Zermatt and Chamonix sell out by November. These quieter valleys across the Alps offer the same peaks and a more honest version of mountain life.
The Alps span seven countries and roughly 1,200 km. Most visitors compress themselves into Chamonix, Zermatt, the Dolomites and a few French ski resorts. The valleys in between, particularly along the linguistic seams, hold villages where the cheese is still made on the alp and the church bell is still the loudest sound in town.
Switzerland
Soglio, Val Bregaglia
An Italian-speaking Swiss village hung on a balcony above the Mera river. Five-stone palazzos, chestnut groves and a view straight onto the granite spires of the Sciora group. Giovanni Segantini painted here.
Guarda, Lower Engadine
Sgraffito-decorated houses, Romansh as the daily language, and the trailhead for some of the gentlest high walks in Switzerland. The children's book Schellen-Ursli was set here.
Albinen, Valais
Briefly famous for offering money to new residents. What that obscured is that the village is unbelievable - wooden houses on a sun terrace above the Rhone valley with a 30-minute walk down to the thermal pools of Leukerbad.
Italy
Sauris, Friuli
German-speaking enclave in the Carnic Alps, with the prosciutto di Sauris that is genuinely one of the best cured hams in Europe and a scattering of houses converted into a diffused albergo.
Chamois, Aosta Valley
Reachable only by cable car. Twelve permanent residents, a small lake and a Larch forest. The quietest place this side of an Apennine monastery.
Sappada, Friuli
Another German-speaking village, near the Austrian border. The carnival here features carved wooden masks that go back centuries.
Austria and Slovenia
Hallstatt
We hesitate to add it because Hallstatt now has the opposite problem. Go in February. The whole point becomes obvious.
Kranjska Gora valley, Slovenia
The Slovenian Alps are smaller and friendlier than the Italian Dolomites. The villages of Mojstrana and Ratece have the same peaks behind them at a fraction of the price.
France
Saint-Veran, Queyras
At 2,042 metres, one of the highest year-round villages in Europe. The Queyras regional park around it has wolves, marmots and almost no lift infrastructure.
La Grave
An old guides' village under the north face of La Meije. Famous among ski mountaineers for not having pisted runs - the whole thing is off-piste, with one cable car up.
