There are naturally more family ski resorts than these seven in France, but we wanted to provide you information on few of them, and number seven just sounds good. France is actually a very nice country from winter sports point of view. Whether you are looking for a modern destination or a more traditional one, a large resort or a smaller one, quiet and peaceful or one with a hectic after ski, there is always something to suit everyone’s tastes.
Boasting more than 6000 ski runs over 25,000 hectares, France is home to the largest ski areas in the world. The high altitude resorts enjoy excellent snow conditions, some of them even offer a “snow guarantee”. A number of ski areas are open from late November until early May.
The French Tourism Ministry has awarded the “Famille Plus Montagne” label to ski resorts that make an extra special effort to welcome families with children, in terms of services and infrastructure, activities and entertainments, child care and much more. All the following seven family ski resorts have been awarded the Famille Plus Montagne label.
This article is not an in-depth review such as Krippenstein ski resort review, but a general introduction to the seven best family ski resorts in France. And yeah, this is only our opinion. If you disagree or think differently, please tell us your opinion by leaving a comment.
Family Ski Resort #1 – La Clusaz
La Clusaz has developed over the years, whilst still retaining the charm of an authentic mountain village. Respectful of its traditions, yet forward thinking, La Clusaz has built a reputation for itself that is very different to that of the other French ski resorts. Home to eight world champions and talented freestylers, with its fabulous 400 hectare ski area, a large variety of runs and vertical drops, La Clusaz is undoubtedly the ski resort of all snow sports.
La Clusaz is just 4 hours from Paris by TGV high speed train and 1 hour from Geneva. La Clusaz is an active ski resort with their around 200 free snow sport, sporting and cultural events and activities throughout the winter. As a new thing La Clusaz is going to introduce bowling on ice this season. Set at the heart of La Clusaz, the ice rink covers more than 1000 m2 of ice.
La Clusaz information
Access from airport (Annecy-Meythet): 36 km
Access from railway station (Annecy): 32 km
Heights: 1100 m – 2600 m
Number of ski lifts: 56
Number of slopes: 84 (132 km): 7 black, 24 red, 29 blue, 24 green
Cross country skiing: 84 km
Ski passes: 30 euros / day, 158 euros / 6 days
Linked ski area: Les Aravis (220 km of slopes)
Web: www.laclusaz.com
Family Ski Resort #2 – La Rosière
In the heart of the Haute-Tarentaise, at 1850 meters above the sea level, on a “balcony” facing to South, La Rosière is a friendly family ski resort built respecting mountain architectural traditions. Linked with La Thuile in Italy, it is the only Savoyard ski resort to offer an international ski area of 150 km pisted runs. With the label “Famille Plus Montagne” La Rosière offers a large choice of after ski activities and entertaining nights to spend with family.
La Rosière has several themed weeks, such as Christmas, local produce, air, retro, well-being, the mountains and children. There are also many new snow sports activities in La Rosière, such as snowkites, speed riding, snowpark, boarder cross and snow cross.
La Rosiere information
Access from airport (Lyon St Exupéry): 210 km
Access from railway station (Aime): 23 km
Heights: 1860 m – 2650 m
Number of ski lifts: 37
Number of slopes: 73 (150 km): 12 black, 32 red, 23 blue, 6 green
Ski passes: 36,6 euros / day, 171,9 euros / 6 days
Web: www.larosiere.net
Family Ski Resort #3 – Les Arcs
Les Arcs is a family ski resorts with amazing mountains and plenty of character. Generous with superb panoramic views and bags of sunshine, overwhelming and audacious with all the different styles of skiing on offer and adventures in which to indulge day after day. Les Arcs is “magical” for children by offering a huge range of activities from which to choose. Les Arcs / Bourg Saint Maurice is probably in its best during holidays such as Christmas.
As a new thing Les Arcs offers 50% discount on ski passes on Saturdays for those who have downloaded and printed a discount voucher form Les Arcs website. The resort of Les Arcs has built the largest high altitude reservoir in France (400 000 m3) to supply the artificial snow network across the whole ski area.
Les Arcs information
Access from airport (Geneva): 150 km
Access from railway station (Bourg St Maurice): 15 km
Heights: 1200 m – 3226 m
Number of ski lifts: 54
Number of slopes: 106: 19 black, 32 red, 54 blue, 1 green
Ski passes: 43,5 euros / day, 209 euros / 6 days
Linked ski area: Paradiski (425 km of slopes)
Web: www.lesarcs.com
Family Ski Resort #4 – Les 2 Alpes
This famous Isère destination at the heart of the Oisans, is part of a generation of resorts that were created from scratch. At an altitude of 1600 meters, it was built over high mountain pastures, shared between the villages of Venosc and Mont de Lans.
A dream was to become a reality here during the 1930s. The development of the plateau, originally carried out by private individuals, with the aim of creating a large winter sports resort, was achieved in 1946. 62 years later, the resort of les 2 Alpes has become a high altitude town continually developing, improving and changing for the better.
Les 2 Alpes includes a glacier at 3600 meters of altitude, which means natural snow is guaranteed. There is a kind of boom of freeskiing going on in les 2 Alpes, or at least the linked resort La Grave is known as a playground of hard core freeskiers. Les 2 Alpes is introducing a new teaching concept for ski school this season. The Ski-Voice is a radio system that enables instructors to communicate directly with their pupils (up to six people at once).
Les 2 Alpes information
Access from airport (Lyon St Exupéry): 160 km
Access from railway station (Grenoble): 70 km
Heights: 1300 m – 3600 m
Number of ski lifts: 51
Number of slopes: 104 (225 km): 14 black, 18 red, 45 blue, 25 green
Ski passes: 38,7 euros / day, 189 euros / 6 days
Cross country skiing: 20 km
Linked ski area: La Grave (220 km of slopes)
Web: www.les2alpes.com
Family Ski Resort #5 – Les Menuires
Located at an altitude of 1850 meters, at the heart of the largest ski area in the world, the 3 Valleys, the Savoyard resort of Les Menuires enjoys an exceptional setting. Its varied ski area offers both gentle and wide open slopes that are perfect for beginners, as well as more technical slopes for advanced skiers.With unforgettable descents, fast and comfortable access to the slopes thanks to an ultra-modern network of ski lifts, Les Menuires offers pretty good skiing in good safety.
Les Menuires is a family ski resort with activities to suit everyone. There is a sports center with well-being areas and aqua club, ice rink, snow scooters, paragliding, ringo tubes, walks and snowshoe outings. It is also good to notice that Les Menuires is the most competitively priced ski resort in the 3 Valleys area. Les Menuires also offers a chance to book early for less, so hurry up..
Les Menuires is introducing a totally new 6-seated detachable chair lift, the Sunny Express, replacing three older chair lifts and a drag lift in the Reberty – Les Bruyères sector. The length of this new ski lift is 2.6 km and it climbs 700 vertical meters.
Les Menuires information
Access from airport (Lyon At Exupéry): 183 km
Access from railway station (Moûtiers): 27 km
Heights: 1850 m – 2850 m
Number of ski lifts: 37
Number of slopes: 61 (160 km): 7 black, 25 red, 25 blue, 4 green
Ski passes: 36,5 euros / day, 177 euros / 6 days
Linked ski area: Les 3 Vallees (600 km of slopes)
Web: www.lesmenuires.com
Family Ski Resort #6 – Serre Chevalier
Serre Chevalier is home to one of the largest ski areas in France, le Grand Serre Che. The area includes 250 km of runs from an altitude of 1200 to 2800 meters for beginners and experts alike. Set between the Lautaret mountain pass and Briancon, Serre Chevalier is a south-facing valley dotted with hamlets and villages ranging from the traditional to the ultra modern.
Serre Chevalier is host to a wide range of activities for the whole family, including sports, relaxation and culture. Located at the foot of the most beautiful summits in the Ecrins National Park, Serre Chevalier is bathed in light. The air and water are pure, the sky is blue and the sun shines for more than 300 days a year. What could be better?
Serre Chevalier information
Access from airport (Grenoble St Geoirs): 120 km
Access from railway station (Briancon): 6 km
Heights: 1200 m – 2800 m
Number of ski lifts: 65
Number of slopes: 108 (250 km): 14 black, 39 red, 31 blue, 24 green
Ski passes: 40,5 euros / day, 194,5 euros / 6 days
Family Ski Resort #7 – Val Thorens
Val Thorens is an interesting family ski resort. It guarantees an excellent quality snow cover all winter long. With five pistes’ summits higher than 3000 meters, and 99% of the ski area higher than 2000 meters, the snow in Val Thorens is guaranteed for up to May.In fact, Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe, set an altitude of 2300 meters.
The ski lifts in Val Thorens are one of the most efficient in the world. And what’s best, whatever the accommodation, you don’t have to walk more than 100 meters to access or come back from the slopes. Val Thorens is part of Les 3 Vallée, the largest ski area in the world (600 km of runs that connect the resorts of Courchevel, la Tania, Méribel, St-Martin, les Menuires and Val Thorens).
This year Val Thorens is putting efforts on providing something new to beginners as they have invested more than 1.5 million euros to create a new 40 hectare, easy skiing are that is totally free of charge for beginners. The area is equipped with four new moving walkways, 2 of which are covered and high speed (fastest in France). Easy to use, they will improve access to all areas at the foot of the slopes.
Val Thorens information
Access from airport (Lyon St Exupéry): 193 km
Access from railway station (Moutiers): 37 km
Heights: 1800 m – 3230 m
Number of ski lifts: 28
Number of slopes: 69 (140 km): 8 black, 27 red, 26 blue, 8 green
Ski passes: 37,5 euros / day, 175 euros / 6 days
Web: www.valthorens.com
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