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High up on a south facing plateau in the Swiss alps and just 2 hours from Geneva you’ll find the lesser known ski resort of Anzère. With views over the Rhone Valley and the Swiss Alps the scenery is stunning. Even writing about it now feels like I’m giving away one of Switzerland’s best kept secrets. Anzère is very low key with just 11 ski lifts covering 40km of ski terrain, unlike its famous neighbour the World Cup ski resort of Crans Montana, but it’s near enough to visit for a change of piste and a fabulous lunch on the slopes at Merbé. If you pick the right day you could even find yourself sat next to James Bond aka Roger Moore!

The skiing in Anzère is fairly easy and well suited for intermediate skiers and families. What it lacks for the more experienced skier it more than makes up for with the uncrowded slopes and non existent lift lines, and of course the slope side bars. If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own private ski mountain this would be it. It really doesn’t get much better. Where else would you consider 5 people waiting in line for a T-bar a queue and ski onto the next lift?

On the slopes we enjoyed many restaurants, a host of bars and the picnic BBQ areas dotted about. The restaurant at Les Rousses is a particular favourite, surrounded by trees at the end of a 4km run it’s always a welcome sight. The spacious terrace is the perfect place to enjoy a drink of two in the sunshine, chill out and take in the peace and tranquillity around you. Once you’ve worked up an appetite you can take your pick from a selection of steaks, pork escalopes & sausages and cook them to your liking on the log BBQ.

The choice of restaurants for a small resort is truly fantastic. You can’t go past the Telecabine because of their Rösti and Tranche de Porc – a beautifully seasoned escalope of pork with the local speciality potato rösti. The Poste Hotel for their Entrecote sur Ardoise – the most mouth watering steak served on a hot slate. And finally for a great selection of sweet or savoury crepes you have to stop by the Creperie.

Aprés ski starts at the base of the home run at the Igloo or the Telecabine and carries on with a happy hour at Peter Pan Bar a fun karaoke bar. For the night owls you can carry on clubbing into the early hours at one of 3 nightclubs: The Masque, King Kong or Le Dilli.

During the winter months we found there are other activities available, such as cross country skiing, tobogganing with a 3km track through the trees, walking trails and paragliding. The paragliding school offer a twin seat paraglide flight with an instructor which we found was ideal for beginners or fun seekers to try it out. It’s not unusual to see a dozen or so colourful paragliders twisting, turning and gliding in the sky above Anzère. A wonderful sight!

With the great public transportation links by bus and train it’s an ideal base to sample many of the other hidden gem ski resorts in the Valais region that you won’t find in the tour operators brochures such as Nax, Chandolin and Veysonnaz. Other parts of Switzerland are easily reached, Montreaux home to the annual Jazz Festival on the banks of Lake Geneva is an hour and a half away, or further a field Milan in Italy can be easily reached by train from Sion in just under 3 hours.

Remember though this place is a well kept secret and I didn’t tell you about it!!