Engelberg

Engelberg is a winter sport resort which delivers on all its promises – guaranteed snow cover, thrilling off-piste skiing, superb snowboard parks and vibrant après ski. It got voted the second most snow secure resort in the Alps– and it’s close to Zürich Airport.

Most Swiss ski resorts are located along the border of France, Italy, or Austria. Engelberg, a village of about 3,500 people hides in a valley right in the middle of Switzerland. While the village is postcard perfect, the mountains don’t look like much of the Alps. Imagine the Grand Canyon, with layers of horizontal rocky ledges and crenellated peaks like Hahnen that look like castle ruins. Frost it with snow. Drop in a few plateaux for the skaters and cross-country skiers, and add a glacier and a lake or two.

Engelberg also has the first revolving gondola—the 1993 Rotair—that takes skiers all the way to the top of Titlis, a 3,020-meter (10,000 feet) peak that faces north to hold its snow. The peak even offers a bar that may be needed before the dive down the black or better challenge of the infamous 1,000-meter/3,289-foot Laub of untracked snow. If that’s not enough there’s a 120-meter/395-foot ski hill and a glacier with year-round skiing.