Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 204 Transcript

Discover Leukerbad: Switzerland’s Alpine Spa Village

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: If I asked you to name a Swiss destination with thermal springs, mountain views, and 300 days of sunshine a year, would Leukerbad even cross your mind? For most first-time visitors, probably not. And that’s exactly why you need to know about it.

Tucked into a valley in the Canton of Valais, surrounded by mountains on all sides, Leukerbad is home to the largest volume of thermal springs In Europe, and yet it remains one of Switzerland’s best-kept secrets. Today I’m joined by Ryan Maxwell, who heads up international sales and marketing for Leukerbad Tourism and has a 20-year connection to the town. We chat about Leukerbad’s 3 very different thermal baths, the spa etiquette questions that everyone’s too nervous to ask, the best season to visit, and everything to do beyond the pools, from mountain excursions and hiking to skiing and sledging.

If you’d love to visit somewhere beyond the usual Swiss hotspots, this episode’s definitely for you.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. I’m Carolyn Schönafinger, your Switzerland destination expert and the founder of holidaystoswitzerland.com. Each week, together with my expert guests, I introduce you to the Switzerland that I know and love and share inspiration and practical tips to help you plan your dream Swiss vacation.

Before we get started with today’s episode, I’d like to take a moment to thank our podcast sponsors, Switzerland Tourism and My Mountains, an award-winning Swiss tour operator specialising in expertly designed all-inclusive ski vacations in Switzerland, Italy, and France. Each My Mountains ski vacation is customised to suit your interests. So, whether you prefer to spend your time at just one ski resort or a combination of resorts, each trip will be tailored just for you.

You can even combine your days on the slopes with panoramic train rides or city stays, all with an experienced guide on hand to assist you when needed. So, if you’re ready to book an unforgettable ski adventure in the Alps, visit the link in the show notes, where you’ll also find our exclusive discount code to get 5% off your My Mountains ski vacation. Now, let’s get into this week’s episode.

Good morning, Ryan. A warm welcome to you to the Holidays to Switzerland Podcast. Could you please introduce yourself to everyone and tell us a bit about yourself and your role with Leukerbad Tourism?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, absolutely. And good morning to you. Thank you for having me.

So yeah, my name’s Ryan Maxwell. My current role here working at Leukerbad is I head up international sales and marketing. And what that means is all of the kind of media trips that come in, influencer trips, or what we call fam trips, which are familiarisation trips for whether it’s agencies or business or industry that come into Leukerbad, is showing people around the town, getting to show off all the things it has to offer, and ultimately promoting and selling the region internationally.

So my scope is everything outside of Switzerland. Interestingly, for Leukerbad, 80% of our tourism is actually local Swiss, but then outside of that, it’s very much international, but there’s no real one key hot market. That other 20% is very diverse.

Ryan Maxwell: And my job is to not only kind of improve the quality of the 20%, but also the quantity as well. We’re very conscious not to do too well almost, or push too much and get overtourism or drive too many people into the town. But ultimately, it’s about promoting the area, showing all the things it has to offer, and making sure that we have a solid future for the destination and the region.

So yeah, that’s kind of my role. And then very much about myself.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Not from Switzerland originally, obviously.

Ryan Maxwell: Can you tell by the accent? Yeah, no, absolutely. So yeah, I’m actually half English, half German.

I had lived a few years of my life, 3 years, sort of each time 1 year within Germany, but at a very young age, but had grown up speaking kind of English and German, but very much lived the prominence of my life in England. And then I’ve actually moved out to Switzerland just over a year ago into a German-speaking part. So Leukerbad is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, although we are very much on the border, the next place along is Crans-Montana, which then goes into French. So we do actually get a very diverse mix of French and German speaking here.

But yeah, as you rightly pointed out, I’m not sort of traditionally, or wasn’t born in Switzerland myself, but my family have actually lived in Leukerbad for the last 20 years. So I’ve been coming here for 20 years actually as a tourist prior to them working here for the last year. So kind of seen it from both sides of the table.

Ryan Maxwell: It started out with my sister. She moved here 20 years ago as a physiotherapist. And then my parents moved 5 years later, so 15 years ago, and they’ve lived out here afterwards. So yeah, kind of home away from home and now very much become a solid base.

So yeah, not Swiss myself, but half English, half German, speak the German language. The Swiss German’s a whole another thing in itself, but can understand that too, a bit.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, wonderful. Okay. Well, you’ve really got that connection with Leukerbad then with your family. And it’s great, I guess, now that you’re living there, but you’ve had that experience over the last 20 years of knowing the town or the village as a tourist, I guess.

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, absolutely. And I was actually really surprised to kind of see, even after those 20 years of coming here and having experienced it both in winter seasons and summer seasons and kind of seeing it from the tourist perspective, even within the year that I’ve worked here, there’s lots of things that I’ve actually found or explored or learned that I hadn’t even known about in those prior years. So, it was kind of a great experience to be able to understand maybe what some tourists don’t get, don’t receive or get across or understand about the destination, and then to sort of almost be able to tackle those bits as well as part of my role and look at how I can show those bits off even better because there really is so much to do here.

And I really kind of, I think it’s a bit of a hidden gem that not enough people know about.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Okay. Well, as you said, we’ve got to keep that nice balance so that it’s not, not become, doesn’t become overrun with tourists, but it’s definitely a place that’s on my wishlist. 

Now, most of our listeners, I think, will be probably unfamiliar actually with Leukerbad and exactly where it is in Switzerland. You mentioned that it’s on the border with the French-speaking part, but where exactly on a map of Switzerland will we find it?

And how would you describe it to someone who has never heard of the place?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, I get to do this a lot actually. So even many of my friends in England and people like that who are keen skiers or snowboarders and even kind of mountaineers in the summer, they hadn’t heard of it. And it kind of still to this day blows my mind that somewhere so special is still quite that sort of hidden, kept secret. So yeah, no, I get to do this a lot and enjoy being able to show that part off as well.

But Eigerbad’s actually positioned in the southwest of Switzerland. So kind of in that southwest corner, but then within what’s called Valais in sort of the French side or Wallis on the German side, which is effectively like saying the county that it’s in, which is the canton. It’s right in the central part of Wallis.

And I think Wallis is a really beautiful canton and county overall. And then Leukerbad itself is kind of along the main valley, which you have Sion and Visp. So people would maybe recognise those for places where you might go to Zermatt or Verbier or other places like that. But the beauty that we have is we’re very much right in the centre, especially by public transport, which is incredibly efficient in Switzerland.

Ryan Maxwell: We’re right in the centre of Geneva Airport, Milan Airport, Zurich Airport, and Bern Airport. So they’re all pretty much exactly the same time to all of those airports, right in the centre. And also along that valley near Sion, and Visp area, sort of in between those.

We’re very much centered in a lot of other destinations as well. So even when I’m talking with a lot of agencies or businesses that are doing group trips and visiting multiple locations, we’re very much centred in the middle and can often be used as a hub to actually sort of travel around and explore other areas within Valais as well. So yeah, it’s kind of in the southwest corner, but in the central part of Valais is the best way to describe it.

And I suppose the one thing I would say as well about Leukerbad is if you go along the valley, you then have to travel up into the mountain to come to Leukerbad, the town. It sits at 1,400 metres, and it’s completely surrounded by the mountains, like sheer face, kind of in a bowl effectively. So it’s kind of got really beautiful views, and those mountains around it go up more than 1,000 metres as well.

So when you’re taking the cable car up, they have beautiful steep rides of the cable car, but when you’re actually sitting in the town, you effectively feel like in a Surrounded like in a bowl of mountains and you can see waterfalls. I mean, I’m looking out my window now. I can see waterfalls and bits. Yeah, it’s quite the view. And lots of people just don’t expect the experience they get when they arrive.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Well, it sounds magical. That’s for sure. So what is Leukerbad best known for?

Ryan Maxwell: It’s a good question and it’s very well known for its water. So we have the most amount of like thermal spring, hot spring water in the whole of Europe. We get 4 million litres out of the ground every single day.

And that’s at temperatures of up to 51 degrees Celsius. So that’s kind of a very well-known part. And that was discovered actually by the Romans way back when they used it as a bit of a wellness resort and kind of destination.

But then it’s also known as part of that is the kind of the wellness, but also rehabilitation side. So we have a big clinic here. And as I mentioned earlier, my sister qualified as a physiotherapist. She came out here and worked at that clinic.

Leukerbad is a very well known place where people can not only sort of train and work and do things at altitude, but then also get the rehabilitation side with the water, but also the quality of care and treatments and things like that from the clinic side. So I’d say that’s what it’s predominantly well known for. We also have the 2 sides of the mountain here.

Ryan Maxwell: There’s a Torrent side, which is the more sporty side, and I always describe it as the green side. And then we have the Gemmi side of the mountain, which is a bit more grey, Martian stone looking, and you get 2 very different experiences. But the Gemmi side is very famous throughout history for being a walkway, and you can walk over to Kandersteg and Bern, and it was effectively a historic route from north to south through Switzerland.

So, I’d say those 2 things are kind of probably the bit that the people that do know about it would know it for, but there’s, there’s so much more to discover beyond that.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. Well, we will talk about those in a moment, but I just want to talk a bit more about the thermal springs there or the thermal baths. I guess for yourself from the UK, Bath is a very famous place thanks to the Romans. So they certainly were able to seek out all those beautiful healing springs.

Now I understand that there’s 3 public baths in Leukerbad. So what are the differences between them? Do they offer different experiences or is it just, you know, you just pick one and you have the same experience wherever you go?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, so they’re definitely not the same experience, which is great. There are 3 public baths and many of the hotels have private ones as well. So there’s a lot more beyond that, even if you’re coming as a guest, but I’d probably start, just take it back a step to the thermal springs.

So we actually have 64 different kinds of springs that come up in the town. And then we use anywhere between 5 and 8 of those springs at a time. And then they are what are used to basically fuel, so heat And also provide the water for those pools.

So when you’re going to any of the baths here in Leukerbad, they’re all using that thermal spring water. And then as you rightly mentioned, there’s 3 public ones. Number one is the Leukerbad Therme, and that is the biggest in the whole of the Alps and the whole of Europe.

It’s actually 4 storeys. And people often don’t believe when you sort of say 3 pools, there’s so much more even within them. Yeah, it has 4 storeys and 10 different pools within it and experiences. And they all have different temperatures ranging kind of from very cold, so cold plunge style, all the way through to kind of 42 degrees in what we call the grotto.

Ryan Maxwell: And that is a particular area where the water comes out completely naturally, so unfiltered in any way. And it almost looks dirty, but it’s because it’s got all of the minerals and things like that inside the water. And you can experience that.

So it has indoor, outdoor pools, sauna facilities, a pool bar even as well, where you can get some cocktails and drinks and things like that and enjoy it with the mountain views behind you. So yeah, that’s number one, the Leukerbad Therme. 

You have Therme 51, which is— that one has 13 different pools and sauna experiences, but it’s actually much smaller. It’s a much more sort of unique private experience, sort of smaller pods. They have a hotel attached to it as well, so there are hotel guests in and then some outside public guests as well, but keep the numbers minimal so you get a bit more of a private experience.

And again, sort of temperatures ranging and then lots of sauna facilities with different temperatures and experiences. Some have hay in them, others have steam rooms with infusions of different smells and things like that. So yeah, a real kind of beautiful experience there too. Again, absolutely surrounded by the mountains and mountain views. 

Ryan Maxwell: And then thirdly, there’s the Alpentherme, and this one has fewer pools. So there’s 2 big pools there. There’s an indoor-outdoor, but it’s more like the Instagram version, I’d say.

That’s where people go. You get some beautiful shots from there. But then it also has an underground sauna village. And when I say little village, I mean little, it has wooden huts, proper huts, all different temperatures of saunas and dipping pools and things like that.

And then it also has a Roman Irish experience there as well. So it has a yin yang pool, like one side hot, one side cold, and then lots of dipping pools around it. And then also stations and experiences where you go on some, you’ll rub things onto your body, others you’ll be steam room cooler.

Ryan Maxwell: And yeah, you go from station to station experiencing different things within that as well. So I think to your earlier question of, are they all the same? Absolutely not.They’re all very different experiences, which make it great.

Gives you something different to do every day at those kinds of pools and yeah, effectively be able to experience the water in many different ways as well.

And yeah, as I said, all of those pools, they use the energy from the heat that comes out of the natural ground to heat the pools and things like that. So there’s a lot of technical side I could get into as well, but it’s, yeah, they’re great and a key sort of pillar stone to the town.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like there’s something for everyone, that’s for sure.

Ryan Maxwell: Absolutely.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Now, as a non-European myself and having been to a few thermal spas in my day, I think I speak for a lot of people who are perhaps a bit apprehensive about their first visit to a thermal bath.

Ryan Maxwell: Yes.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Because, you know, you don’t know the protocols and the dos and don’ts and what to expect. Yes. So, what’s the etiquette at the baths?

What are the important things that people should know?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, and that’s a really good question actually. And sort of another beauty to having those different facilities, they’re all slightly different. So some of them are sort of like naked territory.

So you go in and have a towel, but ultimately naked, and then others a swimsuit. So my advice is always just ask at the reception desk when you go, if you’re nervous or have any sort of, or apprehensive in any way, they’ll always tell you exactly what the process is and how it works. And the beauty is there’s something for everybody in that respect.

So if you’re not comfortable going into like the naked versions, then you have others that basically have a swimsuit on and you go in like normal swimming. So yeah, there’s a real mix. They’ll always explain it there and then.

Ryan Maxwell: But ultimately it’s, yeah, some are either with swimsuits and take a towel in and you go and experience the saunas or the different pools and there’s always showers and things like that around. And then others Yeah, you’d do it without the swimsuit. But all of the facilities, even for going in, have lockers to put your clothing and bits in.

They always have hair dryers, all the bits that you’d need to kind of go there fully clothed, get changed into whichever the attire might be, and then be able to kind of finish up and leave up and as if you’ve never sort of been.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, yeah, that’s good to know.

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, they’ve got everything you need there. And then, and even, I mean, to the point of it surprised me, even one of those things I kind of mentioned earlier I didn’t know about before You can go to these places, you can buy a swimsuit, you can rent a swimsuit. They’ve got towels, robes, everything there that you could possibly need.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, if, if you forget to pack your swimsuit, you don’t need to miss out, even if you do want to wear one when you’re going to the spa. So do people need to book in advance to go to any of the spas or can they typically just show up?

Ryan Maxwell: So I’d say typically you can just show up. There’s no problem. The Therme 51, which was the one that I described as the sort of the smaller a bit more kind of not so many people, not crowded place.

That one you sometimes just have to book and say, I’d like to come at this particular time, just so that they don’t have an overcrowding at a certain time. But yeah, ultimately the short answer is you can just turn up and enjoy and you can come for whether it’s an hour, 3 hours, or the whole day. There’s different options of what you want to do.

And I mean, I’m lucky enough I get to enjoy it throughout the whole year. I’ll often just go quickly. If I’ve been mountain biking or skiing or snowboarding, I’ll just pop in, almost use it for a shower, go and have a quick dip, shower off and everything like that, and then come home.

Ryan Maxwell: And then other times in the summer, for instance, there’s a big— in the Leuchtturm Hotel, there’s a big sports pool. So like a lane swimming pool at the top. And as part of that, there’s a big play area for children and things like that.

I’ll often just go and spend the day there. You can sit around in the sun on the grass, enjoy that, play some sports, and then swim all day,  take your lunch and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, you can very much just turn up and spend as little or as long as you want at the facility.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. That’s great. So before we move on to what else there is to do around Leukerbad, do you have any tips for those people who are thinking about visiting one of the spas? If they haven’t been to one before, what should they do to get the most out of the experience?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah. So my first tip would definitely be to go to all of them. Many people sort of come and they think they’ve been to one and, and okay, I’ve experienced it now. As we’ve sort of spoken about, they’re all very different and provide a different experience.

So definitely try them all or plan them out so that you have one a day or however that best suits your itinerary. And then within it, it’s easy to actually miss some of the experiences as well. So kind of my other piece of advice would be to go and just ask questions.

Don’t be afraid to speak to people in the facility at the reception desk or even the staff that are around some of the pools and just be like, what should I be doing on this floor? What’s the best thing to do? Because there’s so much to do, it’s kind of You actually not realise that there’s a grotto hidden under the fountain behind a door and things like that.

Ryan Maxwell: So yeah, definitely be open, inquisitive, and ask lots of questions. And then I think also just leave enough time as well, because I’ll often go to one of those visits and spend 3 hours there, whereas some people think when you go for a swim, oh, you’re going to be there for an hour. Actually, no, you want to make full use of it and enjoy the sauna facilities and then just get yourself outside.

And if you’re there in the winter, I definitely recommend jumping out of the pool, rolling around in the snow a little bit, and then getting back in. That’s a great feeling.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, that sounds quite adventurous to me, but I’ll take your word for it.

Ryan Maxwell: It’s great. I’m big, I love cold plunging and things like that. So I don’t mind the cold, but the buzz that you get when you jump back in the hot pools is, yeah, it’s fantastic.

Carolyn Schönafinger: All right. So aside from the time spent at the pools, what else can visitors do when they’re in Leukerbad?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah. And actually it’s a great question in the sense of, because lots of people just focus on the pools, but there is so much that you can do outside of that. So, in the summer, we have 200 kilometres of hiking trails. We have 225 kilometres of mountain biking trails.

We’ve also got the longest Via Ferrata in the whole of Switzerland. So that’s like a climbing route. And it’s one of the most technical.

It’s like, for those in the know, it’s like a K5, K6. So they’re kind of like activities that you can do. There’s 2 beautiful viewpoints on the mountain.

Ryan Maxwell: You’ve got the Gemmi side, as I mentioned earlier. Up there, there’s a beautiful lake with part of the Grand Tour elements up there on the torrents. There’s much greenery and you get fantastic, not only kinds of meals from the restaurants, you get beautiful views of all the mountainscape.

You can see the Matterhorn, you can see the Mont Blanc, the Doms, the Weisshorn, things like that. You’ve also got monster trottinetting that you can do, which is effectively a scooter, but with big, like, fat monster-type wheels. There’s beautiful hikes in and around the town.

Ryan Maxwell: We have a gorge walk, so you effectively walk up one of, like, the rivers and valleys that come down. And even there you can actually send a little bowl down, like with a turning wheel, the bowl goes down and there’s a hot spring where it collects the water directly out of the hot spring and you can bring it up and feel it as it’s coming out naturally out of the ground. We’ve got, as part of Leukerbad, we have 4 different areas.

So there’s Leukerbad itself, there’s Albinen, there’s Indern and Fahren. In Fahren, it’s a big wine country, so you can do wine walks with local food and experiences. And things like that as well.

And then that’s just the summer. If you kind of go into winter, you’ve got skiing, of course, snowboarding, you’ve got cross-country skiing, we’ve got sledging as well. And that, that was something that took me by surprise.

I’ve been coming here for many years, I’d never done it, and now I’ve been doing it with groups. I really enjoyed it. It was amazing fun. 

Ryan Maxwell: Then also you can do snowshoe walks, hiking. We have Velogemülls as well, which not many people have heard of. It’s effectively a, I’d call it a cross between a sledge and a bike.

It’s a bike with 2 metal rails underneath it, and you can ride it on the snow with your feet on either side. Yeah, there’s lots of different experiences kind of on the mountains outdoorsy. And then we also have a fantastic sports arena here as well, which has everything from padel to tennis to rock climbing to squash to a pump track.

I mean, there’s lots of different sports and things, badminton, everything that you can do in there, as well as having a full-size ice rink where we play ice hockey and other things where you can just have fun there as well. So there’s lots and lots you could do here, and it really has something for everybody. Kind of all ages, all abilities, and even for all kinds of weather conditions.

Ryan Maxwell: I mean, in the valleys here, we’re very lucky. We get like 300 days of sunshine a year here, which I wasn’t used to coming out of England, that’s for sure, which is great. But then even on those days where it’s bad weather, there’s always something you can do, whether it’s in the sports arena and things like that.

So yeah, that was the bit that kind of, I think, takes me by surprise or even others by surprise when I get to show them what you can do here. There’s just so many options.

Yeah, it’s all in quite a small package of small villages and not too many people, no overtourism, stuff like that. So you always have the ability to do those things that you want to do as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, that’s great. And it sounds like it’s certainly an all-year-round destination as well.

Ryan Maxwell: Absolutely. And actually we’re, we’re putting, even within my role as well, actually there’s more and more emphasis going on to sort of being a 365 destination.

So the pools are open all year round and then sports and facilities in and around that as well will often mirror that. So there’s obviously times where the lifts close and need maintenance and looking after, just making sure that they’re operating right. But there is something that you can do here all year round, which is great as well, especially living here and being here all year. I could just make use of that.

Carolyn Schönafinger: It’s fantastic. Now you just briefly mentioned those 3 villages, Albinen, Inden, and Fahren. Can you tell us a little bit more about them and why they’re worth visiting?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, absolutely. They all have a different identity as well, which is great. And I’d say the beauty of the valleys and Valais, the whole region, is that each destination is completely different to one another as well.

So we’re always working very collaboratively. And then with sort of Inden, Albinen, and Fargen being within our own offering, they’re great because even though they’re only 5 minutes away, they have a completely different identity. Albinen is one that actually went viral. So some people might have heard of this or would have heard of it, but don’t have hadn’t kind of realised they had heard of it and it’s part of our region.

It went viral for being the place that pays you to come and live in Switzerland. So there was a big scheme that hit the news and there were tens of thousands, I think even hundreds of thousands of incoming emails and messages after that. There’s a scheme where if you have it as your first residence and buy a house here, the Gemeinde, so the region would give you money towards that house for you, for per adult and per child, you’d get a set sum.

Ryan Maxwell: So quite known for that, but actually that area is very kind of traditional. Got lots of the old-school wooden chalet huts. Beautiful church there, a bit smaller, very, very traditional, right on the mountainside. Really, really beautiful place.

Fahren is down the valley a little bit, and that is sort of like the wine country area. Again, produces lots of fantastic wines, white wines and red wines. I often say that the Swiss are underestimated with their wine because it’s not exported very much or not kind of used a lot outside of Switzerland, and that’s because they’re drinking it all themselves.

It’s so good. But yeah, so that’s a fantastic area down there. And then we have Inden as well, which is effectively between Fahren and Leukerbad.

Ryan Maxwell: So between those, and that’s a much quieter, smaller village on the way as well, kind of midway up the mountain. So yeah, they’re kind of all part of the overall Leukerbad package, but they’re all very different. And then Leukerbad itself is, I think, the most well-known, has the most sort of activity going on within it as far as sports and options of skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, and those sorts of things.

But they’re all beautiful in their own right. And it is one of those things actually, when I moved here, I hadn’t, I hadn’t actually visited all of them before that. And I should have done it because now having been to them all, they’re fantastic.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. So how easy is it to reach all those villages from Leukerbad?

Ryan Maxwell: Incredibly easy. I sort of mentioned earlier, the public transport in Switzerland as a whole is just incredibly efficient and great to use. They’re all, so, Fahren and Inden are on the main bus route up from— so from the valley, if you were getting the train, you’d come into Leuk.

So, like Leukerbad, but doesn’t have the -abad on the end. You come into Leuk, and from there you transfer off the train onto a bus, and that bus will take you past Fahren and past Inden. So, you can get to any of those on the bus from Leukerbad. 

And then Albinen, you can take a bus from Leukerbad as well, just along there. And they’re all like Albinen is five 5 minutes around the corner, so it’s very close. I mean, you can even walk it.

Ryan Maxwell: There’s a route called the Albinen Leiters, which is the Albinen Ladders, and it’s the old route that people used to take from Leukerwald to Albinen. And that’s an experience here in itself. You can still walk that route.

It has some sort of ladder up the mountains. Quite a not one for the faint-hearted, I’ll say. But yeah, so they’re very close, super accessible whether you want to walk, bike there, take a bus there.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, excellent. So getting back to Leukerbad, because I’m guessing most people would probably stay there being larger than those other 3 villages. So what different types of accommodation are available?

Ryan Maxwell: So we have the full spectrum here of whether it’s an Airbnb, an apartment, or a hotel. The one thing I’d say that we don’t have is like the big chain hotels. They’re much sort of like, I think we have about 20 or just over 20 hotels here, but they’re all much smaller, different varying numbers of rooms, some with as little as like 10 rooms, something like that, going up to, yeah, 70, 80, 100 beds, sort of things like that.

But none are like the big skyscraper chain hotels that you’d expect. So yeah, we have a real mix from, yeah, apartments, Airbnbs, hotels, and then also ranging from whether it’s 3-star to 4-star And beyond that as well, we used to have a 5-star hotel here, but that’s no longer a 5-star.

It actually took the restaurant element out of its hotel, so it wasn’t ticking the box to maintain its 5-star. Still a fantastic and beautiful hotel. But yeah, that’s the one thing I wouldn’t say that we are.

Ryan Maxwell: We’re not the ultra, ultra luxury. We’re kind of midway through to anyone who wants to be like a mountainside, even sleeping in mountain huts. We have offers in that respect.

We have actually on the, on the Gemmi side of the mountain, there’s the Lämmelhütte. Which is the most visited mountain hut in the whole of Switzerland, up there, all the way then through to what I would call luxury, but not ultra luxury, I suppose. And on the Gemmi side of the mountain, we even have a hotel and spa, which sits on the edge of that cliff face that I said sort of looks into the town.

And there’s a beautiful restaurant there, hotel within it, and then a spa underneath it as well that you can look out into Leukerbad. So yeah, a real kind of mix. And as I mentioned earlier as well, some hotels have their own private baths and things like that as well with multiple pools and different experiences.

So you can really have a different level of service dependent on your, on your desire ultimately.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. Now, as someone who now lives in Leukerbad, if you were advising a visitor about the best season to visit, when would you tell them to come?

Ryan Maxwell: It’s a, that’s, that’s a really tough question. I get asked that and I never have an answer for it. Personally, I love winter. It’s beautiful as far as the way the snow sits on all the mountains and you’re surrounded by it. 

And I’m a really keen snowboarder, outdoors kind of guy. And then you get to enjoy the activity and snowboarding in the day and then jump in the hot pools in the evening. You kind of get the best of both cold and warm.

But the one that I’d probably underestimated and is now kind of rivalling it quite a lot now having lived here and experienced it more is the autumn. So being in the bowl of the mountains and there’s lots of green trees and things like that that are here, when you hit autumn, we get those yellows, gold, reds, colours are just that change. And yeah, that’s a real kind of beautiful time as well. 

But you can’t go wrong with any season here. I’d recommend them all and experience them all for sure. But I’d just say, yeah, my personal favourite is probably the winter. Very, very close to autumn now. That’s a nice time.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, the answer to my next question you’ve probably already given me. So my question was, what would your perfect day in Leukerbad look like? Tipping it might have a bit of snowboarding and some time in the spa there.

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, absolutely. The beauty is there’s many different perfect days, but whether it’s sort of winter, definitely be snowboarding. And one of the things that I’ve got into out here in Leukerbad now as well, and this is one of those secrets I don’t want to give away too much on because I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s the region here has got a quite small ski area in piste kilometres, but actually the ability to explore beyond that.

So off-piste and particularly tour skiing, or what I do is splitboarding. So you go off the piste and then kind of hike a little bit further up or just ride it. It’s an incredible area for that, like really, really good.

So for me, I’d say my day would probably start with doing a little bit of splitboarding or off-piste skiing somewhere, hiking to an area that nobody’s been, get some untouched snow, ride all day till your legs can’t hold you up anymore, then come back down, enjoy the thermal pools. And yeah, I definitely enjoy a bit of hot and cold in that respect as well. And then yeah, just relax in the evening.

Ryan Maxwell: It’s not really a town for me that has a big nightlife or party clubs or anything like that. It’s much more what I’d call the authentic Swiss experience of being active, sporty, or just relaxing and enjoying the day. And then to have a real kind of calmer type evening.

I mean, you can still, there’s pubs and bars and things like that, but not, it’s not kind of the nightlife central area, but I love it for that. Got the family out here and yeah, my perfect day is just some outdoor activity, top it off with the pools in the evening and then yeah, have a nice Swiss traditional meal.

I’m enjoying that cuisine a little bit too much, shall I say. I’ve eaten lots of cheese since I’ve been here, whether it’s the röstis, the raclettes, the fondues. Yeah, I’m having to work extra hard in the day to keep that off.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, when in Switzerland, you must eat Swiss food. So do you have any final tips or thoughts for our listeners who are now considering visiting Leukerbad?

Ryan Maxwell: Yeah, I mean, it’s just, first of all, it’s just considerate. Trip in the sense that many people come to Switzerland and they always go to the same hotspots that you’ve always heard of. It’s whether it’s the Zermatts, the Verbiers, or the places that are just, yeah, people know and have heard of.

I’d say the first key point is just actually look outside of that because there’s so many beautiful places out here that not many people know about that will give you an equal experience, if not better, without the overtourism and without too many people or queues or waiting lists. And then the other bit I would say is just explore those things that are kind of, again, sort of somewhat outside of the ordinary.

So some of the best experiences I’ve had now were on the sled, on the Velogemäl, doing different hikes. And I would, I’d always class myself as a pretty— I like to take things to the extreme side of the sport. So it was always, I wanted to snowboard as much as I could in the day and then use the pools and then try and cram in as much of just like those things that I’ve always done.

Ryan Maxwell: I’d say when you’re in the resort, explore those things that are outside of the normal, the things that you haven’t done before. The gorge walk here is an amazing experience, for instance. Going on the monster Trottinettes, I wouldn’t necessarily have normally done, but yeah, they’re really good fun.

And then just be inquisitive and speak with local people and ask them questions because there’s, there’s so many hidden gems or things that you just wouldn’t necessarily come across that because I’ve been lucky enough to be here for a long period of time now, I’ve experienced so many of those different things that I hadn’t done previously. So it’s just that, yeah, be inquisitive and be open to new and different things because there’s so much you can do here and so much enjoyment to be had.

Carolyn Schönafinger: That’s great advice. Thank you. So where can our listeners get more information about visiting Leukerbad?

Ryan Maxwell: The best place actually is so leukerbad.ch. So online, go on the main website. Everything’s on there, very easily explorable, even through to the exact times on lifts if they’re operating at that moment, or if there’s something stopped because of high winds or anything like that.

You can find everything very live on the website. I’d also recommend Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and places like that, all the social media, Leukerbad 365 on there. There’s always up-to-date information.

And again, I hadn’t really realised how much activity there was just throughout the weeks, as in there’s always events or activations or different experiences in and around the town. So even if or on a week’s holiday, you can then keep up to date on what’s happening live there in the town, whether it’s a yoga experience up on the mountain here or an Aqua Mystica evening at the pool or something like that.

So yeah, across all the usual platforms, but websites for sure. And then the socials, um, Leukerbad365.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Fantastic. Well, I’ll put those links in the show notes for the episode so people can click through and get all the information and start planning their visit to Leukerbad.

Ryan Maxwell: Brilliant. Yeah, please do. And if anybody does come, feel, feel welcome to reach out to me. I’d love to be able to give hints and tips as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Ryan, for telling us all about your amazing destination.

Ryan Maxwell: No problem at all. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate being on.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wow. Leukerbad sounds like a magical pocket of Switzerland, doesn’t it? I’ll certainly be including a visit to the spa town in one of my future trips to Switzerland. If you are also now dreaming of thermal pools surrounded by mountains, be sure to check the show notes for links to the Leukerbad website and social media.

And if you’d like some help planning your visit to Leukerbad, get in touch with me and I’ll help you get started. You can reach out via email, podcast@holidaystoswitzerland.com, whether that’s for help with your trip planning or just to share your feedback about the podcast. I always love to hear from you.

Until next week, when I’ll be back with more Swiss travel tips and inspiration. Tschüss!

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.