A summer’s secret
Switzerland, Saas-Fee
Standing on a glacier in July feels like cheating the seasons. One moment, snow crunches beneath your boots, the next you find yourself knee-deep in alpine blooms. Thirteen 4,000-metre peaks circle you like a private skyline, sharp and cinematic. The Matterhorn may take the postcards, but Saas-Fee looks up to the Dom – 4,545 metres of pure Swiss pride, the highest mountain within the country and the third-highest in the Alps.
Car-free, glacier-wrapped, crisp as meltwater: this is Switzerland from the inside out, a place that makes you walk, breathe, and keep looking up.
Summer of ice and green
It sounds like a paradox: glaciers and wildflowers in the same frame. If the landscape feels oddly familiar, that’s because Wham! filmed Last Christmas here – a bit of pop history among the peaks. And with 150 kilometres of pistes and Europe’s highest funicular, Saas-Fee is built for skiing long after others have melted into spring.
Just one valley over from Zermatt, it feels like Switzerland’s best-kept secret: less crowded, more serene. Adventure is optional, yet impossible to resist: a hike to hidden lakes, a gondola ride into July snow, or a mountain lunch of cheese, herbs, and warm bread. This is summer at altitude: cool, fresh, alive.
Marmots at arm’s length
Start your day with a private guide, winding through hidden trails and uncovering the secrets of alpine plants: how arnica soothes sore muscles and alpine thyme sharpens the senses. Then imagine the softness of marmot fur beneath your fingertips. High up in the meadows, these usually shy mountain dwellers are so accustomed to visitors that they waddle right up, curious noses twitching.
To sit quietly as a marmot lets you stroke its back is a once-in-a-lifetime moment: simple, pure, unforgettable. It’s a reminder that in these mountains, wonder comes not only from the glaciers above, but from the smallest encounters right at your feet.
A peak of your own
Halfway up the trail, lunch is laid out in the grass: bread still warm, cheese sharp and nutty, berries picked that morning and salads laced with wild herbs you’ve just learned to recognise. A celebration of the season, paired with glacier views so pure they taste like part of the meal. Later those same herbs reappear in your own spa ritual, filling the room with mountain sage and mint as heat works its way into your muscles.
The art of simplicity
The art of simplicity
In Saas-Fee, luxury is often found in what’s left out. A cocktail in the hotel lobby with windows wide to the mountains, a soft touch of a marmot. Bread, cheese, glacier air that tastes better than any vintage. It’s calm, unpretentious, familiar. The kind of place that feels like home even if it’s your first visit.
By: Annina Sommer on November 2025
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