Our Experience with the Alaïa Group in Valais Switzerland

If you have not heard yet of the Alaïa Group in Valais, then let me introduce them to you! The Alaïa Group in Valais has put together a genius concept offering facilities for action sports from beginners to the international pros.

Families with younger kids, youths, friends, business trips and all the way to international events are meeting at the Alaïa facilities in Valais, Switzerland.

Alaïa Action Sports Facilities

Below you find a list of the 4 different Alaïa facilities. All are located within the Canton of Valais in Switzerland. The Alaïa Parks, Chalet and Bay are within 30min drive of each other and therefore ideal to combine two or even all three in a day. The Alaïa Wake centre is at the shore of the Lake Geneva Region but still in the Swiss Canton Valais.

Your perfect Alaïa experience could look something like this;
spend the morning at the Alaïa Snow Park in Crans-Montana, have lunch and skate at the Alaïa Chalet in the afternoon. Finish an epic Alaïa experience day by riding the perfect surf at Alaïa Bay when the sun goes down over the Swiss Alps.

For more information and prices visit the Alaïa Website.

Alaïa Parks

If you are into freestyle skiing and snowboarding then your favourite place will be the Alaia Snow Park in Crans-Montana. Together with Tudor Watches, Alaïa Parks have set up an amazing snow park. Actually two, as there is a beginner’s park to improve your jumps, slides and turns. The perfect set up for you to improve step by step.

It is the largest snow park in Swiss Romandie with a surface area of 100’000M2.
Note: In April when all the other Valais Ski resorts close for the season, the snow park moves their kickers, jumps and rails up onto the Plaine Morte Glacier. The Alaïa Park season continues until the beginning of June.

Alaïa Chalet

Young or old, you will be amazed when entering the Alaïa Chalet in Lens, near Crans-Montana

Home to skateboarding, BMX, scooter, gym, cheerleading, parcours and trampolining, it is the place to be.

At the Alaïa Chalet, whether you are a beginner or a pro-rider you can evolve and learn in the most optimal conditions.

It is also set up for you to practice the jumps you are dreaming of doing in the snow parks. Ensure your tricks are perfect by practicing within a safe environment on airbags before trying them in the park.

Alaïa Bay

Nestled in the heart of the Valais Alps, Alaïa Bay is the first surf basin in continental Europe. If you are a surfer this is probably the most spectacular place you have ever ridden a wave.

And if you have never stood on a surfboard, why not try it at Alaïa Bay?

Alaïa Wake Surf

The new addition in 2022 to the Alaïa Action sports family is the Alaïa Wake Surf at Lake Geneva on the Valais side in Le Bouveret. As this is a brand new section I have at this moment no new information.

Alaïa Kids Camps

The concept is to build on your sporting skills, to be more confident in what you do not only in the sports world but also in everyday life.

To learn and master all these skills, there are different Alaïa Camps available for children from 8-17 years old. The camps are organised throughout the year in Crans-Montana and Sion!

Together with your child, you can choose which one would be the best for him or her.

Mountain camp, Surf camp, Freestyle camp. Find out more about all the different choices of camps offered directly on their website.

On top of all the action sports, the children also learn the basics of how to use a GoPro and video editing!

Stay at the Alaïa Lodge in Crans-Montana

The Alaïa Lodge Hotel keeps the whole experience alive during your visit.

With its perfect central location in Crans and only 5min walk from the Crans-Merbé-Cry d’Er gondola, the Alaïa Lodge offers family rooms, shared rooms and double rooms with a unique minimalist industrial décor.

The lounge area invites you to relax and share your daily stories, whereas in the dining area delicious meals are served.

Table football, pool and a darts machine add to the great and relaxed atmosphere throughout.

The Alaïa Lodge welcomes guests all year round.

What we did during our Alaïa experience

As we’re living not far away from Crans-Montana in Valais, we drove there early morning.

Due to the perfect location of the Alaïa Lodge within close proximity to the ski lifts, we were able to park our car at the hotel and walk to the gondola.

The Crans-Merbé-Cry d’Er gondola brings you straight to the Alaïa Snow Parks. Skiing in Crans-Montana is amazing even if you are not using the park.

Day one
At first, we skied, jumped and had fun. After lunch we met our instructor.

He explained to us some of the “freestyle names”, which honestly, I have forgotten straight away. Together we did a quick run through the L XL Alaïa Snow Park which contains some very impressive kickers and obstacles. We then made our way over to the small/medium park which I felt was much more adequate for us, even though Lucas commented that the jumps here are tiny!

Well, let’s see and do it step by step.

It was great to have an instructor properly teaching the kids what to look for when crossing a table, how to get prepared for a 180 and how to ski backwards.

Start the right way with an instructor.

We finished our session in the very big halfpipe over at the L XL park. These things are so intimidating when you are standing at the entry, yet it’s fascinating to see how the kids master it so well.

We arrived safely, injury free and super happy back to the Alaïa Lodge Hotel where the kids played some table football with their new friends, and we relaxed with an apéro in the comfy lounge.

Dinner was great! A little tip, they also serve pizzas from the adjacent restaurant but they are not on the menu. Just ask the waiter if this is what you or the kids fancy to eat . Otherwise, their Indian and Thai dishes are delicious as well! Even the kids loved them.

Day Two
Today the plan was to head to the Alaïa Chalet, practice all these jumps and turns we had learned the day before on the snow park properly with an airbag from the trampoline.

Lucas got his turns right, improved his sommersault and even started a backflip with the assistance of the coach.

I am so glad they did this here with an airbag….

Chloe had a lesson on the skateboard. She did super well, improved in a short time and really enjoyed it.

The chalet was such a hit with the kids, that we stayed the whole day. A small menu lunch card filled our bellies and gave the kids some more energy to carry on.

After lunch they went outside onto the large pump track and skatepark with the freestyle scooters available at the chalet for rent.

Seriously this place is great!

Our conclusion – Alaïa Group

I don’t think I need to say again how much we loved experiencing the facilities of the Alaïa group. What we as parents liked was the quality of all the setups. It feels like your kids are in very good hands and most importantly, safe.

Lucas and Chloe were 6.5 years old, which was ok to start with some of the action sports, but I am sure kids of 8 years and older will get even more out of it.

But here I am talking about us, a family that does a lot of sports but not necessarily action sports. If your child has been skateboarding or performing backflips for years, they will still get something out of the facilities even at a younger age.

We have decided that when they are 8 years old they can join a camp and we will take it from there. Maybe Chloe can even start earlier with some skateboard lessons if she is really motivated.

But for now, we will visit Alaïa Chalet again and let the kids just go and have fun, learn from other kids and figure out which discipline they really want to improve on.

All in all, highly recommended!

You may also like these posts from Valais

• Best Places to stay in Zermatt – Hotels for all Budgets
• Zermatt – A Family Day trip to Zermatt
• How to spend One day in Zermatt with Kids
• Ski Crans Montana
• Lauchernalp Valais – Ski the Magic Ski Resort
• Bettmeralp Ski Domain
• Family skiing 4 Vallées – Verbier

I hope that the information provided here will prove useful when planning your Alaïa Action Sports Weekend in Valais.

If I have left anything out or you have a question, please ask your questions in the comments below so that other readers can join in the conversation and benefit from your queries also.

Note: This was a collaboration with the Alaïa Group. As always with these great partnerships, the purpose is for us to test it out and report back to you. With an honest review which we always do.

Thank you & Never Forget to Explore

Thanks for sharing it!