Winter 2026/27 selection · Stay
7 hotels that look like no other
From the grand hotel to the sixties chalet: houses with an idea.
Price does not make character. This selection mixes a five-star on the golf course, a former gondola station and a family-run hotel with its original furniture. What they share: you remember the room, not just the view. Prices, seasons and services were checked on the hotels' own websites in October 2026.
Unranked, from the simplest to the grandest.
Hotel · On the slopes · 2,112 m
A converted gondola station at 2,112 m: real ski-in, ski-out, no traffic.
Chetzeron's 16 rooms and suites are spread over three floors of a former gondola station, each named after a peak: Weisshorn, Monte Rosa, Bella Tola. Concrete, stone and oak, little else; the windows are the decoration.
The room: A Junior Suite (50 m²) for the sunset
Good to know: Winter reopening 19 Dec 2026
Hotel · Crans-Sapins · Since 1961
Original sixties interiors, balconies over the Rhône valley, and Elsy's homemade jam.
Elsy came to Crans from Stalden at 21, and in 1961 she and her husband opened Crans-Sapins, well away from the resort's centre of the day. Architect Jean Suter designed everything, from the wall colours and the carpet to the furniture still in use today.
The room: A Panoramic View double with balcony, from CHF 107 with breakfast
Good to know: Historic Hotel of the Year 2022 (ICOMOS Suisse)
- 03
L'Etrier
Four-star hotel · Crans · Rue du Pas-de-l'Ours
A family four-star with a 200 m² fireside lounge and the Alps across the valley.
Late afternoon: a log fire in the huge hearth, the snow turning blue beyond the picture window. In the hotel's own magazine, Géraldine Bestenheider calls this room "the grand salon": 200 m², a cocktail bar, food at any hour. The signature cocktails are named after Valais four-thousanders, from the Bishorn to the Dent Blanche.
The room: The Superior Double Room: 30 m² facing south, with a balcony for the view
Good to know: Four stars, same family as Le Pas de l'Ours and L'Aïda
- 04
LeCrans
Hotel · Plans-Mayens · 1,650 m
Sixteen rooms, each a different mountain range, in the forest at 1,650 m.
LeCrans stands on the Plans-Mayens pasture, where a small family farm turned Mont-Blanc Hotel once won over the Valais. Today it has 16 keys, each themed on a mountain region: Kilimanjaro with Kasai fabric and tribal headdresses, Sierra Nevada with a red-draped four-poster and black stone bathroom, a two-floor Rocky Mountain lodge for families.
The room: Deluxe Room Kilimanjaro, with terrace views
Good to know: 2 MICHELIN Keys (2026)
Five-star hotel · Crans-Montana
A blond-wood five-star just above the resort centre, and a see-through igloo that seats four.
Morning starts with coffee on the balcony, the light sliding down the Valais peaks, and from some rooms the Matterhorn in view. Inside it is blond wood and oak floors, with king-size beds raised so the mountains stay in sight. Up on the top floor, the Junior Suite tucks in under sloping ceilings and exposed beams.
The room: A Deluxe Room (35 to 40 m²), for the large south-facing balcony and the raised king-size bed
Good to know: Five stars, classified by HotellerieSuisse
Hotel · Montana · Spa Nescens
Bold mountain architecture, a 1,300 m² Nescens spa, and Nikkei dinners facing the Alps.
The MICHELIN inspectors put it well: this building sets out to stand up to the Alps rather than shrink before them. The public spaces are monumental, and the 57 rooms divide between forest-facing doubles and suites with panoramic terraces and freestanding tubs.
The room: The Alpina Suite, facing the Alps from bedroom and terrace
Good to know: 57 rooms and suites
Hotel · Crans · Jack Nicklaus course
Family-owned five-star on the golf course, where almost everything is already included.
Nati and Giancarlo Felli opened Guarda Golf in December 2009 and have kept it personal: 29 rooms in a modern alpine style, with exposed beams, original art, Italian limestone bathrooms and, in most, a deep soaking tub and a terrace facing the mountains.
The room: A three-bedroom Luxury Suite Apartment
Good to know: 2 MICHELIN Keys (2026)
Why not the others? Not every big name in the resort is here: we chose the ones with a story to tell.
