Fafleralp

High at 1,789 metres, embraced by the magic of a larch forest, we find a place that reconnects us – with nature, and with the slower rhythm of life found in the mountains.

Faflerstrasse, 3919 Blatten, Switzerland

Nothing better
than this

Words: Isabella Rabensteiner; Photography: Mike Rabensteiner (Montamont)

3 Reasons

+ Hide away from it all

+ The glacier view

+ Retreats in the forest

Rooms

64 rooms and suites spread across the main building and its annexes:

+ Hotel Fafleralp

+ Hotel Langgletscher

+ Chalet Chaplin

+ Three smaller chalets

Architecture (Langgletscher)

+ Atelier Loryplatz

Reopening

+ May 2026

Back in 1906, when everyone else was building grand hotels in the Belle Époque style, a different idea was taking shape at the end of the Lötschental valley. Here, at 1,789 metres above sea level, three men – Bellwald, Ebener and Rieder – imagined a hotel hidden among larch trees, embraced by the forest, that refused to follow the trends of the time.

Artifacts of another era

Fafleralp

Return to paradise

Built entirely in the local style – shingled in wood, airy and unpretentious – the Hotel Fafleralp first opened its charming green shutters in 1908. From day one, the sunny terrace was always full and until recently, the hotel had been a thriving refuge from the world.

But the doors to the Fafleralp hotel are now closed. Today, looking out across the valley, we stand on one of the great boulders that came to rest on this natural terrace long ago. Gazing into the distance, we spot deer between the larches, but before we can take a closer look, they vanish again.

Here we are guests of nature – and it is nature that is deciding Blatten’s fate. The Fafleralp remains steadfast in its quiet persistence, untouched by the landslide yet cut off from the world below. It is one of the last parts of Blatten’s story that is still standing.

These days we would call it a ‘hideaway’. A place of legend that meant so much to a great man of his time, Charlie Chaplin, who would regularly bring his family here in the summer months. Standing on the steps in front of the hotel, he summed it up perfectly when he said: “There’s nothing better than this.”

Fafleralp

Hotel Langgletscher

A short walk from the main house is the Hotel Langgletscher, which opened in 1931. The architects from Atelier Loryplatz, Sandra Münger and Christian Heller, have given the building a new identity – a new dimension of material, light and space. The curtains are inspired by the colours of nature and handmade artworks are displayed on weaving looms.

The hotel remains an unheated stone house, a summer residence for friends and families who value conscious simplicity. Its originality and understated beauty were respectfully preserved during the renovation in 2023.

There is no need for any pictures above the beds here. Gazing out of the beautiful, old windows, we understand that this is what really matters – the essence of alpine living, translated into the present day. A little slice of paradise.