Leysin

Leysin is located in the French speaking part of Switzerland and has become one of the best and most happening snowboard haunts in the country. Unlike many more popular ski resorts, this place isn’t really known for its skiing which has allowed it to be adopted by snowboarders. This has helped to ensure that the place has a low key friendly appeal about it with- out any bull or hype. Leysin connects with the two alpine villages of Villars and Les Diablerets to create a very acceptable 60 km of piste.

This resort has gone out of its way to be snowboard friendly for years , back in 92 it played host an ISF tour event, and these days the TTR Nescafe Camps Open is held here ( www.nescafechamps.ch) where the world’s top riders fight it out in the pipe & park.

Leysin is in fact an old and rather large sprawling mountain town and not a modern purpose built resort like some found nearby. What you get here is a high up mountain that in a good winter, offers everything to keep adventure seeking advanced riders happy, while also appealing to first timers who don’t want to use a drag lift straight away. A notable point about Leysin is that it’s not a popular resort with holiday companies, which is a good thing as the slopes don’t get clogged up although weekends can still be a bit busy with locals and punters from Geneva. However, once you do get up on the slopes, you can roam freely over acres of great terrain without seeing another soul for hours