Review of Adelboden, Switzerland

Resort Overview for Adelboden:

Located in the Engstligen Valley, Adelboden is a traditional mountain village in the Bernese Oberland - one of Switzerland's main tourist areas. Not so many years ago skiers made up the vast majority of winter holidaymakers visiting the Bernese Oberland but recent surveys have shown that increasing numbers of visitors are now discovering the well prepared hiking paths this region has to offer.

Popular with the European nobility and artists of the 19th century, the first English winter visitors arrived in 1901 attracted by the spectacular scenery with its towering peaks, mountain lakes, alpine streams and wild flowers. Situated beneath the Wildstrubel which rises to 10,600ft, Adelboden is located at 1353m above sea level, its southerly aspect ensuring that during the winter months it gets around 9 hours of sunshine per day.
The slopes are, however, predominantly north-facing thus ensuring good snow cover throughout the season.

This is a modern ski area, lift-linked with neighbouring Lenk by a network of over 185km (117 miles) of pistes. Six miles apart as the crow flies, the two villages are separated by a variety of skiing terrain creating one of the largest and most attractive wintersport regions in Switzerland. The two resorts are essentially quite different, Adelboden is the larger with a more extensive infrastructure. Both centres have gained the prestigious Swiss "family friendly" seal of approval and as such offer facilities and assistance specifically for families.

Adelboden has become one of the classic venues for the annual FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup series. Usually timed to take place just before or just after the Lauberhorn race at Wengen its one of the few races still held on the original course down the treacherous Chuenisbergli. This slope requires great technical skills and only big names have made it to the winners list. Italy's Alberto Tomba took almost ten years to master the course before celebrating his first success there while Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark had five wins between 1979 and 1984. During those years the race venue was moved to a higher part of the mountain at Tschentenalp in case of lack of snow.

The World Cup race has turned into a mountain party for the 25,000+ spectators with lots of activities and receptions around the finish area and Adelboden's delightful alpine atmosphere making this a very appealling venue for visitors and ski teams.

The Skiing in Adelboden:

The ski area of Adelboden is split in five sectors connected up by a first class lift system making this one of the largest and most attractive ski areas in Switzerland. You'll find over 185km (117 miles) of slopes served by nearly 60 lifts. Beginning at an altitude of 1053m and ranging to 2375m. Slopes are predominantly north-facing thus ensuring good snow cover throughout the season.

The main network of lifts is accessed from the resort via a gondola from Oey which transports skiers to Sillerenbühl 1974m, and the centre of the Adelboden-Lenk ski area. From here you can access a variety of terrain including the treacherous World Cup piste at Chuenisbergli, an extremely challenging black run which is the now classic Adelboden venue for the FIS World Cup series. Only big names like Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark and Austria's Hermann Maier have made it onto the medals podium here.

Après Ski in Adelboden:

Lively nightlife with a good choice of nightclubs and bars and an informal, fun atmoshphere. The Berna discotheque is a favourite with younger people while the Alte Taverne is of universal appeal. The nightclub here always seems to be busy - it was converted from six very old wooden houses into a barn-style room with a gallery overlooking the dance floor and enough seating for 200.

Raclettes and fondues are available in nearly all the restaurants and for Italian food, especially good pizzas there's Kreuz and Alfredo. The Alte Taverne has live bands, and the Arle Bar and Time Out Pub have attractive aperitif bars. Some of the restaurants have Swiss music.

Skier & Snowboarder Reviews of Adelboden:

Sarah, UK (21/04/2010):
I went out to Adelboden in March this year with 4 other girls and we had a great time. We were all varying levels of skier. We had one beginner with us who went into an english-speaking ski school - the rest of us stayed together on the slopes. There were pretty much runs to suit all of our abilities and we could usually meet up at the bottom if people wanted to take different runs down.

Nightlife wasn't particularly wild, but that suited us as we weren't after anything too crazy.

Would definitely return here.

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