Could autumn in the Alps beat the winter ski season?
With the summer sun fading and the ski season a while off it feels like a funny time to be talking about the Alps. However, don’t discount a shoulder season trip to the mountains, which is just as special as a full blown winter one.
Just a couple of hours’ drive from Zurich, the Swiss town of Andermatt is your quintessential Alpine retreat (mountains, hearty food and little else: ideal). But it is also the gateway to some of the country’s best high altitude mountain passes.
In autumn, expect a light show of incredible bronze, gold and orange from the forests as their leaves turn, and quieter roads to wind down as you take in the scenery.
Honestly, it’s almost better than the powder, and one of the Alp’s best-kept secrets. If you feel like you’re in a real life James Bond car chase, a stone’s through from Andermatt is the Furka Pass; the filming location of the famous Aston Martin DB5 scenes featured in Goldfinger (read City AM’s dispatch in which we went in search of the original Bond filming locations).
Read more: James Bond film Goldfinger at 60: we take an Aston Martin to the Swiss filming locations
ALPS IN AUTUMN: THE LOCATION
Andermatt has just 1,200 permanent residents. Nestled in a valley between the Swiss Alps, the town’s population balloons during summer and winter for hikers and skiers and motorheads tackling those formidable mountain passes.
What Andermatt lacks in size is made up for with beauty and historic value. This isn’t another falsified ski resort that closes in summer but an authentic town where people live and work. October offers a unique opportunity to see the village near-empty, bar the locals, who welcomed us.
THE HISTORY OF ANDERMATT
Delve into Andermatt’s past with a walking tour hosted by one of the town’s residents. Geri, now in his mid-seventies, proudly told us the history. dating from 4,000 BC. Geri will tell you all about the so-called Devil’s Bridge, the beautiful local church, the famous avalanche of 1975 and of course when Goldfinger was shot in the village in the 1960s.
For a more traditional Swiss experience, the Hotel Bergidyll is a traditional wood panelled chalet and one of the oldest hotels in Andermatt. Something that the James Bond nerds among us would appreciate at the Hotel Bergydill; the once-in-lifetime opportunity to stay in the very room Sean Connery slept in while filming those iconic scenes in Academy Award winning Goldfinger.
Opposite, The Chedi is more grand and contemporary, with an outdoor spa.
THE FOOD
Hotel Bergydill’s charming restaurant specialises in plates from the region; pork and beef schnitzels and, in the autumn, plenty of pumpkin and game meat. A must is Restaurant Ochsen which serves the best Swiss cheese fondue doused in white wine and served with a hunks of bread and new potatoes. The owner proudly shares they have been hosts of this establishment for almost 30 years. Nearer the Furka Pass, cozy Hotel Tiefenbach offers more regional dishes including more pumpkin soup, steak and local beers.
Breathtaking daytime views can be witnessed by taking the cable car to 2,300m above sea level on the Gütsch Mountain for the Michelin-starred, lunch-only The Japanese. This exquisite food, paired with sake, is unforgettable (and the views are heavenly). For dinner, back at street level, The Chedi’s restaurant offers an Asian-fusion menu using Swiss ingredients.
Go to andermatt-swissalps.ch; hotelbergidyll.ch/en from £110 per night; thechediandermatt.com from £774 per night