Has anyone been to Avoriaz for a summer holiday that hasn’t involved riding? I’m looking for somewhere in France to go with the family for a week and the bumpf on the net suggests it’d be a decent place. My concern is that it might be a bit quiet and don’t want to find that everything’s closed. Anyone any experience? It would be mid-August btw. Ta.

It’ll be very quiet but what is there will be open. The pool is great. There’s a few other things like crazy golf and tennis which will be open. The restaurants open pretty short hours in summer. There’s a lot more going on in Morzine. You can still pop up to avoriaz for the pool although the pool in Morzine is ok. Morzine is fully open and moderately bustling. A few more family activities going on too. You might get envious of the bikers though!

I went to Morzine in August, with bike, but with non-riding family so spent a fair amount of time doing family stuff.

I rode up to Avoriaz one day and it was like a ghost town – Morzine on the other hand was great, plenty of life (and pesky mountainbikers).

I’d go back to Morzine sot stay like a shot, or Les Gets, but not Avoriaz – I’d assume the “bumpf on the net” is from the Avoriaz Marketing Board…..

Avoriaz isn’t quite a ghost town in summer, but compared to Morzine or Les Gets its close enough.

I certainly wouldn’t want to be stuck there for a week if I wasn’t riding (or even if I was to be honest)

Morzine or Les Gets, no probs. Loads to do.

Cool, ta. I was trying to avoid Morzine because it’s so mtb-orientated but it would still beat a ghost town! Les Gets might be a good shout though, I’ll start having a look there. Thanks for the quick responses!

Tignes? Loads to do. See previous posts.

I was trying to avoid Morzine because it’s so mtb-orientated

Not sure why that would be a problem but aside from mountain biking, which is all in the surrounding mountains and not the actual town, you have:

Local swimming pool
Local sports centre
Lac Montriond
Horse riding
Golf
Summer luge
Paragliding
Water sports
Endless walking opportunity
Multipass giving you access to the PDS network
Fantastic restaurants
Nice shopping
Almost constant evening entertainment by the town
Etc etc

I’d probably take a look at les arcs, more going on and not as much like a prison camp…

Yes, there are a lot of bikes in Morzine in the Summer but I’d speculate it is still only a minority of the visitors there. So many more walkers, families etc it feels.

Rachel

As above wouldn’t recommend Avoriaz – not quite dead if you go into the village but certainly looks it from outside. Have a look at Samoens for an alternative to Morzine/ Les Gets – beautiful valley, old mountain market town, loads of walks, bars, cafes, swimming pool and lake, aerial wire course, still feels very French and not like a purpose built resort (because it isn’t).

I would suggest Samoens too over Morzine & Les Gets.

Most of the bikes are not actually IN Morzine during the day. On a nice day the lido is fab and there’s great walking in the valley. Samoens is a bit quiet IMO.

Thanks again for all the replies, lots of good suggestions 🙂

As above, Morzine or Les Gets plenty to do and you won’t really notice the bikes. Avoriaz is very quiet in the summer and really quite ugly. Its only an hour to Lake Geneva (eg medieval town on Yvoire) too for a day trip. Samoens town square is very pretty, good for an ice cream. Lac Joux Plan above Les Gets has stunning view of Mont Blanc on a clear day, take a picninc and walk 20-30 mins to Bourgeoise (start of mtb descent to Samoens). If you want an alternative you could consider around Lake Annecy, Grand Bornand/La Clusaz ?

Note Alps are much quieter in the summer than winter but that can be a plus.

Here is a photo from a cute local restaurant at Mont Caly above Les Gets. Pretty vilage and some simple family walking around there.