Travel: Verbier in Summer - swap your skis for golf clubs - Scotland on Sunday Travel
As we stood on the foothills of Verbier’s ski slopes in June mist, the golf club manager handed each of us a box of branded golf balls. A dozen new golf balls! At most clubs, such marketing largesse stops at a sleeve of three. Be afraid, be very afraid.
We drove our buggies up the hairpins, rising 300m from the clubhouse to the first tee on Les Esserts. Now the mist lay below, the snow capped peaks glittering in the sun above. Ahead, a horizontal cleft across the hillside. By craning your neck and standing on tiptoe, you could see a green hewn out of the rock face. A small green with the land in between falling steeply to the right. A single digit golfer might make it look easy. The rest of us maybe not. The ball bonanza began to look essential.
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Hide AdFrom here on, it’s downhill all the way literally and for many of us figuratively. The first hole sets the tone on a course that tackles some of Verbier’s more mellow winter sports slopes; think intermediate skiers enjoying a familiar cruise to lunch. What a difference a few feet of snow makes. The naked mountain is more crag than fairway, each target area heavily cambered and often invisible from the tee. Most are crossed by two or three turbulent mountain streams.
Where to aim among those purple stands of wild lupin? The marmots who look on inquisitively can’t help. Such images make Verbier golf unforgettable in a way that many conventional courses can’t match. In a good way? As it’s not excessively long and the ball goes further at altitude, a straight-hitting mid range handicapper can score well. The wayward might find it less stressful to tear up their cards and enjoy the moment - and of course the views.
In the the clubhouse, captan Nick Staheyeff, of Russian parentage with the demeanour of an English lord, holds daily court among Verbier’s international elite. His dog, Pepper, is not the only one to jump to his command. At lunchtime, his wishes are hastily granted in terms of seating and refreshment. The result is an afternoon with perfect pitch. Informal, generous, delicious - and long. Rare roast beef arrives on large platters. You wouldn’t think that eight hearty golfers would leave any, but they do.
Although any self-respecting golfer should give the course a chance, few would make a special visit. However a resort that hosts royals and rock stars year round guarantees alternative summer pleasures. No crowds, no queues, no pressure on dinner reservations. Lifts carry hikers and mountain bikers to the heights. Bikepark has nine challenges, pitched from beginner to expert, in total 19km of white knuckle downhill. 23 enduro routes take mountain bikers deep into the Val de Bagnes and other outposts of the four valleys ski area.
Action and adrenaline combine if you choose to do the via cordata from Gentianes to the top of Mont Fort. On the more familiar via ferrata, you clip your own twin carabiners to a fixed wire across the mountain; on a cordata, you're roped to your fellow climbers as you negotiate rock faces and glaciers. Not exciting enough? Swoop above the old Flying Kilometre on the zip wire from the new platform at the top of Mont Fort. At 130 kph, going down is lightening fast, almost as breath-taking as going up.
As always, there are e-bikes to open up a lot of this rugged terrain to more measured visitors. Elated by the lunch, optimism ran high as the long line pedalled along a narrow path between a rock face and a stream. So easy to lose a wheel in the mud, so easy to follow the guy in front into the water.
The result? Minor pain and Olympic grumpiness, only partly soothed by a return to our standout base camp. The Hotel de Verbier, next door to the Tourist Office on Place Centrale, was the embryo resort’s first hotel when it opened in 1947. Conceived as a simple family-owned haven, it was re-purposed after the millennium into an Ingram’s chalet hotel, well loved and cosy, but damaged by the traction that implies.
Circa 2018, Scandinavian private owners with the funds to do justice to the best site in town re-developed it from the foundations up. The result is wonderfully relaxing, with tastefully muted shades and elegant contemporary lines.The lively La Nonna Italian restaurant reduces the urge to go out. Spa, gym and sauna compete to fill any gaps.
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Hide AdLeaving may be difficult, but it’s only a short stroll to The Verbier Club, one of the first three outposts of a group whose mother ship is 67 Pall Mall in Mayfair. The brand is wine-driven, with showcases in Bordeaux, Beaune and Melbourne due to open soon. On the upper floor in Verbier, members can become experts in Swiss wines, with a comprehensive list, regular tastings and gastro menus. There is also a gym and a micro brewery.The ground floor bistro is open to all. For us, they prepared an unforgettable dinner, accompanied by Swiss vintages. If the things you like best include burrata, asparagus risotto and crème brûlée - they all come high on my list - this is very win, win.
For decades, Verbier basked on its westerly facing shelf high in the Valais, first a farming hamlet with fromagerie and fighting cows, then a chalet city with tentacles squirming into neighbouring valleys. The cranes moved in after the Millennium when the arrival point for the main route down from the mountain was no longer fit for purpose.
Rather than scrambling over a snow bank onto the street to walk to a local bar, why should skiers be routed into in a concourse lined with expensive hospitality outlets? Or so America’s W Hotel Group thought. And implemented, with a transatlantic mega beast at the base of the main Medran station. Marriott rules include 123 suites and rooms, international, sushi and tapas restaurants, spa, gym and W off piste club. Best of luck, but for me the Hotel de Verbier is difficult to resist.
NEED TO KNOW
Hotel de Verbier (+41 27 564 4000; hotel de verbier.com) 7 nights July, €347 per room/per night (2 sharing).
Verbier Golf (verbiergolfclub.ch): Parcours des Esserts, 18 holes, par 69, 4867m, CHF 80/90; Les Moulins 18-hole pitch & putt, CHF 35
Tourist office verbier.ch
EasyJet.com daily direct flights Edinburgh- Geneva