Nendaz Switzerland • 2 day itinerary for families

Nendaz is a quiet alpine village in southwest Switzerland where we spent a fun summer weekend as a family. Among other amusements, we did some gorgeous hikes with big mountain views, lots of wildflowers and the impossibly bright blue lake picture above. It’s interesting how the French side of Switzerland is surprisingly different in food, culture and mountain character than our German side.

We appreciated that Nendaz caters to families, with theme trails for children, fun playgrounds, and family-friendly amusements. We stayed at the lovely Hotel Nendaz 4 Vallees, conveniently located right next to the cable car and has a fantastic spa where kids are welcome.

Details for everything below, including where we hiked, stayed and ate, trail maps, playground locations, and tips for making a trip with your family more enjoyable.

Note: This trip was in partnership with Switzerland Tourism as part of their “Tested by Families for Families” project. 

1. Where is Nendaz?

Nendaz is a small ski resort village in southwest Switzerland, sitting on a plateau at 1400m overlooking the Valais valley. In winter this area is part of the popular 4 Vallées ski resort, which covers over 400km of terrain. In summer, it has lots of hiking trails, many suitable for families.

I don’t have a drone, so let’s settle on a view of Nendaz from the cable car. Nice setting, eh?

2. Getting to Nendaz

We traveled to Nendaz by public transportation, which was easy and about the same travel time as by car (probably faster given Friday night traffic). We took a direct train from Zürich to Visp (passing through Bern), then another train to Sion, then a PostAuto bus up the mountain to Nendaz. Total travel time about 3h45.

Make sure to pack enough snacks for the long journey. The connections were a little tight, so we couldn’t get any snacks at the stops in between and the cafes on the train had limited options. Mom fail.

The bus dropped us at Haute-Nendaz, Telecabine, directly in front of the cable car. To access the village (and our hotel), there is a short, free funicular across the street from the bus stop. It takes you down to the main part of the village. We didn’t know this at first and walked down the road, which was annoying with our luggage. Now you won’t make the same mistake.

Nendaz is also easily accessible by car, if you don’t mind the long drive. From Sion to Nendaz, you are on a two-land road with lots of tight curves. But the road is normal width, well-traveled, not a country lane. In town, there is a free parking lot in the village or you can park in the underground garage at the hotel for a fee.

3. Family Activities in Nendaz

Here is the summer map for the Haute-Nendaz 4 Vallées area. See a larger version of this map here. We stayed in the village of Nendaz at the bottom center of the map. We used the Tracouet cable car, which starts in this village. We also hiked around Siviez in the center of the map, riding the chair lift to Combatseline. More about that below.

When all the summer lifts are running, you can access a huge area across the four valleys and even ride all the way to the top of Mont-Fort at 3330m, where you can see glaciers. We did this many years ago when visiting Verbier and highly recommend it.

Nendaz has done a lot to welcome families. They have a variety of theme trails for children, which have activity booklets you can get for free at the Nendaz tourism office. Some of the trails are treasure hunts, where children can receive a prize from the tourism office at the end.

4. Hikes our family did in Nendaz

We did three hikes during our stay, one long and two short. We were lucky that the mountain transport had just opened for summer season that very weekend (29.June). If we had come a week earlier, our hiking options would have been more limited. It’s probably best to visit here in July to September so all services are open. See all hikes in the area here.

#1 Bisse du Chever hike to gorgeous lake Cleuson

Our favorite hike was the Bisse du Cherve trail, about 11km, mostly downhill and rather easy walking if you can go the distance. The lake is amazingly gorgeous and the highlight of the trip for sure. The trail we did is about 11.5 km, rather easy walking, with only a couple short tricky up/down sections where hiking sticks would have been helpful. Plan for time to linger at the lake. See our this post about this hike.

#2 Tracouet Panorama Path

We also did the Panorama Path at the top of the Nendaz-Tracouet cable car, shown below.

This is a short 2.5 km theme trail for children, with 9 interactive stations along the way. It was rather short for our older kids, but it was so hot, we were glad to take it easy.

Here’s the trail map. The trail has a bit of climb at the beginning, so small children might need a little encouragement at the start. The trail is not suitable for strollers. More info about this path here.

The trail ends back at the cable car where there is a restaurant and a nice playground, where my kids jumped on the trampoline for at least an hour. Then we relaxed with a view and enjoyed yummy soft-serve ice cream.

While my kids were jumping, my husband and took a little detour to the peak show behind the playground in the pic above. It’s called Dent de Nendaz. It took us an extra 30 mins up, 30 mins down, but so worth it. The views up there were amazing! Next time I want continue from there along the ridge to Plan du Fou, but that cable car is closed this summer for renovations.

#3 Sculpture trail in Nendaz village

I woke up early one morning and did the short Sculpture theme trail around the Nendaz village. It has nine sculptures along the loop, each matching an activity in the free booklet for kids. More details about this hike here.

It was a much nicer walk that I expected just looking at the map. I might call it a stroll more than a hike, about 2.6 km. I found the trail signs a little hard to follow but the town is so small, it’s hard to get lost.

About half of the walk is on the side streets in the village, while the other half is through forests and lush fields with big mountain views.

Morning view across the valley from the sculpture trail.

Hiking Maps

I couldn’t find the main trail map online before the trip, but it’s free and easily available everywhere once you get to Nendaz. Here are the two sections that were important to us. Sorry the pic quality is not amazing, but this is just to get you started. Get the real map once you get there.

At Tracouet, we did trail 9, the panorama path. My husband and I also did the detour to Dent de Nendaz south of that.

We also did trail 7b from Combatseline to Cleuson to Siviez.

Other family friendly activities in Nendaz

This area is popular with mountain bikers and we saw several kids biking down from the top of Tracouet. You can rent bikes and equipment in the village and get biking maps from the tourism office.

The tourism office also organizes sport and cultural activities during the summer as shown on this brochure.

Our stay at Hotel Nendaz 4 Vallees

It was a real treat to stay in this 4 star hotel, quite a bit nicer than the budget apartments we typically rent. Hotel Nendaz 4 Vallees is conveniently located in the center of the village, a very short walk to lots of services, including grocery stores, pharmacy, cafes, restaurants, shops, bus stops and the cable car that leaves from this town. So once you get here, you really don’t need the car.

Our room was very comfortable with a separate loft for the kids, which meant I didn’t have to see their mess and we each had some privacy.

For the kids, we liked that right outside the hotel there was a playground, a big grassy field, football pitch and sand volleyball court. I could see it from my balcony so I didn’t worry about sending them out there on their own while I lounged.

Through next weekend (7.July 2019), they have a huge bouncy castle amusement area right outside the hotel, called Pippiland. It costs CHF 10 for a child day pass and is open 11:00 – 20:00.

Best Spa Ever!

Our favorite part of the hotel was the spa facilities, which were much nicer that we had expected. My kids loved donning their robes and slippers to visit the spa.

There is a warm indoor, outdoor pool with bubble beds, waterfalls, massage jets and beautiful mountains views. At first it seemed funny to be in a warm pool on a hot day, but we quickly acclimated and really enjoyed it, especially before and after dunking ourselves in the icy cold plunge pool.

The spa has several beautiful sauna and steam rooms, one sauna room with windows looking out over the mountains. The ice room, set at -20C with frozen walls, was something we had never seen before. We loved testing how long we could stand the cold while drawing shapes into the ice on the walls.

There is a salty pool, which makes it easy to float. Another pool with swim currents, which my kids turned into a racing pool. You can walk on a sensory path with hot and cold water to massage your feet. We had such a fun time trying everything out.

They have a really fun play area for small children, with a shallow splash pool, mini slide, water channels and buckets, and a soft matted area with toys. This is a great for parents that want to trade off watching the kids and using the spa facilities.

Children are allowed in the spa and pool all day until 19:00, after which it’s relaxation time for adults only until 21:00.

Entrance to the spa (which includes the pool and fitness area) is a separate fee on top of your hotel stay: CHF 45/adults CHF 18/children.

If your kids just want to swim and don’t need the whole spa experience, there is a public pool a short walk from the hotel. It’s open daily mid June through late August, from 13:00 to 18:00, longer in July and August. It’s simple pool without any extra amusements (no slide or diving board). But it has an amazing view of the mountains. More info about the pool here.

What we ate in Nendaz

As with most hotels, the stay includes continental breakfast, which at Hotel Nendaz 4 Vallees was a big step up from most other hotels we’ve stayed at. We particularly liked using the juicer to squeeze fresh orange juice, indulging in french classic like pain au chocolat and crepes, and trying the wide variety of artisan cheese. Eating on the balcony with a view was a great way to start the day.

For dinner, we ate at the hotel restaurant, which is a bit upscale with pretty food. We had a nice evening enjoying our “amuse-buche” from the terrace, while we watched the sunset over the mountains. Many guests ordered fondue, which seemed like an odd choice for summer, but in retrospect, we might have liked that as well.

The restaurant had a kids menu, which my children liked. But this restaurant is more suited to adults that want a quiet leisurely experience. When eating with the kids, you might prefer to eat at a pizzeria or more casual restaurant in the village for faster service and lower prices.

Picnic lunches

We took picnic lunches on our hikes because we like eating on the trail. For one hike, we simply went to the Coop grocery directly across from our hotel and got local cheese, fresh bread, fruit (even a watermelon), and lots of snacks. Then we treated ourselves to cold drinks and ice cream at the restaurant. We had the eat the watermelon quick on the hike because it was too heavy, much better to carry it in our tummies!

For our lake hike, we had to the catch the bus and didn’t have time to stop at the grocery for supplies. In Siviez, we found the small grocery there closed for summer – yikes! But at the top of the chair lift, we stopped at the Combatseline self-service cafe and asked them to make sandwiches. They were so nice and packed us up a hearty picnic lunch (though we had to communicate mainly through sign language and Google translate because my French is terrible) that we enjoyed later next to the lake.

Well, that’s all for our Nendaz stay. Do you think you might visit Nendaz sometime? Where’s your favorite family-friendly destination in Switzerland?

Here are posts by other family bloggers that are part of the “Families test for families” project. I’m sure you’ll find something you like.

• Grächen by Swiss Family Travel (English)
• Wildhaus Toggenburg by Die Angelones (German)
• Aletsch Arena by Mamicheck (German)
• Pontresina by Mama mal 3 (German)
• Engelberg by kidseropuit.nl  (Dutch)
• Engadin by Mamalicious (German)
• Braunwald by Lola Brause(German)
• Flims Laax by Mom of 4(German)
• Savognin by Patato Friendly (Italian)

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