A sunny terrace above the Walensee, an hour from Zurich, which makes it one of the busiest weekend mountains in Switzerland and one of the quietest midweek. Come midweek if you possibly can.

The villages are small and scattered across the shelf rather than gathered into one centre, with hotels, apartments and mountain guesthouses, and easy day access by train and cable car from the valley.

The skiing is wide and cheerful and mostly intermediate, with a big vertical drop down towards the lake and good family facilities. The views along the water are the main reason people photograph the place, and the cable car up from Unterterzen gives you the best of them before you have even clipped in.