#The Jungfrau region of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland is home to some of the Alps’ finest skiing and most historic runs. Other destinations offer fashion parades of vintage furs, nightclub ceilings dripping with Dom Perignon, and truffled pizzas at £100 a pie. That’s not what you’ll find here. This is the anti-Zermatt, where après ski is a cup of tea, a spa session and relaxing with a nice book.
The Jungfrau towns of Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and Wengen are blissfully free of Cucinelli-clad poseurs and rowdy hoorays. The evenings are quiet, and the hospitality is authentic. Here, the mountains are taken seriously.
Perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise, given we’re in the shadow of the north face of the Eiger. The triumvirate of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks is one of the most spectacular panoramas certainly in the Swiss Alps but also on Earth, and the mention of the Eiger’s sheer north face sends a chill down every mountaineer’s spine. Explorer and all-round tough guy Heinrich Harrer documented it in harrowing detail in his book The White Spider (my chosen read for the trip), having made the first successful ascent in 1938. He described it as “the last problem of the Alps.”
It has claimed the lives of more than 70 climbers. Since even before Harrer tackled the rockface, the slopes below were home to pioneering ski racers. Sir Henry Lunn brought the first gung-ho holidaymakers here from Blighty over a century ago, and founded the famous Downhill Only Ski Club in Wengen in 1925. In 1930, the inaugural Lauberhorn ski races were won overall by a British sportsman, Bill Bracken. The latest edition of this World Cup event was being hosted in Wengen the weekend before I arrived, and the grandstands on the Kleine Scheidegg pass were still being dismantled. Current downhill no.1 Marco Odermatt, who hails from the area, could be seen in every shop window in cardboard cut-out form.
Swiss Alps in their finery: the Grand Hotel Belvedere
Yet despite the earnestness with which they take Alpine sports here, it’s also an excellent place for families. The slopes are as quiet as the nightlife, and Wengen, where I stayed, is car-free. There are some challenging, icy blacks, but most of the runs are picturesque blues and easy reds. My guides from the Swiss Ski School were charming and patient (there’s also an all-British ski school, Altitude), and there’s much more to do than just ski.
I spent a morning at Grindelwald-First, an adventure park 2,166m in the sky, where I inched nervously along a glass-bottomed gangplank over a giant ravine, and then rode down a zipline. I also attached myself to the avian undercarriage of a huge eagle-looking thing called the First Glider, where four at a time can soar along an 800m cable backwards and forwards above skiers’ heads, reaching a speed of 52mph. This is especially popular with the million-plus Chinese tourists who visit the Jungfrau each year, few of whom actually ski.
The area offers cheap accommodation for those who only demand a hot radiator to dry their thick socks, and lots of old-fashioned auberges with heavy brass keys and starched tablecloths. But fear not, City AM reader, for there are now very stylish luxury lodgings too. The Grand Hotel Belvedere in Wengen was my Swiss Alps base and is a destination in itself. Imagine a little slice of Paris’s Marais district, but snow-capped and flanked by fir trees.
The chic French touches are explained by the hotel’s parentage. Beaumier, which also owns L’Alpaga in Megève, Le Fitz Roy in Val Thorens and Capelongue in Bonnieux, Provence, targets a hip, young clientele of continental tastemakers, and they’ve pulled a blinder with the Belvedere. It’s the French firm’s first Swiss property; a century-old Art Nouveau gem that’s been completely reimagined, but has retained all its Wes Anderson warmth. In fact, I’m told that upon joining the staff are each instructed to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The colour palette is moss green and creamy white with lots of light unvarnished wood. From the menus to the tote bags and the hotel-branded beer cans in the minibar, the Belvedere’s typography is absolutely on-point: It’s nirvana for graphic designers. The 90 rooms and suites are chic yet rustic, with bathrooms in serpentine green marble and with pine windows that look into the room like that of a workshop’s office. The scent of larch abounds. My balcony looks down at the dual-level spa pools and across the Lauterbrunnen valley.
The spa is a brutalist underground affair, with a sauna, steam room, glacial plunge, and angular hot pools that stretch from indoors to outdoors via Bondian tunnels and automatic glass shutters. Inspiration may have been taken from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, for Blofeld’s Piz Gloria lair was filmed on the Schilthorn four miles away.
The Grand Hotel Belvedere has been given such a new lease of life, it’s easy to forget it’s stood here since 1904. There is a literary connection. JRR Tolkien stayed at the Grand Hotel Belvedere after the war, and it’s said this valley inspired his fantastical Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings.
The hotel’s restaurant is presided over by English chef and tattoo enthusiast Will Gordon. He’s very into his plant-based cooking, and has an obsession with healthy eating which stems from caring for his mum during her cancer treatment.
While I insist on overdosing on local cheese and red meat when I’m in the mountains, I have to say I was blown away by the flavours of his vegetarian dishes, although you may wish to eat here and then wander into town to top it up with a fondue so you’re full. Incidentally, the hotel is very proud of Gordon’s ‘vegan’ fondue, which I’m afraid I drew the line at. I’ve had cheese made from cashew nuts and chickpeas before, and I’d much rather have the real thing, thanks.
However, despite the chef’s veganism, carnivores are well catered for, especially with his beef pithivier: like a beef wellington, but with puffier pastry packed with a pink chunk of kobe-tender fillet and generous wild forest mushrooms. Ten out of ten.
And if the chocolate dessert is insufficient and you need to squirrel some away for later, you’ll find the highest Lindt chocolate shop in the world 3,463m atop the Jungfraujoch. The Jungfraujoch is the saddle that connects the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. Since 1912, it’s been accessible by a railway that runs underground through the Eiger and Mönch. The graft and danger that it took during its 16-year build makes Harrer’s climb look like a walk in the park. A total of 30 workers died, and at one point 30 tonnes of dynamite accidentally exploded.
The result of those efforts is the highest railway station in Europe and the Sphinx observatory. As well as scientific history, the observatory, which was established in 1937, offers phenomenal views across the glacier. It also appeared in the aforementioned Grand Budapest Hotel.
Between this white-domed viewpoint, the stylishly minimalist Grand Hotel Belvedere, and the cute trains pulling in and out of the Kleine Scheidegg station, as snowboarders bombed around it like it was a model railway, the whole trip felt very accidentally Wes Anderson. Come for the skiing, leave with the beautifully curated Instagram grid.
Visit the Swiss Alps yourself
Rooms at the Grand Hotel Belvedere in the Swiss Alps start from £310. For more information, visit beaumier.com. Adult six-day Jungfrau Ski Region lift passes cost £400. For information, visit
jungfrau.ch
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