Skiing with kids: Schwarzsee

We have already been twice to Schwarzsee (literally the Black Lake) in the Canton of Fribourg, but only in spring and summer, not in winter. So last weekend we decided to rectify this imperfection and went skiing to this friendly little ski area. You can read about our experience there in my today´s blog post.

How to get there

1716 Plaffeien, Schweiz

Schwarzsee is situated in the Plaffein municipality, you can get there by car (from Bern in 55 minutes). You can also use a public transport (bus line No.123 from Fribourg, bus stop Gypsera).

Skiing

Well, honestly, I quite hesitated whether to tag this post “skiing with kids”. Yes, there is a great snowpark – with kids lift, magic carpet and lots of training tools, but they´re available only for those of them, who will pay lessons in local ski school. And I was a little bit disappointed by this fact.

But if you don´t want to pay for a ski school for your kids, don´t hesitate to sit them on the chairlift and take them up to Riggisalp, where you can find nice slopes where your kids can improve their skiing skills. I recommend especially the blue slope along the T-bone lift (Skilift Riggisalpboden), that is quite flat and perfectly suitable for beginners.

If your kids are more proficient skiers, they will surely enjoy other slopes.

Sledding

If your kids don´t fancy or are too small for skiing, you can take them to the nearby harmless sledding slope. If you don´t have your sleds, you can rent them in the “Side Cut” shop (where you can also rent skis).

Other activities

Walking around or on the frozen lake is a pleasant experience. You can follow the Witch Trail – as I´ve mentioned, we´ve been here twice and in both cases, we followed the “Häxenwääg” (you can read about it here and here)

Or you can just observe the nature and maybe if you´re lucky, you can stumble upon a beaver (or at least his piece of artwork :))

Not far away there is an open-air chapel (Dankes-Grotte) of Our Lady of Lourdes, where you can spend few peaceful minutes.

Cca 45 minutes walk (or few minutes car ride) in the direction to Plaffein takes you to Eispalaste (Ice palaces). Unfortunately, we didn´t make a stop there (our kids were too tired), but from what we could see from the car it must´ve been a great walk among various beautifully lit formations made of ice.

Refreshments

There are a few possibilities where to have your lunch or coffee. Whether you choose Café Mamsell, Restaurant Schwarzseestern or Gypsera, you´ll always have a nice view of the surroundings. We´ve tried Restaurant Gypsera, that has two parts – with service and without. But even in the self-service part of the restaurant, you can find kids´ high chairs and a microwave to warm your kids´ food.