If you fancy a change from chalets and cuckoo clocks, head to Laax, an über-cool Swiss ski destination that bulges with boutique eco hotels, bars with brushed-steel interiors and minimalist restaurants.

Laax is the umbrella name for the village of the same name as well as Flims and Falera. The combined resort has undergone a massive injection of investment and is being marketed as “the iPod of the Alps” — innovative, design-led and trendy.

The area was originally a snowboarders’ destination (it was one of the first to embrace boarding and now claims to be the snowboarding capital of Europe). Now it also caters for an infinitely stylish ski crowd.

One of the most fashionable places to stay is the new ski-in, ski-out Rocksresort, an eco-haven of selfcatering apartment blocks sitting beside the Laax base station.

The blocks were inspired by the surrounding mountain landscape and look like giant sugar-cube shaped boulders randomly scattered across the piste. Each houses slick designer apartments as well as a network of shops and restaurants and the whole complex has impressive green credentials.

Alternatively, if you want to hang out with the boarders and freestyle ski bums, stay at the cheap and cheerful Riders Palace in Laax, which offers bargain dormitory-style male or female-only rooms as well as normal rooms. It also has a lively bar and lounge, plus a club with DJs, where you can rock the night away.

If money is no object, check in to the swish five-star Waldhaus Flims Mountain Resort & Spa in nearby Flims. It has huge rooms, fancy glass lifts and a spa area complete with dayglo, plastic designer furniture and stainless steel underwater beds in the outside whirlpool bath area.

Skiing in the whole resort is excellent, particularly for intermediates, and there is great terrain for snowboarders too. Laax is home to Europe’s largest half-pipe, boasting no less than four snow parks, as well as 220km (136 miles) of beautifully groomed corduroy slopes.

There are endless cruisey blue runs and unchallenging reds all over the resort, although rather limited terrain for black-run skiers. The two home runs leading down in to Flims and Laax are immensely pretty and tree lined.

When it comes to eating, there is a wide choice of restaurants on the slopes that are as far as you can get from the traditional fondue stops and grotty self-service cafeterias.

At the Capalari restaurant by the Crap Sogn Gion lift station, all glass-fronted and industrial chic on the outside with giant wooden refectory tables inside, diners tuck into local specialities such as barley soup and cold cuts and cheese piled high on wooden boards.

Another option is the Tegia Curnius restaurant in Falera, where the walls are adorned with animal heads and tartan wallpaper and you can chill out on squishy leather sofas.

For an alternative eating experience, book La Vacca, a giant teepee on the slopes by the Plaun lift station. This serves up fabulous steaks in a gorgeous cow-themed interior (la Vacca means cow in Romansch, the local dialect).

For a lively après-ski drink head to the Riders Palace and mingle with the snowboarding crowd or try the buzzing Crap Bar (crap translates as peak) at the base of the home run in Laax, or the Legna Bar in Flims.

It is not just the resort of Laax that is achingly stylish, Even the cows look as if they have been styled. They live in brushed-steel, bleached-wood designer cow sheds on the slopes.

Laax also runs like clockwork. The Weisse Arena Gruppe, the company behind the “iPod” marketing initiative, grew out of a merger between the ski lift and cable car companies plus various hotels, restaurants, ski hire outlets and ski schools. Everything is run as a seamless, one-stop shop operation.