Snowsure: 4.8
- Occasionally gets enough snow for skiing
- Is often closed due to a lack of snow
- Occasionally suffers from a lack of snow
- Rarely suffers from a lack of snow
- Saas Fee is snowsure even in the poorest seasons
Visitor reviews for Saas Fee Ski Resort
Click here to submit your own review of Saas Fee
(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
Latest
April 12, 2009
Stephen Lanfranco
Stephen Lanfranco
Ok, I know coming from Australia, most ski resorts would be better in comparison. However, I have been fortunate enough to ski all over the world: North America, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, France, and now Switzerland.
I can confidently say that Saas Fee is awesome. I know it's not the biggest resort, and sometimes it can take a while to get to certain points of the mountain, especially if you're there during busy holiday weeks like New Years, half-term, etc.
Taking everything mentioned above into consideration, Saas Fee has everything to offer, unless you're a skier who moans and always looks for things to complain about.
I have spent the season working here, and have had the best powder days of my life. Learned how to master the half-pipe and had incredible off-piste runs through all parts of the mountain, including the lower sections through the woods.
It's one of the only places I have been where you can almost run into wildlife grazing.
This place if everything and more of what I imagined a beautiful Swiss ski resort to be.
A great apres-ski culture, some really nice restaurants, some cool bars.
Forget all those comments about having to walk everywhere at Saas Fee. Just choose your accomodation properly, and you won't have as long to walk to get to the chair lifts. Besides that the only walk is through the tunnel up the top of the Felskin.
Enjoy Saas Fee.
December 30, 2008
Gary Curtis from
United Kingdom
Gary Curtis from
United Kingdom
Saas Fee 20 - 27 December 2008
I visited Saas Fee for Christmas week and I had waited many years to board in Switzerland, so my hopes were high.
We arrived to metres of snow; a good start. The village itself is the perfect Swiss village. Totally beautiful, wonderfully festive and unspoilt. Wherever you look, you could see perfect white mountains surrounding the resort, I couldn't wait to get up there.
I stayed in the Europa Hotel which was a charming hotel, fantastic food and staff. Longish way to the lifts but close to town.
The first thing is Saas Fee is car free and little electric carts move people about. This works well and is actually quite exciting as the drivers seem to treat it as a race!. The main lift is a cable car, which takes you up to another cable car and finally a train to the summit. You can choose to ski from any of these. The resort had so much powder and fresh snow. Perfect conditions. The weather isn't really that sunny and towards the end of the week it was very, very cold.
There are some parks with a half pipe, rails and kickers. These are located on the blue runs so it's easy to get to them and have a go. Well looked after also. The views are stunning from the top and as you board towards the village.
I would say Saas Fee suits beginner or intermediate but there is enough to keep anyone happy. For a Christmas winter break it was perfect. I will return one day due to the great snow and stunningly pretty village.
Pro's
Perfect village
Good snow
Excellent lifts
Cons
Can be very cold
March 28, 2008
Arik from
USA - California
Arik from
USA - California
Date Skied: March 16-21, 2008
Resort: Saas Fee
Conditions: Powder and Packed Powder, corn lower down in the afternoon
Trip Report: I went to Switzerland for a week of skiing this March and choose Saas Fee due to its reputation of good late season snow and a charming town for my partner who only wanted to ski some of the time. Saas is the valley next to Zermatt and is supposedly just as nice but less pricey and less crowded.
We flew into Zurich and caught a train at the Zurich airport (no need to transfer in town) which took us straight to Visp (through the new tunnel) where we took a short bus ride up a very narrow windy road to Saas Fee. It was 3 hours from the plane landing to us arriving in town.
There are three ski areas in the Saas valley but Saas Fee is the largest. I had imagined I would ski one day at Saas Grund and another at Saas Almagel but it was clear these lower south facing resorts had little snow. When we arrived in Saas Fee it was pretty warm and I was a bit concerned but actually the conditions turned out to be great. I purchased a 6 day ski pass which gave the option of a day skiing in Zermatt which I did not take advantage of because I wasn't interested in spending several hours in a van or bus driving up and down curvy roads to Zermatt and back. Maybe someday they will put in a tram or tunnel to cross directly between Saas and Zermatt but until that day comes Saas and Zermatt are very separate ski areas.
We stayed at the du Glacier Hotel and the hotels location was perfect, right in the middle of town but also close to the Alpine Express lift to ski. With regard to the skiing we had good snow conditions and the vertical drop (over 5000 feet) is impressive, I did some runs lasting well over an hour from top to bottom. There are several ways to get to the very top, one involving two gondolas (Alpine Express) and the other involving a new and impressive tram. Either way the last bit is in a subway type train tunnel. When you get out you are at 3500 meters and I admit to needing to sit to catch my breath the first time up. There is a fair amount of walking in tunnels carrying your skis which is no fun at that altitude. I think Saas Fee's skiing is probably better suited for an intermediate or advanced intermediate than an expert skier. The groomed runs are great but there isn't much off-piste skiing on account of rocks and glacial crevasses. I found lots of powder runs by scoping them out looking at other peoples tracks while going up on the lift, and noticed that the European skiers didn't seem to want the powder the way American skiers do, i.e. easy to find fresh tracks still available 2 days after it snowed. I had the best powder runs of my life up top, though I did notice I had come within a few feet of a glacial crevasse a couple times. I was loving the powder so much I basically didn't care. I can understand why off-piste skiing is forbidden and in fact illegal, but that didn't stop some people. Saas Fee's lifts are mostly gondolas or trams as well as a number of T bars. There are only 2 chairlifts, one the Morenia Sesselbahn is a high speed detachable 6 pack by Garaventa complete with bubble hood: nicest lift I have ever seen. There were, occasionally, short lines for the trams or gondolas but never any line for the chairlifts or T bars. I wondered if European skiers disliked chairlifts? The chairlifts and T bars, mostly, just led to one or two trails which were occasionally, mildly, crowded. I joked that it looked like Mount Snow (my local mountain and the closest ski resort in Vermont to New York City) on a Saturday. My favorite trails were in the Eiggenerjoch and the Gletscherwelt areas.
The town is perfectly situated so it's warm and not too snowy in town but cold enough to have huge amounts of snow up top. It was very quiet at night though there were bars and clubs within a 2 minute walk if one was looking to go out at night. Some of the bars had an 80's theme which I liked. Saas Fee is a nice little town with cobblestone streets, good shops (an amazing and inexpensive cheese shop), bars, restaurants, and a variety of activities in winter not just skiing. We got over a foot of snow up top the first day but only an inch down in town, then on our last night it snowed 2 feet both at the top and bottom of the mountain. I do want to mention a suggestion for lunch while skiing, the Glacier-grotte restaurant which had much better food, a gorgeous location, a mellow vibe, and better prices than some of the other on mountain options like the Morenia Cafeteria which was crowded and stressful. In terms of hotels I liked the du Glacier, the Unique Dom hotel looked like a good less expensive choice and the La Gorge Apart-Hotel (the rooms have kitchens) looked very nice as well with a great location next to a gondola and a beautiful gorge.
I had a nice time in Switzerland and am glad I chose to go to Saas Fee. In terms of language it seemed everyone could speak English though they did seem to brighten up at my attempts at German. We did meet one other American there, a college student on spring break from a year abroad in Spain. Everyone else seemed to be British, German, or Swiss. If there is a next time I probably won't return to Saas Fee just because I feel I skied it out in a week, like every trail multiple times. Our departure from Geneva was smooth and the journey from Saas Fee to Geneva along the Rhone valley was gorgeous and just as easy as our arrival from Zurich. The ski areas closer to Geneva (Verbier, Villars, Champery, Leukerbad) looked nice from the train, though they are all lower than Saas Fee and snow conditions reportedly can be iffy.
April 02, 2006
Felix from
Switzerland
Felix from
Switzerland
Note: Went after it had snowed 70 cm in one week, so piste conditions were unusually good. It was also the first couple of days in April, so the resort was sunnier than usual.
Despite variable conditions (everything from foot-deep powder on top to sloggy slush at the bottom), my wife and I had a great time. The glacier runs are far better than Zermatt's, yet the village lacks the charm and authenticity of its more popular sister. The only Walliser houses I saw were purely for tourist consumption.
The pistes are limited, and, as other reviewers have pointed out, there is a lot of walking to be done. I was lucky enough to find some fresh powder on Plattjen two days after it snowed; even the crud was fun on my longboard.
Avoid the Alpin Express, which gets horrendously crowded. Head to Felskinn early in the day if you want to get in lots of vertical. The gondola to Spielboden is amazingly empty and is also a better way of getting up the mountain than the awful Metro/Allalin route.
February 13, 2006
adrian aj from
United Kingdom
adrian aj from
United Kingdom
Just back from Saas.
Skiing - okay, but a bit limited below 2500m as lack of snow meant only one run to village open. Do a day at Saas Grund....great slopes and very sunny, whereas Saas Fee is cold and sun goes early.
Village - very beautiful and charming, with all you could want.
Accomodation - stayed at Hotel Allalin which was totally brilliant. Great views, food and staff. Very clean and service was excellent.
Bars, etc - apres is a bit light but the Black Bull and Nesti were good but not like Austtria (jumping). Metro bar was good later. Avoid Poison unless under 22 and grungy.
Overall - nice and beautiful resort with great views. Skiing okay but a bit limited unless lots of snow below 2500m. Do go to Saas Grund. Had a great holiday overall and would rate it as a good destination for couples, over 30's and those wanting an alpine village.
February 10, 2006
Graham from
United Kingdom
Graham from
United Kingdom
I went to Saas Fee in Feb 2004 and the snow was amazing - apparently it was their best season in 5 years! The village is lovely with many nice shops and really nice to wander around. The beginner slopes are quite good but crowded and repetitive after a day or so. A good variety of runs once you go up one of the many gondolas or cable cars though.
There's nothing special about the skiing in Saas Fee but if you go when it's not too busy and good snow , and you're happy to take it easy and not challenge yourself too much then it's a good resort. WATCH OUT FOR CRAZY LITTLE KIDS GOING TOO FAST!!
January 03, 2006
Rich G from
United Kingdom
Rich G from
United Kingdom
Not a good resort to go to if you're not a fan of spending more time walking than skiing. Almost every lift has a decent length walk off the top of it to either get to another lift or to start skiing. Runs at the top of the resort off the T-Bars are enjoyable but short. All the T-Bars more or less follow the line of the runs so you spend a lot of time on the lift in return for not a lot of time on the skis. Very limited extent and unless you're more interested in a pretty village and aprés ski than the skiing then you'll be bored within a couple of days. Not a patch on neighbour Zermatt.
November 23, 2005
Tall Paul Barnett from
United Kingdom
Tall Paul Barnett from
United Kingdom
Saas. Oh Saas. Depending on who you are.......it can be fabulous or feeble. Take last season for example! Good early dump of snow then not much, well bugger all for the next few months until Easter... arghhh. This is welcomed by the Spyder suited, knitted headband wearing I only like the wide ROCK hard ICY piste to carve down ze mountain type 50 year olds..! However if like me you enjoy the softer snow and exploration... actually skiing something different, taking your own line (requires imagination) then Saas the "crevasse" littered upper section is poor!
O.K I worked in a glacier resort, my own fault... well perhaps not. I have skied there before when snow actually falls in the lower reaches of the resort allowing a tremendous variety of routes.
To summerise: When snow fall good at altitude...then awesome.
When no snow fall... boring repetitive not very steep motorways.
(which are ROCK ICY HARD.....)
January 08, 2005
Simon Malster from
United Kingdom
Simon Malster from
United Kingdom
Sweden
Nearest