Switzerland Adventurer Bear Grylls has just accepted a chalet there. James Blunt already has one. Richard Branson is both a home and an elegant hotel.
It’s where royalty and celebrities hit the slopes during the day and party at night. In other words, Verbier is a place for the rich: luxurious and exclusive.
It may be like that in winter, but a very different Verbier emerges when the snow melts. Of course, the mountains are still just as majestic, the panoramas just as impressive, and the air just as pleasant.
But now hotels can be half the price, and you can ride free on cable cars and ski lifts. The activities are just as numerous, if not more, ranging from adrenaline rushes to relaxation activities, from sporting and outdoor activities to creative and cultural activities.
1. Verbier Festival (Switzerland)
The Verbier Festival is one of the main drivers of the resort’s summer success. When this two-week musical celebration launched in July, most hotels closed their doors for the off-season.
This year, it celebrated its 30th anniversary with internationally renowned stars performing to audiences worldwide.
We met Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the new virtuoso from Nottingham who played at Harry and Megan’s marriage, performing Elgar and Sir Bryn Terfel’s Cello Concerto in Verdi’s Requiem.
Backed by a choir of over 70 people and a full orchestra of young bands from 60 countries, One of the objectives of the Festival is to nurture the talents of tomorrow.
2. fringe-style UNLTD
It’s not just shown in concert halls that draw crowds. There is a bit of marginal UNLTD, which includes burlesque, jazz, conferences, and workshops (mainly in English).
Performances in rare places – at dawn, on a mountain, for example – and street music: a few hundred meters away, we hear a group of teenagers playing bagpipes, drums, and drummers from Sudan. We also enjoyed musical relaxations like sound therapy and yoga Switzerland.
There are sessions for children to learn opera, different instruments, and how to attend a concert. I saw one about Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro that combined education and entertainment. It had to end with the broods writing a recitative or story and singing it.
Verbier Infinite Playground Pass.
Most UNLTD proceedings are free or cost only a modest amount, and although tickets for the most significant shows are similar to London’s West End prices, there is a 30% discount with the Verbier Infinite Playground pass.
Offered to all customers staying at least one night at the destination, the VIP pass allows free travel on all Val de Bagnes bus lines, free travel for pedestrians on certain lifts
(cyclists benefit from half price), and discounts on all types of transportation—other activities and entertainment Switzerland.
We took it by gondola from La Chable station (a few hours by train from Geneva along the lovely lakeside with a change at Martigny) to Verbier and then returned from the village to Les Ruinettes.
For the final stretch, we rode the ski lifts, legs dangling in the air and hearts in our mouths as we traversed drops so dramatic we could scream like we were at a fairground.
Ruinettes (Switzerland)
Ruinettes marks the debut of the permanent 3D sculpture park featuring more than a dozen works by artists who apply six weeks in residence to produce environmentally inspired and place-sensitive pieces.
I particularly liked the one by Kiki Thompson (who launched the project in 2011) called Samsara, Sanskrit for life strength, which frames the view in a sculpture that could be a mother and her child, a tree of life, or A heart. This year’s painter is British-Pakistani Haroon Mirza, whose influence will be installed in August.
A ski lift will take you to the new 360-degree panoramic platform inaugurated last December, where you can get Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn and taste the highest fondue in Europe.
We settled for a leisurely art lesson while following one of the bosses, ancient irrigation systems now restored that brought water from glaciers and alpine springs to farms below, stopping us several times
to try to draw close-ups of Alpine mountain flowers and stunning landscapes. Beyond Switzerland.
These will be pressed into slices, soaked in a salt bath for 24 hours, then brushed daily to create a crust. We tried the pre-made ones, including a delicious local garlic sweet and classic Swiss raclette.
Added are screenings, craft demonstrations, a masked ball in a castle, exhibitions, and unusual events such as the PALP festival in the traditional Alpine village of Bruson, on the mountainside facing Verbier.
This year’s theme is death, with chances to learn about poisonous plants, write your own obituary or service playlist, or lie in a coffin; I rejected the latter out of superstition.
