GEORGE Michael’s heartbreak aside, the holiday in the music video for Last Christmas by Wham! looks like the best festive fun, with skiing, wine, friends and snowball fights.
So as the festive hit celebrates its 40th anniversary by returning to the top of the UK charts, what better time to experience the very spot where the footage was shot — Saas-Fee in Switzerland.
Take a trip to Saas-Fee in Switzerland, where Wham! shot the music video for Last Christmas[/caption]
Labrynth-like Walliserhof Grand Hotel & Spa is where the band and crew stayed during filming[/caption]
The food is plentiful and gluttonously satisfying, whether in resort or up among the snowy peaks[/caption]
If you want, you can even, like me and my group, go the extra mile and recreate the video as most of the original locations are still there.
There’s even a lifesize cut-out of Wham! icon Andrew Ridgeley, as well as model Kathy Hill, who played the object of Andrew and George’s affections in the video, next to a ski lift you can pose with.
So armed with guyliner, clip-on hoop earrings, blusher, lip gloss and a dodgy wig I’d hacked into an extremely rough approximation of George’s Eighties bouffant, we checked in to the Walliserhof Grand Hotel & Spa where the band and crew stayed during filming.
The first thing to note about Saas-Fee is the main reason it was chosen for the video — it can lay claim to having the best and most consistent snow in Europe thanks to its glacier location.
It really is the stuff of dreams — a blanket of soft powder that you can sink up to your knees in, which makes for great skiing or snowboarding.
Ski-wise, the set-up of the slopes means the resort is best suited to either beginners or experts.
There are 100km of slopes in Saas-Fee itself, with an extra 50km easily accessible.
But, as my instructor Megan put it, the blues are easy blues and the reds are hard reds, so it can be a stretch if you’re somewhere in the middle like me.
For good skiers, the snow quality is unsurpassed and more than makes up for the piste map not being as sprawling as elsewhere.
Back at the labyrinthine Walliserhof, with its stunning, seemingly endless spa and sauna complex, we threw ourselves into the Wham! festive spirit.
There was an augmented-reality scavenger hunt, ending in George’s suite filled with band memorabilia, a signature George Michael cocktail at the hotel bar, and a nearby Wham! exhibition at the surprisingly absorbing Saas-Fee museum.
The very next day, we went on a guided tour to see the chalet from the video, and staged our own snowball fight and chase.
By this point, my George wig was getting rather battered and tatty, and the resulting video looked more like Worzel Gummidge or Rod Stewart starring in The Shining than Wham!
But it was tremendous fun, nonetheless, and we were all helpless with giggling for most of the trip.
Even if you’re not a skier or a connoisseur of cheesy Eighties Christmas classics, Saas-Fee has a lot to offer. It’s a car-free, eco-sustainable resort, and quite compact.
So it’s refreshing to walk around the many quaint Alpine bars, with the only danger being from one of the electric milk floats that help ferry you around.
Last Christmas celebrates its 40th anniversary by returning to the top of the UK chart[/caption]
The food is plentiful and gluttonously satisfying, whether in resort or up among the snowy peaks.
There, you’ll find The Allalin, the world’s highest revolving restaurant.
It is 3,500 metres above sea level and accessible via a Bond-like Metro Alpin underground funicular, which also counts as the world’s highest subway.
Down in the resort, we also enjoyed a brief diversion at the Capra hotel, run by a former London financier called George and his gracious family.
They’ve put so much love and attention to detail into each part of the luxury set-up that it’s almost overwhelming, from the Fun Lab games room to the high-end spa and two Michelin key-winning food and wine.
Back in the Walliserhof hotel, we had a choice of three restaurants, which I would summarise in turn as Italian, posh and cheese fondue heaven.
Winter wonderland
Before I could gorge myself comatose on the fondue, however, I had another gorge on the agenda, namely the Alpine Canyon, which would have a markedly different impact on my stomach.
This was a three-hour trek through a snowy paradise, using zipwires and the “via ferrata” system of iron rungs hammered into the side of the mountain.
I started off quite confident but, by the halfway stage — despite being clipped on by two carabiners on my harness — I was trembling while trying to fumble my way around the sheer cliffs as our mountain guide looked on with bemusement.
It hardly helped when he told me that, in the past few years alone, a few adventurers had died because they’d foolishly ignored the warnings and chanced it without a guide.
Whether it was the rickety, snow-covered wooden bridges, the bonkers abseil from a wobbly metal ladder protruding into the abyss past a waterfall of spectacular icy stalactites, or swinging across the canyon as a river gushed a frighteningly long drop below, I’ve never felt so much like a cut-price Indiana Jones.
There is a choice of three restaurants, which can be summarised in turn as Italian, posh and cheese fondue heaven[/caption]
The Sun’s Jayme Bryla joins the celebrations as singer George Michael[/caption]
Thank God there was no giant boulder rolling down the path or I would have missed my pressing appointment with the fondue.
Once my knees had stopped knocking, there was time for a final dose of Christmas cheer with a town centre karaoke box — which, this month, is specifically set for one song only (you’ll never guess what . . . ).
In summary, Saas-Fee (as with Switzerland in general) may require you to cover your eyes and gulp as you hand your credit card over.
But it is an experience that, even 40 years on, leaps straight out of the music video, and would be a chocolate-box winter wonderland even without the Wham! connection.
I can’t imagine a more faithful way to experience a snapshot of life as the late, great George Michael.
And if, like me, you have ever dreamed of having a Wham! Christmas, you won’t get better than in snowy Saas-Fee.
Next year, to save me from tears, I hope to go somewhere just as special.
GO: SAAS-FEE
GETTING THERE: Swiss fly to Zurich from Heathrow with fares from £72 one way and to Geneva with fares from £54. See swiss.com. A Swiss Travel Pass is from £229 for three days. See switzerland.com/travel.
STAYING THERE: Rooms at the Walliserhof Grand Hotel & Spa in Saas-Fee from £286pp, per night including breakfast. See walliserhof-saasfee.ch.
MORE INFO: See saas-fee.ch.
