French and German Alps

Chamonix and Garmisch-partenkirchen both offer beautiful mountain scenery and terrific hiking. G-P in particular offers unigue and interesting hikes through gorges and a choice of two different Klettersteig routes up the Alpspitz. However, they are not at all similar to Gimmelwald in other respects. Both are large, bustling tourist destiinations-large towns rather than quaint villages. If you want to location without the big city, you could stay in nearby Grainau, at th efoot of the Zugspitze, for G-P. and one of the smaller villages outside of Chamonix, such as Les Praz. But don't write off Zermatt. There is great hiking there too, and you can avoid the town (which is actually smaller than either Chamonix or G-P) by staying in a mountain inn above the valley floor. There are many of them arranged in a circuit that you can hike without ever going down into Zermatt itself.

We also really enjoyed the Swiss alps. Last year we spent 3 days in Berchtesgaden, small Bavarian town with a nice view of the Mount Watzmann, lots of hiking possibilities, we went to lake Konigssee and stopped at Salet island and did a very beautiful hike there.

The Zugspitze is really only half in Germany, half in Austria, so if it technically has to be in Germany still, your best bet for German Alps is further west by Oberstdorf. Neither place is as impressive really as deep Austria (Lech, Kitzbuhel, etc.) and Swiss Alps, though. Chamonix is crowded and touristy to me, but places like Verbier, CH are really cute and have great Alps appeal and aren't that far from Chamonix.

So which hike in Verbier would you recommend? Would you recommend multi days hike?