Travel Date: Aug 2020
After our 3 days in Zermatt, we did the 45 minute drive from the Täsch Parkhaus to the parking station at Saas-Fee. Just like Zermatt, Saas-Fee is also car-free except that the parking lot is right at the entrance of town, rather than a train ride away.
Swiss Tourism and other Logistics
One constant source of delight is how seriously Switzerland takes tourism. At the parking lot in Saas-Fee are columns with free phones. Pasted on the columns just below these phones are laminated sheets of paper listing the phone number of every hotel property in Saas-Fee.
Once we reached Saas-Fee and parked, all we needed to do was walk over to one of the phones, look up the name of the hotel and call the number. Within a few minutes, an electric vehicle had arrived to pick us up and take us and our luggage to our hotel.
Another rather welcome element is the concept of a family hotel - basically, a hotel that caters to families with young children, with a kids club with play facilities and rooms, breakfast and meals designed to make holidays just a little more relaxing for the parents.
We stayed at the Swiss Family Hotel Alphubel that had a special '4-nights-for-the-price-of-3' deal inclusive of breakfast and dinner. The hotel also had a wonderful view of the 4206m Alphubel mountain in the Swiss Pennine Alps.
Also included in the price of the hotel was the Saastal Card, which gives the benefit of free public transportation and the use of a few of the mountain railways and all of the cable cars in the Saastal valley.
Returning from our explore-the-town expedition, discovered that the inclusive-meals at Hotel Alphubel was very well done indeed. Separate tables, to be used for the entire duration of the stay had been set out for each visiting family. Chairs for kids had been affixed with a special booster seat. We'd also been given a special vegetarian set menu.
Hike to Saas-Almagell
The morning of Day 2 in Saas-Fee was grey and rainy again but the kids were starting to get excited about the new holiday location. So, we bundled them up in new clothes (as an extra incentive) and set off on a 3.6km trek downhill to Saas-Almagell.
The trail starts off from the aptly named Panoramastrasse in Saas-Fee, crossing over a bridge with views on the left and right.
Though there were a few panorama points en-route, the trail mostly wound around the side of the mountain in the shade of trees on both sides and blocked out a mostly-non-existent sun. There were points where it did get cold but the kids bravely soldiered on, on the strength provided after gummi-breaks.
As we finally reached Saas-Almagell, almost as a reward, the sun came out and it wasn't long before the demands for ice-cream began.
We did have time for some running around in a play-area and even time to induct the little guy in some mini-golf with a view.
At Saas-Almagell we did lunch at Restaurant-Pizzeria Channa. They do a mean beetroot wasabi soup and have a variety of flammkuchen (also called tarte flambée). We took the bus back from Saas-Almagell to Saas-Grund and then from Saas-Grund to Saas-Fee.
It had been a good day and dinner of soup and a beetroot salad topped it off.
After a day and a half of grey clouds and rain, the weather had finally changed and we were to see sun for the rest of the holiday.
The cable car to Längfluh and Spielboden
A short walk from our Saas-Fee hotel was the gondola going up from Saas-Fee to Spielboden and from there to Längfluh. Längfluh, at 2868m, is a part of the Swiss Pennines and at least to our eyes has a much bleaker, harsher view of the mountains than from other panorama spots in the Swiss alps.
A short traipse through the snow at Längfluh, especially if one looks out for the signs, also gives a view of some glacier lakes. There are a total of 3 such lakes at Längfluh but at least when we went, there didn't seem to be trekking paths clearly marked and I spent a lot of my time navigating and choosing stepping-stone rocks for footholds.
At Längfluh is the Längfluh Hutte, an open-air café stop at the top of the mountain. The kids took a break for ice-cream, exhausted from their stone-stacking, and the adults joined them, after a trek for some photo-taking.
Halfway down from Längfluh is the stop of Spielboden, where we stopped for lunch (at the Bergrestaurant Spielboden, perched right on the slopes) and a bit of a look-see.
After a delightful lunch of Acquerelle Risotto with fried mushrooms and herbs, I took a bit of a wander around with the kids, while the wife got a few minutes of much-needed downtime.
Spielboden is also said to have plenty of Marmots that we can harmlessly feed with food that we are allowed to pick up from the cable car station. Despite a bit of looking around, we didn't really find Marmots, which helped one of the kids evade the tricky question of whether or not he actually was brave enough to feed them.
On the walk back from the Saas-Fee cable car station towards town, we passed a pitch-and-putt golf course on the left.
I decided the aggravation on vacation may have been too much and we decided instead to turn right, into a Kneipp sensory wellness facility. The facility here, between the base cable car station and the Saas-Fee town, has a water stream, a treading pool, a rest area and a barefoot sensory path. After all the trekking exertions of the day, the kids were delighted to have a chance to get their shoes off and get their feet wet.
18 Viertausender Panorama trail at Hohsaas
From Saas-Fee, a PostBus took us to Saas-Grund Bergbahnen - the stop for the cable car ride up to Hohsaas. Hohsaas is famous for a panoramic trail offering a view of 18 4000m (vier-tausender! it does sound cooler) peaks and a mountain glacier.
From the Saas-Grund bergbahnen stop, the cable car goes onto Kreuzboden and then onto Hohsaas. We would recommend setting off for Hohsaas first and leaving Kreuzboden (more on that later) as a post-trail reward and a break for lunch.
From the Hohsaas cable car station at the top, the path leads towards the café. The panorama trail takes off from this path and winds its way gently up hill over rocks, with arrows and some footholds suggesting the best way forward.
We did a part of this with a 6-yr-old and a 3-yr-old and while the trail is essentially along a mountain ridge with somewhat scary views, it is possible to do with kids. The kids did stop before completing the entire trail, mostly because we adults weren't sure that we could trust the kids to steadily walk the trail without breaking out into a boisterous game of cops-and-robbers at 4000m.
The trail is said to provide panoramic views of 18 peaks, all with heights of over 4000m. Each of these views has a checkpoint with a plaque containing information about the peak. The plaque also has a piece of rock in the shape of the peak, allowing us to identify which the peak is.
A section of the trail also branches off at the top, allowing us to wander off into a bit of ice and snow to see some glacial lakes.
Relaxing at Kreuzboden
After the exertions of Hohsaas, a break for lunch at Kreuzboden with its water wellness and kids' play-areas is a perfect tonic.
The restaurant at Kreuzboden was adequate but even on this trip was a comfortable third behind Blatten and Spielboden.
What does make Kreuzboden terrific for the kids is the extensive play area with slides, rope-bridges, water features and even a petting zoo. We effortlessly spent a few hours here and could possibly have stayed longer, just relaxing in the sun and taking in the mountain views.
Finishing up
We left Saas-Fee just as we had found it - quiet, grey, wet, welcoming and stunning.
It is a vastly different beast than Zermatt with fewer restaurants, fewer bars, fewer people and less buzz but with streets inviting a casual stroll with time to breathe and take in the mountain air and opportunities to turn onto streets with nobody around, especially at this time of the year.
We drove our car onto the shaking, shuddering, groaning car transport at Oberwald and drove off at Realp some 15-20 minutes later. The 3-plus-hr-drive back was a pleasure and seemed to take almost no time at all.
I could attribute it to the great roads and the good weather but the fact is that it had been a good break.
The mountains have always been there, ready to revive and rejuvenate and we'll be back.
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