I was out there myself a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be nice to return with my non-MTBing wife and our year-old baby later in the summer.

Thinking we could use the one-euro per day deal to go up the lifts and amble about and to visit that big pool in town – and I could ride for a few days.

My wife's not one for a traditional beach holiday, or a full-on activity holiday – so I'm hoping this could be a good halfway house.

Anyone tried it? How did it work?

Could work well, my cousins did something similar. Look at Tignes or Les 2 Alpes as well for this kind of trip.

i'm off for a family/riding hol in les gets in 2 weeks, i'll let you know how we get on!

Reckon there's a good amount of stuff to do & if it's like Tignes then there'll be horse riding & stuff too which is sort of sedate (and smelly) activity.

I am going to Morzine with the wife who isn't into mountain biking(yet!!). The plan is that I will ride and she will go off to the horse place and go hire a horse. Then we will meet up later in the day. I am also hoping to get her on a few easy rides. Hopefully we will enjoy it.

Slight hi jack but has anybody had experience with the stables in Morzine?

Great idea there is plenty for her to do, Kevin did it with the girls but it was mainly biking

http://kevinlawton6103.fotopic.net/c1061192.html

Dont visit the goats as they stink

Tracey

Is that the Stig chasing that we lass?

We're going in August, splitting time between in-laws in Chamonix and mates in Morzine. I am planning to go for a dawn road ride or the first lift, trying to be back by lunch.

Do your fair share the rest of the time and prepare your kit beforehand so you don't end up wasting half an hours riding time faffing about. I sneaked a couple of days riding on my own last year and I found that 3 or 4 hours with no breaks was plenty!

Annecy is beautiful if you have a car, its a nice town for a wander round, your missus could do some shopping, and the lake is lovely for messing about in a boat. Cham would be a lovely day trip too, beautiful place.

We did it once in lieu of the usual cottage in Southern France for a fortnight
The weather was atrocious most days – which pretty much put paid to it ever happening again 😥

Morzine is okay but annecy is lovely, but when we went as uplink weather dire, 2nd time riding was just okay imho better places for family /mountain biking holidays especially those close to beaches say 30 to 40 mins…Italy tuscany/finale/appenines/sciliy cefula/palermo area (cefula was nicer)taominia below etna and beach but will be busy now France Perpigan/prades area….Basque country…Vosages/Jura…..Dordogne….Spain Picos de europa or stay at the beach and do cantbria. We over the years have been to all as a family bar finale. Good luck

Done this twice, staying in Les Gets. Works really well, the only problem was me itching to get onto a bike and do some trails!

Thanks for your replies, more positive than negative it seems.

Have considered other destinations, and may aim for Italy or Spain later in the year – but I fear they'd be too hot for baby in August.

Only real gamble seems to be a washout with the weather, so a bit like a UK holiday in that respect I suppose!

You'd be unlucky to be washed out for one week never mind two. A lot of the summer rain out there comes from thunderstorms which blow themselves out quickly. IMO you go to the Alps for lift accessed trails, if you want a quick blast most days and a bit of variety Portes du Soleil is hard to beat.

As hicksville says, if you go away from the lifts there are loads of great options all the way across the Alps. The problem I would have with that would be ETA back with the wife. If you go off exploring, find a new route, or take on a big climb, it can very quickly turn into an epic. Getting back late is the absolute worst thing you can do, you'll pay for it for days.

The other place that has just popped into my head is Slovenia, we were there last year on honeymoon. Beautiful scenery, some lift access, not massive driving distances. Lake Bled, Kransje Gora, Llubljana are all within a couple of hours drive.

Pila (Aosta) in Italy would work well in this respect, and you would be welcome with the baby wherever you go as it is Italy (Restaurants etc.)

The bubble lift goes from the centre of town, takes 15 mins and gives you a 1 hour descent, so only 2 hours away from the family and you would have a top ride. Nice up there for a stroll with the family too, and good food/views

Pila is a bit dry, dusty and hammered this year but it still kicks ar*e…

never been to Pila but friends have and sauze d'ox worth considering if you are after lifts

Shandy – You sound like a man who speaks from experience (About getting back late)! I'd probably take the DH bike so that I can't stray too far.

Woodey – Been reading about Pila, sounds great. I take it the braking bumps are pretty bad there too though? Some of the PdS was terrible at the start of the season, so I dread to think how bad it'd be by the end.

i have done this 3 times with the family.
twice to la tania near courcheval.
the village has a outdoor heated pool and trampolines right where the bike runs finnish.
horse riding about 500 yds away at la praz.
plenty of family stuff to do in meribel and courcheval too.

we also had 2 weeks staying in bourg st maurice, which again has a pool, bowling, kayaking, rafting, horse riding.
we did not ride every single day all day.
bourg is ideal for access up to les arc, so we would have 3 or 4 hours in the morning getting in loads of runs, then spend the rest of the day doing family stuff.

oh and weather wise, it rains very heavy for a short time imho.
it drains very quick too.

chakaping – yep, Pila has been better but from what I hear its not nearly as bad a PdS, they just had a load of rain so it should be better now.

Sauze d'Oulx seconded, more flowey than the downhill stuff at Pila although IMO the resort is a bit small for a whole week for your family.

Lake Garda, you could scare yourself on the 601 trail while your wife and baby lie on the beach….

We've taken a party of 4 to 8 to Les gets where only 2 to 4 of us bike, works really well for us as the girls (who don't bike) loved the food, wine, sun etc. We wil be going back next year with 3 kids in tow. For us these kind of holidays are made or broken by the standard of chalet, so we don't skimp.

I wouldn't go to Pila unless you're bringing a big bike and just want to ride DH. The Pila-Aosta trail is cool, but even it's pretty steep by UK standards.

The braking bumps are ridonculous.

Morzine again this year for FamilyAmbrose. Loads to do for bikes and non-bikers too. public transport is pretty good too if you don't have a vehicle, but saying that you can travel big distances to some lovely places just by lifts.

AFAIK the 1 Euro deal excludes bikes.

Chapaking you are right, I speak from experience. I always build in a bit of spare time now so I'm back "early" a lot more than I'm "late".

The one euro deal excludes bikes, yes. I was thinking about using it for hiking and for use of facilities (I was told it gives you access to swimming pool and more).

Although the transfer driver was telling us a group of MTBers were trying to bring a class action legal case – as it doesn't say anywhere in the blurb.

Good story but I don't know if it's true.

Anybody got experience of catered chalet vs self-catering with a baby in tow?