wondering where the best place in the alps is that would satisfy these needs…!

MTB for all abilities (kids + wife)
Big road passess
Via ferrata stuff near-ish

tell me where i should start looking.

Alpe D’huez / Deux alpes has lots of big road stuff nearby but not sure how family friendly the MTB stuff is

Morzine? The road up to Avoriaz and down to Montriond is a great loop for the road bike.
There is Via Ferrata out of the back of Avoriaz and I reckon supermorzine is pretty rideable for the young ‘uns/wife.

Julian alps? Italy/Slovenia? Just back from there. Beautiful. Ticks all your bockses. You can add kayaking on the Soca to your list too!

Ned – did you fly or drive? where did you base your holiday. sounds a interesting spot

We drove. Quite a long trip, but we were visiting friends in Italy too, couldn’t hire a car in Ljubljana and drop in Turin/ Nice or the other way. Plus driving over meant we could take more camping stuff own bikes etc.

Newhaven – Dieppe, overnight stop in Black Forest, then Austria – Slovenia over the Wurzenpass. Stayed right on the Soca (pron. “Sotcha”) river at Kamp Klin – lovely spot – ended up staying 5 nights, biked round the valley a bit, 3 days kayaking with Prijon near Bovec (pron. “Bovets”) well recommended – much better option for kayaking than the sports agencies in town – that’s all they do.

Then drove up Mangart – road to the saddle at c.2000m, such a beautiful, peaceful spot we ended up staying overnight at the hut up there and watching the sunset and the stars – quick jaunt to Italy for a bike ride, lake swim, decent beer and pizza, then a drive round to the North wall of Triglav, then Bled and Bohinj – camped in the beech trees at the site at Bohinj. Swam, paddled round the lake in a Canadian canoe, then onto Kobarid, camped at Kamp Lazar, walk to the waterfall on the Kozjak, swam, biked up Matajur, south into Italy and back. Amazing ride – steep, tech, rocky, swishy, rootsy, singletrack for 10km, then forest road, then another section of steep, woodsy swish to the bar at the river – 1400m descent.

Then a drive to our friends in Piemonte on the other side, via a stop in Cividale for some history. Friends have renovated a farmhouse in the Langhe and they’re open for business as of tomorrow – https://livinginthelanghe.wordpress.com/ Helped them out with some final works, lolled in the pool, ate great food, drank great wine, came home via an afternoon with rellies in Geneva.

Top trip, I’d do it all again!

Does it NEED to be Alps?
I keep going back to Garda. Plenty of family friendly MTB routes and some really tough technical stuff too.
Did a couple of VF days this year with my daughter. Loads of diverse VF routes, as you’d expect.

I’d say the Dolomites would suit, the area around Cortina is excellent for the road passes and the Via Ferrata. The mtb’ing is good too, but you’d need to buy a local topo map and start exploring. If you’ll be camping there’s a nice site a handful of km’s north of Cortina which is fantastic value.