There must be a lot of towns like Anzere in Switzerland and in other parts of the world. Here, we want to share our experience of this little town.

Basic Information

Anzere is a really small town near the city of Sion. It is located in the French speaking part of Switzerland and is a very welcoming place for all tourists. We travelled from Geneva to Anzere and got there in a little over two and a half hours. Unless you have rented a vehicle for your trip to Switzerland; we would suggest taking the train to Sion. From there on, you will have to get a bus which takes a little less than an hour to get to Anzere.

Places to See

Everywhere you turn, you will see mountains but that is not unusual when you are in Switzerland. However, what is exceptional is the fact that from this little town, you get to see the peaks of two of the most famous mountains in the country. Mont Blanc and Matterhorn.

Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in Western Europe and looks majestic and proud. On the other hand Matterhorn is instantly recognizable if you have ever had a Toblerone in your life and stands out as a narrow mountain clearly taller than all the other mountains around it. The vantage point for viewing both these mountains is at Pas De Maimbre. To get there you must take the cable car from the Anzere Telecabin and it will get you to your location in 10 mins. The view as you rise is spectacular in itself. You will see cows grazing on either side and people walking on the different hiking trails.

Things to Do

Read a book, listen to your walkman (remember those) or just go for a hike on any of the multiple trails. Most of the trails can be traversed by anyone and so you don’t need to prepare for a visit to Anzere. On the first day, we took the cable car up and walked all the way down. Took us less than an hour.

Some of the really interesting stuff that we did:

Paragliding

What an incredibly exhilarating experience! The feeling of freedom for those 25 minutes or so is something that you will not experience too much in your life! The gentle breeze on your face and the floating feeling is something that you would prefer, never to end but like all good things, it does come to an end!

Paragliding was one of the main reasons for coming to Anzere. I searched up things to do in Switzerland and this showed up out of the blue and so was added to the itinerary. What a brilliant stroke of luck!

You must try this once in your life! I had done this before in Turkey in 2009 but this was 2024 and I was 15 years older. My wife, experiencing it for the first time, was the first one to go. The take off spot is at Pas De Maimbre and you have to book in advance. The flight itself is for around 20 to 25 minutes. The pilots are experts in their field and not for an instant did we feel scared or worried. They were well versed in English and so half of the flight was spent chit chatting with the pilot. Did you know there are tournaments for para gliding? He had participated in one just a couple of days before!

You have a choice of taking an adventurous ride, where the pilot will yank one of the ropes and you will start spiraling down and be fully horizontal till he brings it back under control. Or you can just spend the duration of the flight floating through the air till gravity takes its course. I chose the latter. I had chosen the former 15 years back!

During the flight, the pilot will hand over the controls to you and you will have the liberty of turning right or left. It just gives you more a feeling of freedom than anything else. I tried to prolong the flight as much as I could but landing is inevitable. Truly an experience well worth the travel!

Morning Yoga

We are, generally, early risers so this was a relatively easy experience to start with. The yoga takes place at the same Pas De Maimbre and you will have to take the cable car up to the location. We live in Dubai where the Air Quality Index averages over 200 on an annual basis. The AQI in Anzere averages 29! It would probably have been even lower at around 7 in the morning so our lungs got the best air possible! The yoga in itself is done at a leisurely pace and so I managed to get through almost all of it. Right towards the end is where I called it quits. Yoga was followed by sumptuous breakfast consisting of fresh fruits, yogurt, honey, granola and juices.

There is an Anzere website that you should go through. You will find a lot of things that you can do. We hiked, paraglided and did yoga. This is in addition to just laying down on the grass in the town centre, reading our books and in the evening listening to a live band!

Where to stay & food options

A very short note on this: we stayed very close to the Anzere Telecabin. We got the booking done from Vrbo and got a simple studio apartment with a small kitchen and all the essential electronics. There was a Coop very near to us and so all our grocery requirements were met very easily.

We probably had food only once outside. There weren’t many appetizing options available and the one that we did try was quite average. Scrambled eggs, pasta and other easy to make items were what we relied on for the 3 days we were there!

When to Go

I guess that would depend on what you want to get out of your trip. Anzere is a location ideal for skiing. It is supposed to have great ski slopes. If that is what you want then it has to be winter. We went in August and just went there for a couple of different experiences, a ton of relaxation and to fall in love with the views every single day!

There is much more to see in Switzerland but we know we would love to visit Anzere again!