Driving to Verbier: the A9, Martigny and the Val de Bagnes
Do you need a Swiss vignette to drive to Verbier?
Yes. Verbier is reached off the A9, a green-signed motorway, so the charge is owed long before you take the Martigny-Croix exit. Switzerland offers the vignette in one length only, the annual, whether you are staying a week or the season. Verbier itself is not car-free: you can drive up into the village and park there.
Off the A9 at Martigny-Croix
The A9 is the Rhone valley motorway, and the exit for the Val de Bagnes is Martigny-Croix. Everything up to that exit is charged road, which makes this one of the Swiss ski drives where the answer is a plain yes.
From Martigny the road climbs through Sembrancher and Le Châble before the final ascent to the village.
Because the charge is owed from the first kilometre of the A9, the plate wants an annual Swiss vignette on it before you join. BAZG's shop sells that at the official amount and so does a staffed customs post at the border; we sell the same one with a service fee added and itemised before you pay.
Val de Bagnes roads that close for winter
Several roads in the valley shut in winter: the Col du Tronc and the Col du Lein above Vollèges, and the Croix-de-Coeur road between Verbier and La Tzoumaz.
That matters mostly for a route planner offering a shortcut over one of them. In the ski season the way in is the valley floor.
Refuse any suggested route that leaves the valley road between December and spring, however much time it claims to save.
Parking in the village, or down at Le Châble
Verbier is not car-free, unlike Zermatt, Wengen and Mürren. Verbier Tourisme lists the village's own public car parks: Marais Verts with 230 spaces over four levels, described as the only covered parking in the valley; Ermitage with about 100; Catogne; and Périn with 400, the largest of them.
The alternative is to leave the car at Le Châble and ride up by cable car or bus, a connection the tourist office puts at roughly 20 minutes, with the cable car charged at the same fare as the bus.
Choose Le Châble if the car is not going to move again until you go home.
The Great St Bernard tunnel is charged separately
The Great St Bernard road tunnel links the Valais with Italy's Aosta Valley. It is run jointly by TGSB SA, which holds the Canton of Valais concession for the Swiss half, and Italy's SITRASB, with revenue divided through their jointly owned company SISEX.
The operator runs its own toll and its own payment system, separate from ordinary use of the Swiss motorway network. A vignette on the windscreen is not a ticket for the tunnel, though we could not get the operator itself to confirm that no allowance is made for one.
Treat the tunnel as its own charge if you are coming up from Aosta, and pay it at the portal.