NB:This is more of a Jolly Boys outing than an epic trek up and down the Alps 🙂
A small group of 4 or 5 are looking for recommendation for next year. The group is made up of ages 45-50ish with varying levels of fitness. We want as little riding up hill as possible but are more trail centre than DH riders. To give you an idea as a group we use the uplift at Cwm Carn to do the Twrch from the freedide area to the car park as many times as we can in a day. Before every one starts slagging us off, that is the kind of riding we enjoy as a group as it allows the less fit IE more fat guys to do their own thing.
I would prefer suggestions from people that have actually used an operator, stayed at the accommodation and ridden the trails. Main land Europe is where we want to ride.

i love riding chamonix. mbmb.com is a good place to start ask for phil.
i hear great reports of rivierabikes (lake garda)and basquemtb(spain) too

Have a look at Altitude Adventure. Me and a group went for a fortieth last year and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Ian and Angela are great hosts and fantastic guides/riders to boot. They will tailor your trip to suit the skill level of your group and do a combination of uplifts and more xc based rides. The food’s fantastic too.

http://Www.altitudeadventure.com

Just come back from The White Room. One of their Back Country weeks would suit your needs. Plenty of uplifts with everything from steep switchbacks to long flowing singletrack and stunning views, free beer & wine and great food.

Makes Cwm Carn look rather tiny & flat.

Best guided MTB holiday I’ve ever been on 🙂

Morzine would be perfect. Plenty of lifts, big range of terrain, lots of stuff similar to uk trail centres (but longer and less climbing). Decent town for a beer or a good meal. You can use a local tour company but its very easy to DIY it. Book a ski chalet, fly or drive, use the free map.

Done a few trips away and they’ve all varied in terms of riding and overall holiday experience.

It’s quite difficult to recommend something for you as the most obvious destination for you in terms of accessing trails without working for them would be Morzine. Problem then is that IME it’s definately more suited to DH than trail centre style XC. Overall, compared to other regions that I’ve been to in the alps, the trails that I rode in Morzine were overused, overworn and generlly rather dull.

The Tarentaise valley has far more buff alpine singletrack with a large lift network so could be an option for you if you don’t like pedalling.

Verbier has pedal free options too but IME it’s definately a few notches above UK trail centre standard in terms of steepness, techiness and general pant wetting scaryness.

In summary and based on my own experiences – in terms of testing yourselves and seeing what the alps can really be like then go to Verbier. If you want to have about as much fun on a pushbike as you can possibly have, then go to the Tarentaise (Sainte Foy, Les Arcs etc) . If you want to be in a town full of Brits and enjoy the apres as much as the riding, go to Morzine.

You haven´t said what time of the year your will be having your “jolly”.
July & August think Northern Europe, any other time Southern Spain would be hard to beat in terms of trails and price.

Can’t reccomend Ciclo Montana enough in Sierra Nevada – any time except summer, too hot otherwise.

White Room Seconded

I’m jey as hell and loved it. Stevo will sort uplifts if you dont want to ride up the stuff we did.

Cheers for the suggestions and the lack of slagging off the Old Boys. Looks like I have some good leads to go on.
Any recommendations for MTB travel insurance?

For travel insurance I highly recommend Snowcard – maybe not the cheapest but they are brilliant when you need them to be.

If you want the best its got to be Bike Verbier. They are the Man Utd of guided holidays. Phil is the Roony of guides. Missed you all so much this year.

Just come back form Morzine 2 weeks ago, all arranged with Apline Elements which turned out to be fine despite some worrying stories. Stayed 300m from the Pleny lift, super convenient. As we drove over it was only £245 half board for the week plus lift pass. Morzine was really quiet, no queues and quiet trails. Riding was suprisingly good with dusty trails and spectcular views.

I use Dogtag for insurance too.

Ooh just to add, if you would prefer tamer stuff then I would recommend Andorra. A lot cheaper than France and easy to get to via Toulouse.

Check out here: –

Andorra Bike Park

jedi, that’s very mischievous. – Cham is deffo not the place to go if you don’t want to pedal much. I been with mbmb twice and got one uplift each time.
’tis the best though…

Whatever you do don’t go with Italian safaris in livigno. I just got back from a trip with them and I could start a rant about, though I shall refrain.

I can however strongly recommend riviera bike at molini.

2nd rivierabike.co.uk!
Very little climbing, unlike Switchbacks.
And saw 5 other MTBers in 5days

If you like your trails quiet, stay away from ski resorts. They tend to be busier.

flapjack, we hardly pedal uphill!