Snowboarding in Les Diablerets, Switzerland

The slow electric train journey from Aigle to Les Diablerets is like a ride through a winter wonderland, passing picturesque Swiss chalets with vineyards as backyards and a charming castle on the way.

Quick Tips:

It's advisable to let Phillippe the owner know of your approximate arrival time and co-ordinate with him to either meet at the apartment (short walk out of town) or go to his office which is in the opposite direction (in town).

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transport is excellent to access the resort. From Geneva, take the train to Aigle via and then it's the slow train as explained above. At Les Diablerets train station, we walked and rolled our luggage to Les Diablerets Parc. The journey is probably too short for a taxi to want to take you.

Best Things Nearby:
It would be the Glacier 3,000 if only it was open when we were there - we would've loved the opportunity to snowboard there!! The nearest supermarket is Co-Op (part of a big chain, with better choices perhaps). We also shopped at the supposedly cheaper Denner on the other side of the village.

Best Things About the Resort:
It was quiet, except for our last (Friday) night, when merrymakers were a little noisy – they were possibly walking home, as our apartment faced the main road. It is easy to get to there by public transportation. The sauna is big enough for four people to lie down in, and there's also an exercise bike there.

Resort Experience:
Les Diablerets Parc is a traditional-style chalet with older furnishings and kitchen stuff. The full-sized cooker with four rings and the oven/grill were definite bonuses, as we were expecting a mini kitchen in our third floor apartment, A31. There was no microwave and only one shower room, no bath. The sloping roof in this apartment made the place look a great deal smaller than the first-floor apartment, A14 (entry is on the first floor). It was a warm apartment. We were very glad to have a clothes rack for our snowboarding stuff.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Fair
• Amenities: Fair
• Unit Satisfaction: Fair
• Family Friendliness: Fair
• Service: Fair

We went to the Isenau restaurant once, which has quite a homey feel. The self-service restaurant was adequate though you could go to the a la carte section with a posh menu.

We ate 5 days at the Les Mazots restaurant, which was bigger. The self-service restaurant has daily specials for 17 SFr that change every 2 to 3 days. Otherwise, a pasta dish like spaghetti bolognese is about 14 SFr. There is a posher, separate, à la carte section as well, where you can have things like fondue, table service, etc. They call it a Fromagerie. Downstairs there appears to be another bar though we didn't go there.

Sadly because the Glacier was closed and there were so many drag lifts that we couldn't negotiate with our snowboards, we were stuck mainly in the Les Mazots area. Otherwise, we would have been able to report more on other restaurants on the mountain. However, we do remember an occasional cafe for snacks/drinks (occasionally opens mid/late afternoon) it's at the bottom of one of the drag lifts.

On paper, Les Diablerets is a great base to access Glacier 3000 because if you're staying in Villars, it's a long way to get across to the Glacier past Les Diablerets. We experienced limited facilities due to heavy snowfall and were very limited in where we could go because we weren't expert snowboarders skilled in drag lifts. We tried our hardest to get across to Villars, but it was so snowboard unfriendly. Button lift no.26 is horrendous. I tried it three times and kept falling off because it turns three left corners at 90 degrees! I also fell off the essential T bar to get back to Les Diablerets and had to walk uphill 150m. I got as far as Bretaye and gave up trying to get to Villars.

I snowboarded in Les Diablerets the rest of the time. The first day was spent in Isenau doing the one run from the gondola. Thereafter, we spent our time at the other slopes by taking the Les Mazots/Meillerets chair lifts. The Les Mazots chairlift is between trees, a good idea for shelter from high winds. At the base, this chairlift starts at Les Vioz restaurant, which is a 20-minute walk from the apartment. You might as well walk because the ski bus runs every half hour and you have to walk a third of the way to get to the ski bus stop, and then when the ski bus drops you off, you still have to walk a third of the way on a narrower path to get up to the chair lift. The ski bus stop is opposite Pharmacie and Snow Culture and between Cafe du Courrone and Hotel Les Lilas. It was about -13°C most days we were there, an exceptionally cold time!

It is dead easy to travel by public transport in Switzerland. Take the Geneva airport train to Aigle and then the slow electric train to Les Diablerets. The total time it takes is probably about 3 hours. On our return journey from Aigle to Geneva we had lovely views of Lake Geneva and Montreux. At Geneve airport there's a restaurant level where you can go into an old aircraft cockpit for a good look around without dining in any of the restaurants. We had a cheaper and more filling meal at the pizzeria in the adjoining train station rather than in the airport itself. Les Diablerets is a small quiet village so if you're looking for lively apres ski, think again. There are 3 supermarkets in town: Satelitte Denier, Co Op, and PAM. Les Diablerets Parc is on the main road in/out of town centre but it's only a short walk into town where the shops are. We were happy enough to spend our evenings in the apartment. Downstairs there's a TV room at the entrance level. There's also a table tennis room in the basement.