Leukerbad

View from above

The "Hidden Treasures" series reports on places consistent with a philosophy of travel that seeks places English-speaking tourists seldom visit.  For the most part, Hidden Treasures will be geographically defined; villages, towns, even regions. But a Hidden Treasure can also be a hotel, a restaurant, a gallery, a fountain, a vista, a country road, a museum, anything or anyplace, as long as it's worthy of your attention and is off the radar screen of most English-speaking tourists. Though some will be neither 'hidden' - a word that hardly applies to a town on every map of Europe - nor quite reach the 'treasure' level, we think you'll find all merit your consideration.

Up around the Furka Pass, at the foot of the Rhône Glacier, is where the river named Rhône begins it's southwesterly trip to the eastern end of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Think of the Rhône and it's valley between Brig and Martigny as a spine with wiggly ribs extending from it on both sides. The "ribs" are intersecting valleys accessed by dead-end roads that snake up into the Alps. In these higher valleys are found some of Switzerland's best-known resorts: Zermatt, Saas Fee, Crans Montana, Verbier. Others, like Evoléne, Zinal and the Lötschental, are not so well-known - at least by Americans.

In the lesser-known category is Leukerbad, population 1,700, a modest resort enclosed on three sides by the spectacular Gemmiwand, a sheer rock wall that looms some 3,000 feet above it. From the town center, a cable car rises to the Gemmipass at nearly 8,000 feet, where walkers pick their way over a flat, rocky moonscape and picnic by an Alpine lake.

Leukerbad's main attraction for Europeans is the heated thermal waters which flow from the ground at 51 C (124 F) into dozens of public and private baths and pools. The town's public bathing facilities are impressive and extensive and many hotels have spa facilities.