Less Crowded Alpine Destinations
Mountain towns where you don't queue for a chairlift
Why the crowds bunch up
The Alps don't have a crowd problem in general. They have a crowd problem in eight or nine specific places: the Matterhorn cable car, the Tre Cime di Lavaredo loop in midsummer, the Eiger viewpoints, the Mont Blanc tunnel queues. Step ten kilometres in any direction and the place empties out. That's where these recommendations live.
Kandersteg over Zermatt
Kandersteg is a Bernese Oberland village an hour from Bern by train. Its lake, Oeschinensee, is the bluest in the Alps and reached by a short gondola plus a walk. The crowds that pile into Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald don't make it this far west, even though the scale of the scenery is the same.
Stay in town for two or three nights and use the Gemmi pass to access the upper hut walking, including the Daubensee plateau.
Val di Funes over Tre Cime
The Dolomites have a saturation problem in three or four specific places. Val di Funes is not one of them. The valley sits beneath the jagged Geisler group and has the church of Santa Maddalena that everyone has seen in photographs without realising where it is. The Adolf Munkel Weg traverses the base of the peaks at meadow height and stays calm even in August.
Stay in a Roter Hahn farm guesthouse for the South Tyrolean experience: speck, schlutzkrapfen, and breakfast on a wooden balcony with cowbells in the background.
The Beaufortain over Chamonix
The Beaufortain is the valley immediately east of the Mont Blanc massif. It has cheese, gentle peaks, the Roselend reservoir, and almost no international tourism. Hauteluce is the prettiest base. You see Mont Blanc from across the valley rather than from underneath, which is arguably the better view.
Vinschgau over the Lake Como crowds
If you want the Italian Alpine experience without the Como traffic, Vinschgau in upper South Tyrol delivers. Orchards in the valley, glaciers above, the medieval town of Glurns with its intact walls, and the Stelvio pass as a day's drive. The trains run on the Vinschgerbahn, a small narrow-gauge line, which itself is part of the appeal.
Suggested itinerary
- Days 1 to 3: Kandersteg as a hiking base. Oeschinensee, the Gemmi pass, a day in Lauterbrunnen on a quiet weekday.
- Days 4 to 6: Val di Funes in South Tyrol. Stay in a small farm guesthouse, hike the Adolf Munkel Weg.
Local highlights
- Oeschinensee from Kandersteg
- Val di Funes with the Geisler peaks behind
- Beaufortain villages around Hauteluce
- Vinschgau orchards above Merano
- Lac Léman's quieter south shore in Haute-Savoie
Nearby destinations
Other places worth combining with this trip: Lauterbrunnen valley, Alpe di Siusi, Beaufort, Glurns.
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