After spending 4 hour yesterday looking at Tourism websites for what felt like every Alpine resort area between here and Balkans…I’m looking for a nice alpine (or sub alpine like the Jura/Vosges) place to take the wife and kids for a couple of weeks.

Needs to be/have:

– Reasonably priced accommodation (happy to spend £1k for 2 weeks)

– Ideally no more than 1 (very) long days drive or 2 short days drive from the Chunnel.

– Fun Stuff for the Kids ages 6 and 8. (High ropes, play grounds, swimming pools, water park that sort of thing)

– Easy Family Cycling. They have done Minortaur at Coed-y-Brenin. Eldest would likely want to do harder stuff. Wife and young ‘un less so. Pleasant valley floor cruises to lakes etc would be ace.

– Reasonably Decent Trail riding (not necessarily lift serviced). Would likely take my Chromag trail hardtail. Not scared of a bit of climbing. For self/marriage preservation reasons, I’m probably not interested in throwing myself down a Bike Park.

Looking at Saalbach Hinterglemm, La Bresse, La Deux Alpes, Innsbruck

Any tips gratefully recieved!

Morzine ticks all those boxes. You’ll get a chalet for about £500 a week, plenty of activities (Yes to High ropes, play grounds, swimming pools, water park also ice skating, horse riding and a beach of sorts). Very gentle valley floor riding, loads of fireroads, some nice greens and blues. Yes it is a classic bike park/downhill resort but there is loads of other riding, especially if you don’t mind a little pedal. Easy drive, too.

I would say Tignes/Val D’isare ticks many of your boxes.

Took me 11 hours from Calais in a sluggish old Transit.

Loads of Lake based activities as well as tennis courts, skatepark, archery etc. which are all free with a Tignes pass you collect from tourist information office.

Lots of MTB runs (it is a bike park) with lift access with a nice selection of greens and blues (more blue and red by UK standards I think). There’s also a green and blue from Val – my wife loved the green and is not a hard core rider.

Some nice walks too which can be accessed by the lifts.

Oh, and all the lifts are free too for biking and hiking.

For more experienced bikers it’s a bit bland (so folk have said on here) but was ideal for me and family, although I’m not a riding god.

PS – as it’s lift assisted make sure your insurance covers it – I used Dogtag.

HERE: http://en.tignes.net/what-to-see-do/do-something/summer

I would second Tignes. The number of free activities was amazing. It would be great for kids. They had a massive bouncy castle area, remote control cars course, airbag drop, a pool and lots of things to do on the lake. The lifts are free so you don’t have to spend loads if you only want to go up to the top to admire the view and then cruise down on the fire roads.

I worked in Tignes last season, and although I didn’t do any activities as such because I was riding too much I can also vouch for how good the area/ resort is. Amongst the activities already mentioned, there’s mini golf and a few other things, also possible to get the funicular up on to the glacier which is about 3200m i believe.

Feel free to email if you want more info as I spent 7 weeks there in 2014 so know the area and the tracks pretty well! 🙂

Saalbach/Hinterglemm has everything on your list.
High ropes, open air lido, trails, Zell down the road, Salzburg just over 1hr away (castle, zoo etc)
Ice caves, gorge walks at Lofer, Kaprun glacier, Krimml waterfalls.
€4 a pint, reasonable food.

Thanks for the info guys!

Does anyone have accommodation recommendations in Tignes?

I spent ages looking for stuff in Tignes that wasn’t tiny apartements with only 1 room with not much luck. Seemed expensive.
Ended up finding much better stuff on AirB+B around the Morzine area. We’ve got 2 weeks in August in a big chalet there for £1000.
I rode in Tignes this year and it was lush though. Was first choice until I found the Morzine accomodation.
The ability to get to Geneva and Annecy easily was a winner with Mrs Lister though…got bad weather town mooching options there.

Fitness. There’s loads of activities to do. And I think if you’re a family staying in an apartment there you get access to the lake, pool, cycling and all the other stuff there. Lift passes are free and I think you get a free DH bike rental and unlimited Hardtail rental.

Tom Kp