Switzerland resorts

A snowHead

Hello, I am planning to go to switzerland next winter season to work as a ski instructor but I am not sure about which resort to choose. I am looking for a resort that it is more french speaking if anyone has any recomendations would be much appreciate it. I would like to know about the mountain and prices a bit, cause I know everything in switzerland is crazy expensive but I do not really know what to expect. Thank you very much to everybody

A snowHead

@lilly_ski,
May seem a glib reply but:-
Any resort where you can get a job as a ski instructor.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The two Alpine Cantons that are French-speaking are the Vaud and the Valais. If you go to a site like MySwitzerland.com they have pages such as the winter destinations which you can look through. The largest ski area in the Valais is the 4 Vallées (400Kms pistes) with Verbier as the hub and the satellites of La Tzoumaz, Nendaz and Veysonnaz. There are over 20 others including Crans-Montana and the Val d'Annivers (Grimentz, St.Luc and Zinal). I don't know the Vaud so well, but this includes Champéry on the western side - a gateway to the Portes du Soleil, and on the eastern side Villars, les Diablerets and Glacier 2000.

If you do an advanced search on the forum, you'll find a variety of threads discussing employment in Switzerland.

Going to Verbier to ski and saying that Switzerland is expensive is a bit like going to Nice mid-summer, and saying that France is expensive. It's a bit of a generalisation and obscures what is a more nuanced situation.

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It might seem obvious, but French speaking parts of Switzerland are close to France.

German speaking parts of Switzerland are close to Germany.

All of Switzerland speaks English.

The Italian speaking part of Switzerland is in Italy. Laughing

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@lilly_ski, what qualifications and working rights do you have?

4 valleys or perhaps one of the portes du soleil (swiss side) resorts might work.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

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I'll take a punt she has the right to work...English not first language?

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I think if you are talking about Swiss ski resorts, which are heavily tourist orientated, most people facing services will speak English regardless of location in Switzerland.

However, German is the predominant langange in Switzerland with French coming second. Most of the best ski resorts are in the French speaking park (in my opinion).

Italian is a long way the third language, and Romansh the fourth official language (although almost as many people in Switzerland speak English as their main language as Italian, it is not officially a language).

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@Bigtipper, most in-resort client facing perhaps but not, IME, e.g. doctor's secretaries, insurance administrators, really any non-tourist but essential admin.

Spectrum from e.g. Chamonix where you pretty much speak English everywhere to e.g. Disentis where it's handy to know a bit of Swiss German.

All I'm really saying is that you can't assume Happy

You know it makes sense.

@telford_mike, or Disentis/Sedrun/Andermatt, if we want another example?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@telford_mike, So the OP should try Verbier.

I have visited and skied Zermatt, St Moritz, Flims, Verbier but not skied Davos (although I have visited the resort and had breakfast in McDonalds). Most people spoke English in Zermatt, very high proportion of Americans there. I do not speak much German.

Only tuition was a course in primary school at the local university. I won a single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, "hit me with your rhythm stick". Not sure what that had to do with German. Only thing I remember from that time was the German for apple pie. (Apfelkuchen)

Pop charts were a bit lost on me back in those days. I really only started to get interested when I made recordings of the top 40 on radio 1 every Sunday. Never bought singles much.

A snowHead

@Bigtipper, While it's clear that a tourist can get away with only speaking English in most tourist destinations, it's actually a world away from "everyone in Switzerland speaks English".

And yes, there are lots of Americans in Zermatt. So what? There are generally far more Swiss than any other single nationality, and that's true at all the resorts mentioned so far. (And yes, I've skied at them all).

To live and work as a ski instructor in Switzerland, with perhaps only a very few exceptions with British-run ski schools, speaking the local language to a reasonable level, and being seen to try to do so and to try to improve, is far more important than in France, although even there a lack of French after any period of time will be seen in a very poor light by, for example, the lift operators and secourists.

A snowHead

@Chaletbeauroc, yeah but if you shout loudly at them and repeat yourself in english they understand, right?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Chäschüechli always a stormer in the swiss german end

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I recall eating sacher torte in a cafe in Vienna a long time ago. I was advised it was a must eat. It was not the apricot jam which made it different to chocolate cake, it was the way the sponge melted in your mouth and filled it with chocolate flavours.

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I wonder if our OP, @lilly_ski would like to comment on the feedback so far, or provide some more detail about what help they're looking for? If you've got a slightly negative response re the employment issues, it's only because in general, it's become increasingly difficult for UK citizens to work in Europe. But you may have special circumstances that make it more feasible for you. It'd be interesting to know: for example, you expressed a preference for the French-speaking Cantons - is that because you speak fluent French? Because if you did, that would change the situation significantly. Are you a good skier with an interest in earning a qualification or do you just want to get a lot of skiing before you startfull-time employment in a profession? Is any work you get just to earn supplementary money, or does the exercise have to be completely self-financing? And so on.

I appreciate the sensible strategy of not providing too much personal information in an online forum, but you will get more useful advice if you can be a bit more specific, and still retain anonymity.

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For me though, I think a combination of a sachertorte and a peanut butter layer cake would be heaven. Could be this....

https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/nigella-lawsons-chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/

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@lilly_ski, The 90 day rule is the period you may work without needing to have a residence permit. It's intended to be used by non-residents who do the odd bit of work in CH now and again, or new arrivals who are looking for work but haven't found a permanent position yet.

As an EU citizen with a job you are entitled to a permit, so there is no actual restriction.

As for qualifications, there are no actual rules (see my previous answer) but of course the Ski School will want to know all about your experience before they'd offer you a job.

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On "below deck" (on E4) the chef made a chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake for one of the clients. That looked quite tasty!

You know it makes sense.

Quite a lot on nonsense being talked about here, with regards to teaching in Switzerland.

It is very hard to do independently, as you would need the Swiss Patent. There are agreements in place between Switzerland and UK that could potentially allow you to establish a business there, but the hoops are significant.

To work within a ski school there is no standard of qualification required, only that the responsible holder of the Swiss Patent considers you competent as you teach under their umbrella. Contrary to popular opinion, many ski schools are able to (and do) secure short-term working visas for staff from outside of Switzerland. I know a few Brits that have done this successfully. BUT - only teaching low levels/kids and in only getting consistent work in high season. So it is possible, but not really practicable as a full-time job.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hi Lilly
If you are looking for more info on Ski Resorts in Switzerland
feel free to check out our list
https://www.brealpa.com/travel-highlights/top-ski-resorts-in-switzerland

Thanks

A snowHead

Last season there were virtually no short-term visas issued to Brits in Valais. It may be different elsewhere but everyone I heard of who was teaching either had a permit in place before Brexit or had a foreign passport of some kind.

The usual qualification to start teaching is BASI L2 or equivalent e.g. CSIA, NZSIA and so on.

Verbier is a great resort and the off-piste is enormous. Get work wherever you can obviously but avoid Altitude ski school unless you are desperate - they have a terrible reputation, the owner is unpleasant and spent corona ripping off his Gap Year course kids and are a smaller organisation than the others.

A snowHead

Stepson did 2 seasons in Zermatt for Summit ski school off the back of BASI L2 but with a few seasons northern and summer hemisphere under his belt first. I’m sure it was the latter that will have gained him the job. He taught in English throughout, adults and kids. He had a good time, but I think he found some of the more wealthy international clientele quite hard to bear. It’s hard to find accommodation and, it goes without saying, it’s an expensive place to live.

Help!!

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