Val de Bagnes

From Martigny, the St-Bernard Express reaches Le Châble in about twenty minutes on the branch that splits at Sembrancher. The Le Châble gondola then rises straight to Verbier, avoiding the hairpin road. In summer, a postal bus continues to the Mauvoisin dam at the head of the valley. By car, leave the A9 at Martigny and climb via Sembrancher.

Good to know: the Verbier road is long and winding, and resort parking is expensive. Train plus gondola often costs less than a day in a car park.

The open-air pool in Verbier is where families gather as soon as the weather turns, with shade and grass around the water. The centre of the resort is flat for a few hundred metres and works with a pushchair, but the surrounding streets climb sharply. Down in Le Châble, the station area and the village itself are easy to walk with small children.

Verbier opens onto the 4 Vallées, one of the largest ski areas in Switzerland. The La Chaux sector above the resort holds the gentlest slopes and serves as the main learning ground. Non-skiers can ride the gondola back down without difficulty, and Le Châble stays reachable by train even when the road is under snow and the queue of cars is not moving. Down in the village, the Bagnes museum and a plate of raclette make a decent end to a cold afternoon, and the Verbier pool reopens in spring.