TRAVEL: Gstaad, Switzerland

Feb 22-27: 6D6N in a Winter Paradise

In one sentence: While Central European skiing is a blend of 40% ski, 60% lifestyle, Gstaad is a more potent 20:80 cocktail; it's not for the faint-hearted, nor the thin-walleted.

The thought of reviewing some of my travels - recent, past, and future - has been sitting on the back-burner for a while. This is primarily because I have seen a lot of poorly-written travel reports, masquerading as travel guides, that offer the reader little value, often presenting themselves as not much more than an album of pretty pictures with pretty people in them. (That's how bloggers are made, are they not?)

However, the opportunity to write a little about my visit to Gstaad, (and my first ever visit to Switzerland), a ski resort my family had never even heard of until it was mentioned in the FT's... How To Spend It section, is as good a reason as any other. So I'll try my best at this :).

Central European skiing

Having made such a bold generalisation in my first sentence, I need to substantiate my claim. Compared to where I've skied in the past (Whistler, BC; Lake Tahoe, CA; Vale, CO; Courchevel, France), the experience of skiing in Switzerland is completely novel to me. Gone are the long early morning queues to catch the early-bird deal or the first run of the day, and in its place, are non-existent gondola queues in the morning. In place of the over-enthused skiers who need to get as many runs in the day as possible, are bleary-eyed people milling around the gondola slowly sipping their morning coffee or hot chocolate. Although they look like they're going to ski, their languid demeanours betray their intentions.

Even when I was grabbing lunch at one of the many pubs spaced throughout the mountain (peak, mid-station, and bottom), I was surprised to find that I had finished my meal - veal and hot chocolate, of course, as it is Switzerland - and was ready to leave before the neighbouring table... who had already finished their entrées when I had walked in. My instructor explained that 2-3 hour meals are common here. Imagine my surprise. In Whistler, there were few restaurants on the mountain, and even if you avoided peak times, the situation was more akin to a Singapore food court than a ski resort restaurant. It was get in, get out.

The next surprise was only minutes away when he also pointed out another local tradition: beers and shots at lunch and before your last run. Getting more than just a little tipsy on the mountain... Isn't that dangerous, I thought to myself, sipping on my Swiss ale - the first of many.

80% Lifestyle

Find me another ski village with as broad and complete a range of luxury stores as the collection in Gstaad. I mean, for crying out loud, it even has a showroom with two Bugatti Veyrons in it. The fact that the showroom is unmanned and bare except for the two, $2.5 million, fastest-road-cars-in-the-world, Bugattis says more than just a little about Gstaad.

What's more, the most expensive school in the world, Le Institut La Rosey, (which charges $133k a year, you better be grooming presidents for that price) has its winter campus in Gstaad. What this means is that between January-March, the whole school, faculty included, move to Gstaad where students study in the morning, and ski in the afternoon under the watchful eye of their teachers. The effect of La Rosey on the local community cannot be overstated; the local tourist office estimated that 50% of holidaymakers in Gstaad have some sort of connection to La Rosey.

In this period, it's safe to assume that any person of high-school age is most likely a student from La Rosey. You can confirm your suspicions if they seem to be wearing designer apparel and visiting places that would ordinarily be out of a high-school student's financial reach - wait that's just about the whole village. And don't worry, all the locals have more than just a few funny anecdotes about the local adolescent population... one jeweller recalled one particularly testy teen bellowing into her phone, demanding a $20,000 wire transfer so that she could buy a bracelet.

My Accommodation

The Gstaad Palace / (Castle).

Opened in 1913, The Gstaad Palace is Gstaad's oldest luxury hotel, and arguably its finest. With such a reputation (and only 104 rooms), it comes as no surprise, that there's a waiting list of more than a year for a room during the festive season, despite a minimum 10-day stay. So I heartily recommend visiting in the off-season!

A factoid I found amusing: Michael Jackson wanted to buy the hotel during his stay there. Oh, and the three bedroom penthouse has a jacuzzi in the turret. Imagine that. (It also comes with a $10k/night rental)

The Palace also houses Gstaad's only nightclub, called "Green Go". Open every night from 11pm until the last patron leaves, Green Go appears to be the clubhouse of La Rosey students, past and present. (And with table service starting at $3k, I'm hardly surprised). Troubled by jet-lag, I decided to visit on my first night. Abstaining from the overpriced, uninspired bar drinks and trying not to be affected by the poorly-mixed music, I came across kids popping ecstasy in the hallway outside the toilet...

Oh, and the club waiters wore cute tuxedos.

20% Skiing, etc.

So Saanenland, the name of the whole region, is covered under one ski pass (which also doubles as a train card... that when expired, can be traded in for €5, cheese, or chocolate). Most lodgings are walking distance from a train station, which is useful, because I quickly found out that daily taxis to the gondola were rather unsustainable (€100/day).

Five distinct skiable mountains are covered under the pass. The fact that most of these need to be accessed individually makes Gstaad's ski vertical not particularly challenging : the longest run you could make being perhaps 20 minutes. But the off-piste, though minimal, is to die for. :). See my video at the end.

Quickly:

Gstaad, is unique among Alpine villages, for retaining its classic alpine village look, having passed laws in the ’50s banning any departure from the classic three-story Simmentaler style
My room, half-board (including breakfast and dinner), in the off-season cost €700/day, and this was a room meant for only one person, a valet I imagine...
I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but the hotel tried to inappropriately charge my family over ski lessons (we were meant to receive some free lessons as we have purchased a ski package...), so make sure you check your bills!
Do as much as you can by yourself... the staff here are understandably used to people with deeper pockets, and service charges are hidden everywhere (e.g. renting a snowboard from an external snowboard shop instead of the hotel's own saved me €300)
Rent a car, makes it much more convenient to hit the slopes every day, and allows you visit the peripheral towns in the area
Pure Snowboard School, 'nuff said
Be anything but a rich, arrogant snob, and the locals will be fair to you... my snowboard instructor went beyond his "call of duty" so to speak, and became a great friend... (he even smoked me out hehe)