Located at the foot of three of the most famous mountains in the world, the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau. Interlaken likes to think of itself as a big village, rather than a town, but fortunately it has town sized facilities. It’s also a year round destination, more busy in the summer, thus unusually for a ski resort prices are lower, especially compared to the nearby mountain resorts, in the winter. The town’s vibe is a little up market but there’s such a mix of people here – all ages, all countries – that it isn’t exclusively so and the good prices (by Swiss standards) makes you feel you’re getting high value to your Franc. Interlaken is an equally good base for a laid pack part-time ski holiday or a full-on off-piste mountain adventure. If you have time check out the new theme park – Mystery Park (www.mysterypark.ch) which opened here this Spring.

Interlaken does not have any skiing of its own, except for two small local hills, the better of which is Wilderswil. Most take the free Interlaken skibus (30 minutes each way to the slopes) or the slower historic train (nearer and hour each way) up to Grindelwald, Wengen or Murren, the former two are partly lift linked together. There are many good runs in the Jungfrau region and you can choose, 213km of marked trails in all served by 45 lifts. The average length of runs in the area is a remarkable six - 12km (four - nine miles). Longer still is the route of the Inferno race, each January, down from Murren, part of which at least you should be able to ski most of the season. The Inferno is the longest downhill race in the world ttracting over a thousand competitors. The run descends from the Schilthorn (3066 metres / 10,059 feet) to Lauterbrunnen in the valley above Interlaken, at 796 metres / 2,611 feet, an incredible 2,270 metre / 7,448 feet vertical descent. The record time for the full descent is 16 minutes although some skiers take over an hour, as they did in the 1920s. Above Grindelwald one of the best runs is the 8km (5 mile) descent from Oberjoch back to the resort. There are fewer runs for experts but the 'near vertical' Kanonenrohr is particularly intimidating.