The Hotel Restaurant “La Cambuse” is a great place to stay in Les 4 Vallées of Switzerland. You simply can’t be closer to the lifts – in Thyon 1800 – the eastern-most area of the famous Four Valleys. It’s a beautiful boutique property (just 10 rooms) in an historic chalet with delicious dining, plus panoramic views from the slopes to the Alps to the Rhone valley below.
This Swiss chalet hotel has all the luxuries of a boutique hotel, with a relaxed atmosphere, cordial and casual. Its also very peaceful at night, the only hotel at the Thyon-Les Collons 1800 base.
La Cambuse is especially ideal for Epic Pass holders, since it’s a Vail Resort participating property that qualifies you for 5 days free skiing with your pass when you lodge here.
Your host Jerry Bovier, 2nd generation innkeeper of La Cambuse, and his team are friendly, English-speaking, ever-present but not overbearing like some innkeepers. Jerry welcomed us on arrival, provided a quick tour, and we settled in happily.
Our mountain view room was a clean and neat, a traditional alpine space with blonde wood, a double bed with duvet and fur throws, a private bath, TV, speedy Wi-Fi, and a mini-fridge. Our balcony was perfect for sitting out in the afternoon sun.
The Hotel’s restaurant is the happy hub of La Cambuse, a very chic space, alpine elegant with sheepskin, wildlife art, chandeliers and candles and a centerpiece fireplace. The food we’d later enjoy is extraordinary.
The ski room at Cambuse became another favorite room. Private heated ski lockers line a lovely room with sheepskin covered benches for putting on and off your boots. You can store your boots, gloves helmets, poles and skis overnight, making space in your bed chamber. So many ski rooms are so smelly and dark – this is bright and chic and just 10 steps to Thyon 1800’s newest lift for the 2023-24 winter season. A new Chondola lift with six-pack chairs intermixed with gondola cars debuts. Also there is a ticket window right here, if you need to purchase ski passes. However, the Hotel can arrange this for you in a ski lodging package. Jerry can prepare your Epic Pass voucher to take to the ticket window, and he can offer you a ski and stay package with special lift ticket price.
Wonderful meals are served in the beautiful glass dining room overlooking the valley. Breakfast is a bountiful buffet of bread, pastries, meats, cheese, fruit, yogurt and toppings, plus eggs on request. And of course, fresh brewed coffee or café au lait. Maitre’D Tom is wonderful, intuitive, and engaging. La Cambuse entire team is well trained, polite, and pleasant. “As you wish.”
Après ski at Hotel La Cambuse, you can enjoy a drink on the grand sun terrace – perhaps an aperol spritz or local Rhone wine – where you may be joined by locals and visiting skiers too. It’s a convivial popular spot at the base of the lift. Or you can have a specialty coffee or a cocktail inside at the cozy bar and lounge by the dining room.
Dinner is an elegant affair, half board for guests is a gourmet menu of two choices offered. We dined on such delicious creative dishes as duck, lamb, salmon and fondue during our stay – followed by wonderful desserts. There is also an a la carte menu, and the specialty room – Le Coin Raclette – the cheese corner where you can enjoy raclette.
Half board makes your ski holiday simple, breakfast buffet each morning, then ski to lunch out on the mountain at one of many chalets in the 4 Vallées, then dinner is all set back at the hotel, in fact there is a special smaller room for groups and families just off the main dining room. Pets are also welcome at La Cambuse.
Skiing from La Cambuse in the morning, all suited up in the ideal ski room, and you are steps to the lift to explore the vast 400 km of slopes from Thyon to Veysonnaz, to Nendaz, to Siviez, to the highest point of Verbier’s Mont Fort (at 3330-meters), and to furthest west Bruson – all part of the 4 Vallées ski region.
We loved our stay Hotel La Cambuse. Our luxury ski holiday balanced relaxation in the mornings and evenings, with exhilaration each day skiing from the doorstep all around this huge ski resort. We skied over 30 miles a day, discovering magnificent views, amazing ski terrain, and delightful chalets for lunch, and found our way back to our cozy comfortable hotel in time for après ski with a great appetite for the nightly cuisine.
More Europe Ski Reviews:
Our Guide to Skiing the Alps
Top Ski Resorts in The Alps
Top Swiss Ski Hotels
“Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, dotted with large wood hotels built on a cuckoo clock style of architecture.” – Ernest Hemingway