Ski Resort Guide: Avoriaz

My wife and I were in Avoriaz w/c 9th Jan and stayed in one of the self-catering apartments opposite the Dromonts drag lifts. We liked the car-free nature of the resort and enjoyed the atmosphere in the evenings. We had a couple of very good meals in the Boulle de Niege including an excellent raclette. The resort was noisy at night however after the pubs / clubs closed and also in the morning when the piste basher was working on the runs through the village centre.

This was our first time in the Portes du Soleil although we've both skied 25+ weeks. We had 3 glorious sunny days at the start of the holiday, fresh snow mid-week followed by another sunny day on the Friday. Snow were conditions were excellent on the whole even at lower levels and we enjoyed travelling around the various parts Portes du Soleil.

We were very impressed with the skiing on offer although there were a number of very old slow chair lifts. We didn't see any of the hi-speed 6 packs that have been installed in other resorts in the French Alps. The system does work well however and though we didn't have any lift queues this would probably be different during peak periods. We did find ourselves having to pole between lifts connections which was a bit tedious.

We had a couple of excellent days in Morzine and enjoyed the runs down from Chamossiere and Pointe de Nyon which are the high points of the area. We also skied over to Les Gets and found some great sunny and uncrowded runs including a memorable morning doing the runs on both sides of Pointe de Chery.

We had another good day when we crossed over the Swiss border to Les Crosets. We enjoyed the long Grand Paradis red run down to Planachaux although the lower part through the trees was sunless. We also skied down to Morgins via the beautiful isolated blue Tovassiere run. We then made our way back towards Champoussin via a series of drag lifts only to find that we could not get back over the ridge to Les Crosets as the Pointe de l'Au chairlift was not working. We were faced with a very long and awkward traverse around the hillside which was made more difficult by the snow having been scrapped away by earlier skiers. Having finally completed this traverse we then had to ski though the resort of Les Crosets, over peoples gardes, across roads etc until we finally reached the piste.

A couple of days later, we were chatting to an English woman who lives in the area and were informed that this link was shut for the whole season. The lift company had applied to upgrade the lift but were met with local opposition. Permission had finally been granted but this was received too late to commence work before this winter and would now not be ready until next year. The only alternative to the traverse back is via the bus.

We can recommend Avoriaz to anyone who enjoys high mileage cruising and we will look forward to returning again in the future.

I had a great 2 weeks in Avoriaz in January with lots of fresh snow in the first week. I was shown around the mountain by the Ski Club rep Gillie Revill, who I would recommend to anyone. The slopes are a good mix of easy intermediate to expert - not much for beginners though. Anyone interested in hiring a self-catering apartment, can get quite reasonable rates from www.avoriazlets.com, but the bars in Avoriaz are extremely expensive (5/6 euros per pint). For anyone going by bus (www.altibus.com) from Geneva airport to Avoriaz, it's best to be dropped of at Avoriaz Station, then it's just a short walk to Avoriaz town centre, or there are horse drawn sleighs to take you to your apartment (9.50 euros). A good proportion of the resort, is in Switzerland, but they will take euros in the restaurants on the mountain so no need for Swiss Francs. I was never stopped by Swiss or French patrols, but remember to take your passport, just in case.

We have now been to Avoriaz for the past 4 years and we are finding it hard to book a ski holiday anywhere else. We ski with our 4 kids and both of our dads and resort is perfect for all of us. For the kids you couldn't find a better ski school than Village des Enfants, such a special place and the kids have loved being with kids from all over, not just a bunch of brits! My husband is a boarder and there is a huge array of parks from the green trashers to the stash in the woods, a huge halfpipe and that doesn't even count the main one! This is just in Avoriaz, and you can ski the whole Portes de Soleil.

Even last year when the snow wasn't great we were never short of high snow covered slopes. This year was just awesome. I just can't imagine a better family resort. Four years in and we are still discovering the wider area, there are just so many runs, I can see us there for at least a couple more years yet!

Stayed in Avoriaz between Christmas and New Year 07-08. The snow was fantastic - 130cm even in resort, v lucky compared to previous year, plus the link to Switzerland was open. Great variety of slopes preferred French side as lfts better, newer and no T bars!

Excellent blues and reds, good resort for intermediates wanting to improve, not too crowded once up on mountain. Lifts from village busy straight after lunch. Overall v good, planning to go back at Easter.

We have just returned from from a fantastic week's skiing at Club Med Avoriaz. Club Med was perfect for us - very welcoming to Brits - fabulous food and really comfortable all round - couldn't fault it. Last week in March 07 was great - masses of good quality snow and beautiful sunny days - perfect conditions all round. We would recommend this lovely car free resort to anyone. You arrive at the transfer station a little way outside the main village and you can take a horse drawn sleigh or snow mobile to your hotel/chalet (this cost was covered in our package - you might need to pay for this otherwise). We skied straight in and out of the back of our Club Med hotel - with easy access to all the slopes. There's plenty of wide open blue motorway type pistes, and nursery slopes seem run through and around the village. Lots of red runs for more experienced and my son and his snowboard group found loads of testing blacks which he loved. There's also a snow park not far away and some fun ramps just outside the village. You'll find yourself crossing into Switzerland on some of the lifts and a trip down to Morzine is quite easy. There's open air cafes/restaurants in village, some reasonable nightlife and plenty of shops (pharmacy/ski/clothes/supermarket etc).

We loved Avoriaz - can't wait to go back!

Just arrived back from avoriaz

rain for 3 days

most pistes getting bare. Top runs ok early in the day but poor runs midday and lower runs unskiable.

Have just spent 4 days skiing in Avoriaz and surrounding area. I was actually staying in Les Gets but no snow! We drove every morning from Les Gets to Morzine and got the super morzine lift up and crossed over to Avoriaz. We did not stay in Avoriaz. Its car free and set spectacularly on the top of a cliff and does have amazing views. It is truly ski in ski out. I would never stay there but many of the surrounding and linked villages and towns are nice. The Porte du Soleil ski area is excellent and the lifts fairly modern. The on piste food is also very good.

Visited the resort over New Year 2007, period and were very fortunate to have good dusting of snow. The runs were well looked after and the atmosphere was alive.

Further to my partial update on the resort I feel I need to inform those attending good points I found within the village, namely when eating within the village. I feel I must bring to your attention the wonderful (Les Intrets) and (La Duchess Anne), both restaurants were very friendly and accomodating at very short notice and the food marvelous.

This is a great resort with consistently good snow. This season when the 3 Vallees was suffering Avoriaz had plenty. In the village transport can be a bit chaotic especially on changeover days - but if you stay at La Falaise you can carry your stuff to the underground car parks and not wait for the buggies. For ski hire try Winners in the centre (next to Shopi),very helpful - much better than the stroppy Ski Set shop opposite.

We went to Avoriaz for Christmas 04. We were very lucky with the snow, there was a 1m dump 2 days before we got there and it started snowing on christmas day and was still snowing when we left ! Nice resort, nice food, just make sure you have a hefty pair of boots on your feet whilst walking about the town of an evening. Nice big ski area - something for everyone. Would definately go back there again!

Worst piste map we have ever seen. Nice enough resort but a bit limited for non skiers. Best restaurant is La Reserva by the bridge. Try the lamb and the choccy duff

Have to disagree about the British Alpine...School. The classes were badly organised with too wide a mixture of abilities, the instructor didn't show one day, and on others the teaching elements were minimal.

Despite low altitude snow records are good in this part of savoie and this is evidenced by official figures published by meteo france. Avoriaz has consistently received more snow than tarentaise resorts at the same altitude particularly more than les menuires , meribel etc.. So it is definitely a snow guaranteed resort as is the case again this year (50 cm at resort level and 100cm on top).