I’m looking for recommendations for a family summer holiday somewhere in the (French) Alps. Kids will be 5 and 9 and love swimming, cycling and other activities. Previously we’ve gone to holiday sites that have pools/water slides, cycle trails, kids clubs, etc and that’s the sort of thing we’re after but I’m not finding lots in the Alps that have those on site activities or the pools, etc look a bit small. We’ll be driving and bringing bikes.

Looking for chalet/mobile home type accommodation (self catered) and somewhere close enough to local restaurants/villages/towns etc that we can go off site for food, etc sometimes.

Any suggestions?

Worth looking at Tignes. Really keenly-priced deals in the summer for apartments + all activities and they’ve got facilities for almost every sport you could imagine.

going to have to recommend the Morzine valley.

If you are coming in a car, you have lots of cheaper options than the usual suspects. Think of St Jean d’Aulps, La Baume or Le Biot, Essert Rommand, Cote d’Abbroz or Essert La Pierre. all 5-10mins from the Morzine, but a lot cheaper.

Morzine has a fantastic swimming complex (3 outdoor pools, w a slide, voleyball courts, 3 indoor pools etc) there’s the river for larkign about in, the Lake at Montriond for open water swimming (also has a shallow enclosed pool for kids), stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. There’s also Aquariaz indoor swimming park in Avoriaz at the top of the hill.

Loads of activities for the kids around and about the town, easy access cycling along the river, and loads of accessible mountain walks off the lift infrastructure.

Lac du Montriond

Aquariaz

Les Dereches in Morzine

You could look around Lake Annecy, no need to stay up in La Clusaz/Grand Bornand but you could. Plenty to do on and around the lake, pretty old town with canals (lots of tourists), Chamonix an hour away for some spectacular “real” mountains.

Morzine pools are excellent and better than most Alpine resorts ime (who don’t have the room / cost is too great)

Self catered apartments are plentiful in the summer and pretty good value. Try and get one with a decent terrace / view.

This sort of thing for breakfast and dinner doesn’t get old 🙂

Thanks guys. I guess that one of the advantages of holiday resorts is that the kids make friends and can go some degree have freedom on the site. It sounds like resorts and the Alps aren’t so common.

Where’s that pic Jamba?

Oooh! That looks good Stoner.

much as Morzine is great for MTB and for Skiing, it’s the fact that its alive for most of the year with ots of other entertaining options which makes it a good holiday destination. You need alternatives if the primary activity isnt going according to plan. Morzine can do that. The valley is full of little villages with lots of holiday accommodation (principally for the winter season) so come summer there’s great deals to be had from the glut.

If you want to do group activities there’s also a v good language school which is a great way of a) getting a couple of hours of a morning away from the kids, b) the kids meeting similar aged other kids and c) accidentally learning something. Alpine French School in Morzine. I’ve even done a short course there.

And I can type all that about the place without even having to mention the quality of mountain biking…. that is a bonus 🙂

Our kids were that kind of age when we did a week self catering in Chamonix. I thought that Chamonix was exciting and carried a vibe that the kids could buy into. But yes no resorts and not even a pool. We drove and swum in a lake. But days like going up the Aiguille De Midi theh walking the Grand Balcon Nordthen into the Glacier and down on the train were incredible

[url=https://flic.kr/p/CAHxqU]Chamonix-3[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/BNT6m6]Chamonix-4[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/BNKKWu]Chamonix-5[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/BNT3GD]Chamonix-6[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/CAHr5N]Chamonix-7[/url] by John Clinch, on Flickr

Looks like they fixed the swimming pool

http://www.chamonix.com/swimming-pool,23,en.html

OP if you can get to Chamonix for a day trip it’s well worth it, Aguille you book in advance. I think as a first kids holiday it can be a risk there as it’s big mountains and activities and as the town is deep in the valley it’s not so sunny. Start them off “small” and see how it goes would be my suggestion.

@nemesis Verbier and specifically opposite the Savoleyre lift. Not greatest angle over the town on a grey summer day but I like this. Drank many beverages on the balcony after riding/walking, rehydration central 🙂

[video]http://vimeo.com/134928257[/video]

There’s quite a few Eurocamp type places around Lake Annecy. Most of these have chalets / static caravans which are good value if you book direct with the campsite. Kids love it because there’s loads of opportunity for making friends. They usually have a pool, bar, play park, basic entertainment. Talloires has a really nice public beach with slides, diving board, watersports, volleyball etc. There’s a good cycle path (disused railway) that runs the length of the lake. If you want something more testing, Col de Forclaz and Col de Leschaux both start from the cycle path.

^^^ OP I strongly suggest you do some google research around Lake Annecy. I think with the kids ages it offers a lot, lake and mountains next to each other and easy to dive up to La Clusaz, Semnoz .. day trip to Chamomix for Glaciers etc (geography homework in disguise 😉 ). As I posted earlier Morzine is a good choice too (especially if you want to be able to do a cheeky hour or two on the bike trails sans kids)

Are the camp sites around Morzine stuffed full of mtb’ers all behaving like Ratboy? Don’t get me wrong – I’d love that to be me but I would always end up on the wrong side of my wife so wouldn’t be ideal!

there really arent any campsites of note around Morzine, and with so much chalet accommodation it hardly seems to matter really.

@gavin no mtb-ers make up a small minority of those in the camp site, 10% ? It actually is a bit out of town and most mtb-ers book an apartment or chalet as Stoner says.

I’d agree with Jamba. Annecy or later clusaz. If even just for the effect on your pocket.

Have a think about Samoens. Lovely little alpine town with an outdoor swimming pool. Nearby family cycling along the river to Morillon where there is a small lake, Go Ape type thing and play area. Plus some walks/horse-riding/picnis at Sixt Fer a Cheval in the other direction. The lifts in Samoens are open in the summer (subject to there being no thunderstorms) and there are mtb tracks/road climbs out of the village

We rented a studio in Megeve for the Tour de France and wre just blown away by the location; it was actually up above the town at a place called le Tour and when you walked out you would be forgiven for thinking you’d arrived in Heaven; the chalet was surrounded with beautiful woods and meadows and other chalets, all deserted because nobody goes there out of ski season. It was amazingly peaceful. Next time we plan just to email or phone the managing agency and ask what they’ve got available as the studio was a little chilly and dull, being in the basement on the front of a chalet.

Megeve is a nice town with a superb swimming pool and mountain bike hire. You’ll have a great time anywhere in the Alps in summer.

I would think very hard before booking a camping holiday in Morzine. Chances are it will be wet at some point and when it gets wet in the Alps it gets very wet. As I’m sure you know when things get wet in a tent they tend to stay wet and wet families are generally not happy families… mine aren’t anyway. It also gets pretty chilly in the evenings even after 25 degree days.

We booked to camp one year and saw the pics coming back from a wet summer so re-routed and went elsewhere. So glad we did, we went back the following years and rented a place and it was great.

Happy wife – happy life!

Samoens is lovely too as mentioned… all around there is great and don’t worry too much about being swamped by bikers. Unless you go during Cranworkx you’ll be fine there is a big mix of people… the noobs wearing full body armour / beach shorts and 200mm travel DH bikes having domestics while walking down the side of the red runs are good laugh. 🙂

Good luck.

p.s. listen to Stoner… I met up with him in the Summer and he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area.

If you can get the right accommodation then Samoens is lovely. There was a go ape style thing in town, plus easy access to Chamonix and Morzine. We had a chalet with a pool and the kids just wanted to spend most of their time in that.

Not many mtbers in Samoens, its nothing like Morzine, its far nicer!

holy thread resurrection.

Planning for next summer now. Anyone have a good website where I can ‘sell’ the holiday to my wife and her sisters family? Indication of prices , what is on offer etc?

looking for decent priced self catering or camping with lots to do for the non bikers and Children aged between 3 – 8

ta!

For Morzine

https://www.morznet.com/
http://www.morzinesourcemagazine.com/
http://en.morzine-avoriaz.com/

Accomodation: http://alptitude.com/index.php?page=page0&season=summer&lang=en

fantastic thank you. its pretty cheap in the summer!

Trip report from Morzine this summer. Family of 3, one 4 year old. One word, awesome. Heaps to do and fantastic balance of being able to escape on bike and run and entertain MissNZCol. Dereche pools fantastic and if you are in a chalet that offers it you get the MultiPass for 2 euro a day pp which accesses lifts and pools etc. We went up to Avoriaz one day, cable car up , bit of bouncy castle action, aquariaz etc, day in Cham, lots of cruising around and playing in the woods, kids high wire thing at Nyon falls etc. If you like mountains then go for it. We stayed in a Riders Refuge chalet which was fine, had everything we needed and v quite as sligtly out of town, 10 min walk. We ate out a few times and also had a most excellent lunch at Mt Caly above Les Gets. We rented a car which was a good option as we could zip around a bit but you could easily survive without one. Montriond lake lovely as well. I’m sure there are other Alpine destinations but the curry sauce from the chippy sealed the deal !

I’m sure there are other Alpine destinations but the curry sauce from the chippy sealed the deal !

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Mamma’s is awesome!