Experience the best of Crans-Montana

Crans-Montana is a pair of linked resort villages on a south-facing plateau at about 1,500 metres above the Rhône valley in the Swiss canton of Valais, north of Sierre. The terrace faces a wall of peaks that stretches from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn, and the Valais is among the sunniest parts of Switzerland. Small lakes such as Lac Grenon and Étang Long sit among the pines.

In winter, the ski area climbs to the Plaine Morte glacier at about 3,000 metres, where snow lasts into spring. Summer brings golf, with a major European professional tournament held on the Severiano Ballesteros course, and walking trails follow old irrigation channels, the bisses, along the mountainside. Sierre, in the valley, and Sion, the cantonal capital with two hilltop castles, are nearby, and the thermal spa of Leukerbad is about an hour's drive.

Valais cooking includes raclette, melted cheese scraped onto potatoes and gherkins, fondue, air-dried beef and rye bread, with apricots and wines from the vineyards in the valley below, such as Fendant, Petite Arvine and Cornalin. Skiing runs from December to April, hiking and golf from June to October, and autumn brings golden larches on the hillsides.