Châtel and the Portes du Soleil: Where to Ski and Eat on the French and Swiss Ski Slopes

Hi friends!  I wanted to highlight one of my favorite ski areas, les Portes du Soleil and the French alpine village of Châtel.  We’ve been three out of the last four years and have gotten to know it well!  This last trip was such a magical time with days full of skiing and phenomenal mountainside restau,rants and evenings spent cooking in our apartment then snuggling up on the couch watching French tv over a bottle of wine. 🙂  If you know me well, that pretty much sums up my dream life, haha!!  The Chatel and the Portes du Soleil is […]

The Perfect Zermatt Ski Holiday, Without Breaking the Bank

Skiing the gorgeous Matterhorn is a dream for any skier, but it’s no surprise Switzerland is rather pricey compared to the rest of Europe.  I’m here to show how to have an inspiring bucket-list worthy ski holiday to Zermatt while keeping some cash in your pocket! Tip #1: Book an Apartment with a Kitchen My number one tip how to keep costs down while still having the perfect relaxing holiday is to book an apartment with a kitchen.  Do this and you’ll be all smiles like me up there 🙂 . You can also save more cash if you book […]

Cheesy Pit Stop in Gruyères, Switzerland

Don’t you love it when you are pleasantly surprised by something? That’s how I felt when we were driving along our route to ski in Chamonix, France and spotted signs on the highway for a town called Gruyères, Switzerland.  Could it be, a town named after the famed cheese?  The cheese that’s used in gooey fondues, baked on top of delicious French onion soups, and used in the best ham and cheese crepes?  One of my all time favorites? Why yes, that’s exactly what it is. It’s not every day you have this kind of opportunity.  We decided to take advantage of […]

Skiing the Portes du Soleil

|Location: Chatel, France| Skiing the Portes du Soleil is one of my favorite winter vacations living in Stuttgart.  The ski area is quite large with a lot of connecting villages.  You can even ski from France into Switzerland and back within the day which I think is pretty awesome.  The Savoy region is an easy five hour drive from Stuttgart (well… that’s assuming you don’t put the wrong hotel into Google maps and drive an extra 2 hours through snowy Alpine switchbacks fearing your death… then drive two hours backtracking through the snowy switchbacks.  Long story you’ll have to ask […]

Skiing in Verbier, Switzerland

We headed to the Swiss Alps for a long weekend of skiing, friends, après-ski, birthday celebrations, and tons of gorgeous alpine views.  It was packed full of pure winter bliss! Verbier is an alpine ski town that sits at 1500m in the south-west of Switzerland.  The area is close to France and the Chamonix / Mont Blanc region and French is spoken.  It is one village of les 4 Vallées, or the four valleys, with two main lifts taking you to the slopes from town, but connects to other mountains of the four valleys. We spent our time on the […]