Organic Adventure Park, Champéry, Valais

While we stayed at the chalet in Champéry, we took a trip down to the Organic Adventure park in which was the biggest and most unexpected surprise ever!

It is advisable to reserve, because capacity is limited, and I did see some families being turned away as the park was at full capacity when they got there. We had been lucky as we were the last family without a booking to get in before them!

If you are coming by car, be aware that they don’t have a car park as such, and the walk to the entrance is probably about 200m by foot from where you see the sign for the park from the road. If the few parking spots are taken, you would have to park down the road or even at the public car park by the cable car station down towards the village at Grands Paradis.

During the summer, you could also take the free tourist train that passes nearby, and walk from there. You can pick up the train from Champéry station towards Grands Paradis.

Previously, we had seen some Accrobranche type places but typically they would have age or height restrictions, which meant only one of our children, or none of them could participate. Additionally, these types of places only allow the children to climb, meaning that the parents have to wait down below.

This place is not like that at all! Everyone (except the dog, who can enter the premises but must be on a lead) can climb and enjoy the fun together!

The family who runs it are originally Genevois. They spoke perfect English and were extremely welcoming and very good with our children, who by far were the youngest there at the time. A family pass cost CHF79 for all 4 of us.

When speaking with them, it certainly sounded like they had had a rough start since opening the park in 2018. They have been hit by two storms which destroyed the structures, then in 2020 they were closed for most of the year due to the pandemic. We were extremely lucky that the regulations surrounding Covid had just changed, and they were open for two weeks every day for the Easter Holidays.

Everyone got kitted up with a harness and gloves, and off we went to explore the many courses they had!

If it’s your first time visiting, they give you a thorough explanation of how things work. I don’t know anything about ziplines and their mechanisms but the type they use at this particular Adventure Park is one where you lock yourself into the cable, and you cannot get off the cable until you complete the course. This means the order that you put yourselves in when you start is the order you will finish in, and you cannot overtake people. It felt safe because we knew there was no way we could get off the cable mid-travel. The kids felt comfortable swinging in their harness too, and knew that they simply needed to hold on to the rope attached to their harness to avoid swinging around in circles.

The courses are colour coded by difficulty level. Some of the courses are more like an obstacle course, and the last course is a zipline. We did the first few easy courses and both the kids were enjoying themselves so we gradually moved up to the ziplines. It is one course which is a series of ziplines of varying lengths.

I wasn’t surprised how much Kai loved it; he loves to climb things and traverse things - he quickly understood the concept and how to land for the zipline after he did it holding onto his dad, then did the rest of the runs by himself! We had one parent at the front and one parent at the rear as advised by the people there, and this meant there was always someone ahead to catch the children or bring children up the rear if needed.

The children’s harness has a handy handle on their back so you can pull them along the cable if needed.

The obstacle courses were fun, but for a lot of them Miya was simply too small for the big steps or high handles so myself or my husband carried her. Doing this on a wobbly traverse makes it very physically challenging! She could be suspended in her harness and pushed/pulled along the cable, but some of the obstacles were like a big net, which makes that option hard!!!

The Personal Trainer in me would advise against going with extremely young children (say younger than 3 or even older if they are not the intrepid type) because it’s really hard on your core and back to carry a child with one hand while pulling yourself along the course on an unstable traverse! My arms felt like lead the next day I can tell you!

Whilst dogs are allowed, they must be kept on a lead as dogs tend to follow their owners along the courses and can scare other children and families at the park.

It is however in the middle of a hiking trail, I did see many dog walkers making their way under us as we were on the ziplines.

There is even a Via Ferrata just beyond this park called Galerie Défago, which is a path carved out of the side of the mountain overlooking Champéry. This would be a nice walk from Champéry village centre. If you are already here and want to check it out, simply follow the hiking path going through the park!

After we had been having fun here for around 1.5 hours, the afternoon was coming to a close so we stopped off quickly at their little buvette which sells ice cream and beers and other drinks. I think everyone could have stayed a little while longer, but we had dinner plans we had to be back for. I was genuinely sad to leave this place!

If your child does not take to Accrobranche, there is a big trampoline there which a few kids were enjoying while we were there.

One word of warning though, do not forget to shorten your rope before any traverse! The cable system is fed around trees where all the landing platforms are. This means sometimes to get from one section of the course to the next, you have to lengthen your rope to feed your pulley along the cable running around a tree. I forgot one time to shorten it because I got distracted checking the kids’ harnesses, meaning that I was flying very low from the cable and unable to hold onto my pulley, and smacked my shin right into the landing platform!! I wasn’t travelling at full speed thank goodness as I had already landed with the other foot but I have a huge bruise to show for it! It’s by no means a dangerous sport having said this, but you do have to follow safety instructions for a reason ;)

Despite the minor mishap, this is definitely a park we will be coming back for, even if there was nothing else in Champéry! (which clearly there is, lots.) If your children (or yourselves) are thrill-seeking adventure types, this park is sure to please everyone in the family.

Please review the Disclaimer before attempting any walk or activity mentioned on this website.