5 Days in the Portes du Soleil

The first lift of the whole Portes du Soleil stood here: a 25-seat cable car built in 1934 and opened to the public on 15 December of that year. Today's Pléney gondola climbs from beside the village center to the Pléney plateau at about 1,550 m, and from the top you start the sector that connects to Nyon and across to Les Gets.

Ride up early and look at the Pléney beginner area first. Only the gondola and two carpets, Nabor and Viking, are open there before the main season, and the sector has the village's kids' zones, the Parc des Pingouins and the Chemin des Zouzous.

From the village, the Nyon cable car takes you to the plateau, and from there chairlifts reach the Chamossière (2,002 m) and Pointe de Nyon (2,019 m) summits. This is where Morzine puts its boardercross and fun park, and the runs are broad, forested and mostly blue and red. It is a good place to find your legs at the start of a week.

Park at Nyon if you drive, because the Nyon car park is free in winter and a covered escalator links it to the cable car. A strong skier will find the sector short of steep ground. Save the hard runs for Switzerland.

The Restaurant La Pointe de Nyon sits at 1,500 m on the Plateau de Nyon, and the Morzine lift operator promotes it as more than a lunch stop. It is the easiest sit-down lunch of the day, close to the lifts you will use to cross into Les Gets.

Order the plat du jour or a tartiflette (see the food section) and take a full hour.

Les Gets is the other half of the sector. It sits on the Col des Gets at 1,172 m, and its lifts start from the village. The Chavannes sector, reached from the village by gondola, is the family side: wide, sunny slopes and the link back toward Morzine. The Ranfoilly chairlift, a six-seater opened in 2017, runs at 6 m a second, the fastest in the whole area.

Intermediates will like it more than experts, and it suits a mixed group because the sector is built for families.

Mont Chéry is the quiet side of Les Gets. The village's tourist office describes it as the place for peace and contemplation, with more private slopes and views of the Mont Blanc range. Finish the day here with a long run to the village and walk through the center. Les Gets became a winter resort in the 1930s, when the first drag lift went up and visitors from Geneva began to arrive.

Morzine is a real village of about 2,700 people, and its restaurants range from Savoyard to modern. Tartiflette and Reblochon are the traditional order after a ski day, and the village has a supermarket, a weekly market and cheese and pastry shops if you cook for yourselves.

Walk the center after dinner. The slate roofs are a reminder that Morzine lived on slate quarries from the 18th to the 20th century before skiing took over.

Avoriaz had a cable car before it had a village. The first Prodains cable car opened in March 1963, from the hamlet of Prodains in the valley above Morzine, and the workers who built it slept in the first chalet on the plateau. The old cable car was later replaced by a modern 3S one. It is still the way in from Morzine: a car park sits at the bottom, and the lift takes you straight to the village in a few minutes.

If you sleep in Morzine, this is your commute. Go early, because the Super Morzine gondola, in the village, is the alternative when the queue is long.

Avoriaz was the project of Jean Vuarnet, the 1960 Olympic downhill champion, who obtained the alpine pasture of Avoriaz and raised private money to build a resort on it. It opened in January 1967, designed by architects including Jacques Labro in an organic style meant to blend with the mountain setting. It has no cars, and people move on skis, on foot and by horse-drawn sleigh.

Walk the center and judge the buildings for yourself, because few people feel neutral about them. The reindeer on the resort's logo come from the reindeer that were brought in from Finland in the early days. The village has a pharmacy, a post office, shops and ski rental, and every accommodation is ski-in, ski-out.

The Stash is a snow park laid out in the forest, with wooden features among the trees, and it was imported from North Star in California. It has runs for intermediates and experts and a snake run for boardercross fans. Lil'Stash, reached by a green and a blue run from the village, is the beginner version with tree huts and a self-service barbecue area.

Avoriaz has four snowparks and four snowcross zones in all, which is why snowboarders and freestylers base themselves here. If you don't ride parks, ride The Stash anyway for the forest runs, and have a hot chocolate in the hut halfway down.

From the top of the Proclou or Tour chairlifts, Avoriaz's own guide sends you toward the Lindarets valley on the blue runs Covagnes and Combe à Floret, or the red Les Tonnes. They are wide, sunny, relaxed runs, and the valley opens up as you go.

This is the first run into the world beyond Avoriaz: the same valley leads to Châtel on day 4 and to Switzerland on day 3.

Les Lindarets is a hamlet at the bottom of the valley, famous in summer for its goats. The road that reaches it is closed in winter, so it is a village of mountain restaurants that you ski to. The association's restaurant list includes La Ferme des Lindarets, La Terrasse des Lindarets, La T'chapa and Les Alpages in Montriond.

Order a plate of local cheese or a fondue and sit in the sun if you can.

After the lifts close, Avoriaz is quiet and very pretty in the snow. The après-ski is built around La Folie Douce, which in 2025/26 ran a retro party every Tuesday. Check the programme for the week you travel, because it changes from season to season.

If you want a calm evening, walk the center or ride a sleigh. Aquariaz, the indoor pool (see day 5), is open until 19:30 except on Saturday.

The Pas de Chavanette is the pass on the border between France and Switzerland at about 2,150 m. From Avoriaz you board the Stade chairlift, take the blue run called Aller de Chavanette and reach the Chavanette area, where the Choucas chairlift and the Chavanette drag lift serve the border.

On a clear day you can see both countries, and the Dents du Midi stand across the valley. This is where the first lifts between Avoriaz, Les Crosets and Champéry met in 1969, and where the world's first international lift pass was used.

The Swiss Wall, officially the Chavanette run, starts on the border and drops into Switzerland toward Les Crosets. The facts: it falls about 330 m over roughly 900 m, starts at about 2,150 m on the border, and begins at a pitch of more than 40 degrees in a narrow pass. The top is too steep for the groomers, so it is a field of moguls, and after heavy snow they can grow to the size of a small car. It is rated orange, which is too hard for the normal color scale. Swiss newspapers have reported that roughly twenty people are hurt on it each year, and the Avoriaz tourist office calls it one of the most vertiginous runs in Europe.

You have two options: tackle it, or take the Chavanette chairlift beside it, which the Avoriaz tourist office describes as the gentle way into Switzerland. For almost everyone, that is the right answer; read the piste map at the top before you commit. If you do try the Wall, look at it first and be ready to traverse left, where the run widens after the first 50 meters.

Les Crosets is the true hub of the Swiss side, thanks to its links to the other resorts. It was purpose built in the 1960s and is small: lifts, restaurants and a view of the Dents du Midi. Its lifts reach three summits that connect back to Avoriaz, Pointe des Mossettes, Grand Conche and Chavanette.

This is where you decide the afternoon. If the sun is out and the clock reads before noon, there is time for Champoussin and Champéry. If not, ride the Swiss side of the Mossettes back to Lindarets.

Le Chaudron 1818 is a hotel-restaurant between Champéry and Les Crosets, at 1,818 m, and it calls itself the highest table in the Dents du Midi region. It serves alpine cooking and brasserie dishes with local products, at lunch and dinner in season, and has a terrace facing the Dents Blanches and the Ruan glacier.

Prices are in Swiss francs here, and it is worth having a card that works in both currencies. The Swiss side is dearer than the French one, so a shared fondue or raclette is the sensible order.

Champoussin sits on a plateau in a mountain cirque and looks straight at the Dents du Midi. It is quiet, with a handful of chalets, and it links Les Crosets with Morgins. On the way, the Aiguille des Champeys chairlift and a red run toward the Pointe de l'Au bring you back toward Les Crosets.

Ski it for the views of the Dents du Midi, and because it is a quieter corner than Les Crosets.

Champéry is a Swiss village at about 1,050 m below the Dents du Midi, and it hosted the curling at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. The Planachaux cable car (a vertical drop of 899 m) and the six-seat Grand-Paradis chairlift link it to the ski area.

No piste reaches the village: you ski to the Grand-Paradis chairlift or take the Planachaux cable car down, and ride back up to rejoin the area. Go down only if you plan to stay for a drink.

The Châtel side begins at the top of the Chaux Fleurie chairlift, which you reach through Lindarets. It was built in 1981 along with the Rochassons chairlift to join Avoriaz and Châtel, and over the ridge the view changes to a wide, open valley.

Below the lift is the hamlet of Plaine Dranse, where almost every house has become a restaurant and a small chapel is built into the rock. You will come back to it for lunch.

The Linga sector has north-facing slopes, so the snow stays cold and fast in most conditions. Two lifts take you to the summit in eight minutes, which gives almost 800 m of continuous vertical drop. The Linga run itself is the sector's classic, steep and consistent, and the alpine ski stadium beside it hosts international speed events.

Pré-la-Joux, below, has modern detachable chairlifts through canyons and forest and is where the Fantasticable starts. Strong intermediates should ski the Linga twice, once warm-up, once for real.

Plaine Dranse is where the Châtel lunch happens. The area's official restaurant list includes the Bar Restaurant Plaine Dranse Vuarand, Le Chalet de Théo and, for crêpes, the Crêperie La Tane Ô Marmottes in the middle of the runs. A tartiflette or a plate of diots is the standard order.

Eat early, before 13:00, because the whole of Châtel does the same. The last lift of the day should be a plan, not a surprise.

Super-Châtel is the sunny side, with gentle green and blue runs and views over Lake Geneva, the village, Mont Blanc and the Dents du Midi. Two lifts opened in 2015 to link it with the Linga sector, so you can now ski between them without a bus.

If you ski with beginners, this is where they learn. If you ski alone, it's where you take an easy afternoon after the Linga.

Châtel is a village of 1,174 people at about 1,200 m that kept its chalet character despite becoming a major resort. Its cheese is Abondance, an AOP raw-milk cheese made on spruce boards and tied to the monks of the Abondance valley, whose cheese-making goes back to the 12th century by the tourist office's count.

La Cave d'Azélie, in the center, is a ripening cellar and a boutique open all year. Buy a wedge for the room, then head back up.

The short way home is the way you came: the lifts and runs from Plaine Dranse over the Chaux Fleurie ridge and down toward Lindarets, then up to Avoriaz. Start by about 15:00 and check on the live map that every lift on the route is still running.

The famous Circuit is the alternative for the whole day, not an afternoon stop: from Avoriaz round to Châtel and back through Switzerland by Torgon, Morgins, Champoussin and Les Crosets. A route description from the Avoriaz side puts it at about six hours for a skier of moderate experience, not counting lunch, and warns that you can end up in Switzerland as the afternoon shadows lengthen, with many lifts still between you and a French base. Do it only on a clear day with good snow, start before 9:30 and set a turnaround time. The low links toward Torgon and Morgins close first in spring, and the run to Morgins is often shut late in the season.

The church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine dates from 1805, and its organ, which came from a church in the Valais, is protected. The village's story is stranger than it looks: from 1857 to 1870 several dozen women in Morzine suffered convulsions and hallucinations and said they were possessed by devils. Doctors who examined them treated it as a form of hysteria, and modern psychiatry calls it conversion disorder.

Morzine also lived on slate quarrying from the 18th to the 20th century, until winter tourism took over. Walk past the war memorial, built in 1921, and the town hall, then take a coffee on the main street.

Les Gets has a Musée de la musique mécanique with a collection of over 900 instruments, including mechanical instruments from the 19th century, in a former presbytery that became the museum in 1988. The village church has a related curiosity, an organ that plays itself: an automatic 1,000-pipe instrument, is listed as a historic monument and is described as unique in Europe.

It is the village's classic rainy-day visit and the best reason for the trip over the pass. Les Gets has also hosted a festival of mechanical music every two years in July.

The Fruitière des Perrières is a working cheese dairy in Les Gets, and the tourist office lists a visit among its winter activities. It is the easiest way to see local cheese made without leaving the village.

The free guided tour is listed for Wednesday at 10:00 and needs a booking by text message, so on a Friday this is a shop stop: buy a cheese to take back.

Aquariaz is Avoriaz's water center at 1,800 m, with a river-style pool among tropical plants, a heated children's pool at 32 degrees, a half-pipe slide, a climbing wall and an outdoor jacuzzi at 33 degrees facing the peaks. In winter 2026/27 it runs from 11 December to 18 April, Sunday to Friday, 13:30 to 19:30.

It is the best warm-up for sore legs and a good plan for a mixed group. A towel costs 6 EUR plus a deposit, and you need a 1 or 2 euro coin for the lockers.

Alta Lumina is a night-time sensory trail in Les Gets, which the tourist office calls unique in Europe. It is one of the few evening activities in the area that is not a bar, and it runs all year, with session times that follow nightfall.

Winter sessions for 2026/27 are still to be announced, so treat it as an option and not a plan. Allow about an hour on the trail.

End the week with the dish of the border: raclette, from the canton of Valais, with its own AOP cheese, eaten on both sides of the frontier. The association promotes the Valais raclette and the Abondance cheese as the two ingredients of a trip through two countries.

Ask for the potatoes and charcuterie, and don't plan anything after it.