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      • Jun 22, 2019

    An Easy Family Hike With Children: Wispile in Gstaad

    Updated: Oct 9, 2019

    Today we had half a day free as we were waiting for our next group to arrive and so decided to make the most of it by heading to one of our favourite mountains in the area - the Wispile.



    Ever since the kids have been little we've been taking them up there: not only is it a fun ride to the top in the cablecar, but it has one of the most beautiful sun-drenched restaurant terraces for a cup of coffee and, BONUS, a children's playground and even a collection of goats and ponies in the summer. And did I mention the view? From the restaurant the view is already great, but walk just a few hundred meters further up a small hill and there you are rewarded with 360 degrees of WOW as the snow capped glacier presents itself in all its glory. Take some sandwiches, have a picnic, and enjoy.




    Many make it no further than the restaurant (newly renovated, bright and welcoming with a nice kids corner and lots of mountain kitch to look at) which is completely understandable, but there are actually quite a lot of possibilities for stretching your legs. If you do walk to the very top of the hill you can loop back round, making a short but rewarding round trip for littles. Continue along the ridgeline and you can walk as far as Lauenen, from where you can get the bus back to the bottom of the cable car. This is a 'proper' hike though, and not something you'd attempt with younger children, though the views from the ridge are superb and it's worth a little there-and-back along the first section of the path for these alone.


    What we like to do, and what we did this morning, was hike back down the front of the mountain to the mid-station. This is a very doable 35 minutes, though count on a bit more than this for little legs. The path is mostly a wide gravel track with the option to take some single track, steeper shortcuts. We stopped en-route to eat our sandwiches and take in the view over Gstaad and across to the Gastlossen. Slightly older kids than ours (6 and nearly 4) could walk to the bottom, but so far we have been content to hop back on the cable car and play I spy on the way down.

    BREAKING NEWS: In just a few weeks time (July 19th, to be precise), the NEW playground at the top will be finished. Our kids were a bit disappointed that it wasn't ready today, but from what we saw of the work in progress it will be FANTASTIC and so no doubt we will be going back very soon!


    The Wispile cable car is open every day from 9.00 - 16.30 until the 13th October 2019, when it will just run Thursday to Sunday until the 27th. Check out the interactive map here or click here for more info.

    • Summer
    • •
    • Family activities
      • Dec 10, 2017

    snow for the opening of la braye and its new yetipass

    Updated: Jun 21, 2019


    Château-d'Oex covered in fresh snow

    For a few weeks now it's been snowing on and off here in Château-d'Oex and this pattern looks set to continue until at least the end of next week. This is GREAT news for La Braye, who will open the pistes and mountain restaurant on December 16th. The staff and a number of volunteers have been working round the clock to make sure everything is ready, and we will certainly be supporting local skiing by buying a YETIPASS this year for the whole family... (PSSST! Children pay just 10chf for their pass with each adult season pass bought!) La Braye is great for families - it has a sledge run, a lovely little walk to the Sarouche for the non-skiers and perfectly groomed pistes and a snowpark for everyone else.


    La Braye piste map


    Le Vieux Chalet in the snow

    We have just a few rooms left over the Christmas holidays so if you want to enjoy a few days in the mountains, get in touch! As is the case every year, New Years Eve is fully booked. We have several families come back every year at this time, and it's always nice seeing familiar faces. Charlène has been busy baking huge batches of cookies for our guests so there will be some home-made goodness for you to munch on in front of the fire ;-)

    Hope to see you soon!


    The terrasse under fresh snow

    #snow #skiing #winter #LaBraye

    • Winter
    • •
    • Family activities