The best ski resorts in France: from budget to bling
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Loading... - Megan Miller
- 05 Jan 2022
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The winter ski season in the blockbuster French Alps, quieter Pyrenees and low-key Jura Mountains typically runs mid-December to April. The highest-altitude alpine resorts such as Val Thorens (Europe’s highest), Val d’Isère and Les Deux Alpes are the first to open in late November, depending on snowfall. Limited downhill skiing on glaciers above 3000m (9842ft) in Tignes and Les Deux Alpes guarantees a corduroy fix for four weeks or so in July or August: each year warmer temperatures and glacial melt shorten the summer ski season a little more.
Christmas and February school holidays are peak season: expect sky-high transport and accommodation prices, packed bars and restaurants, queues for ski lifts. Book months in advance to bag your choice of place (old-world alpine hamlet, car-free village, purpose-built resort) and bolt-hole (mountain hut with bunks, family-run hotel, self-catering chalet, luxury cocoon with spoiling hot tub and soul-soaring, snowy-peak view).
To cut carbon, train it to the French Alps and use public transport or local car-sharing services like BlaBlaCar or Morzine Co-Voiturage for the final leg from station to snow. From the UK, ride the overnight snow train TravelSki Express to Bourg St-Maurice or pair a Paris-bound Eurostar with connecting TGV and regional train; Snowcarbon is a handy rail planner.
Morzine–Avoriaz
Best for eco riders
A resort’s ecological footprint is becoming increasingly vital to skiers. Green-thinking Morzine–Avoriaz hits the spot with renewable energy-powered chalet accommodation, electric-vehicle transfers and car-sharing, zero-waste initiatives and plant-based dining. Skiers can rent ski clothing from Crevasse Clothing, feast on artisan cuisine showcasing local produce at Avoriaz’s cool new hotel-restaurant hangout MiL8, drink zero-waste coffee roasted in the valley by Cafés Vorlaz and chink craft beer with local eco-riders at Morzine’s experimental microbrewery Bec Jaune. Both resorts, accessible by train to Cluses or Geneva then shared transfer, carry the Flocon Vert (‘Green Snowflake’) label, awarded for sustainable practice to 11 resorts in France.
Skiing for all levels is sublime. Morzine and Avoriaz lounge in the family-friendly Portes du Soleil ski area (400km/249mi of runs), but couldn’t be more different in character: Brit-loved Morzine is a party-loving market town stitched from traditional wooden chalets and slate-tiled roofs; higher up the mountain at 1800m (5906ft), ski-in-ski-out Avoriaz is a whimsical car-free cocktail of 1960s avant-garde architecture and snowy streets charmed with old-world, horse-drawn sleighs.
Megève
Best for foodies
Another Chamonix Valley honeypot, this upmarket village-resort with baroque old town and a photogenic fleet of chichi horse-drawn carriages was dreamt up in the 1920s by alpine escape-seeking Baroness Noémie de Rothschild (of vintner and banking fame). It has been a hit with Parisians, gastronomes and well-heeled families ever since.
This is the only French ski resort to twinkle with three Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurants (top French chefs Emmanuel Renaut, Anne-Sophie Pic and Anthony Bisquerra) and winter reboots of St-Tropez’s iconic Le Café and the Parisian piano-cocktail bar Le Piaf.
Lunching on the slopes is memorable. Rustic chalets d’alpage, once used by summertime shepherds, pepper the resort’s family-friendly slopes in the Évasion Mont Blanc ski area. Some harbor atmospheric Savoyard eateries. Refueling on melted Comte on toast, tartiflette oozing gooey Reblochon cheese and blueberry tart at Chalet Le Forestier or Auberge du Bonjournal are ski-holiday highlights. Après-ski with truffle pizza and oysters at L’Idéal 1850, and dinner at 1930s mountain restaurant Les Mandarines (ski down by torchlight afterward) are equally wow.
Espace Killy
Best for families (especially teens)
Gargantuan in size and variety, Espace Killy in the upper Tarentaise Valley is the dream all-rounder. From miles of jaw-dropping off-piste descents to green, beginner- and tot-friendly baby slopes, this phenomenal ski area has your back – whatever age or level. At its heart sits blockbuster resorts Val d’Isère and Tignes. Both require cash to splash, but compensate with world-class facilities, the whole gamut of accommodation and dining, and brilliant nightlife: legendary Folie Douce is the alfresco hotspot on the snow to kick off the après-ski party with glitzy dancers on stage, DJs and rogue table dancing.
Lakeside Tignes is for adrenaline junkies. On frozen Lac de Tignes, younger children can play in a snow labyrinth and igloos, ice skate and try curling. Daredevil teens can fly down a ski jump and hurl themselves bungee-jump style into a 40m (131ft) void with Bun J Ride. Ice diving and ice floating are pretty cool too.
