Leysin

Winter sports for non-skiers
Noteworthy for: Leysin's Toboggan Park lets you get some winter sports thrills without actually strapping your skis on.

Word to the wise: You can easily reach Leysin by road or rail. The train journey from Geneva airport takes 1 hour 50 minutes. By motorway it takes 1 hour 30 minutes.
Geneva's hinterland is hardly ill-served for fine ski resorts, but what sets Leysin apart is its excellent toboganning park, open from December to March. With four to eight runs designed afresh each winter season by Swiss Bobsleigh champion Silvio Giobellina, Leysin's park lets you hurtle down icy slopes slumped on inflated inner tubes that look like giant, evil doughnuts.

While some mini slopes are tame enough for children over six, the park also boasts a monster run where sledders fly into the air and land on an airbag. That's not all the village offers of course, and beyond the park Leysin has great snowboarding and cross country ski trails.