I’m looking for suggestions for a two week Summer family holiday in the alps. My girls are 7 and 11 and enjoy the outdoors. We’d be looking to stay in self catering accommodation. I fancy taking my bike so I’d be keen for it to be near trails I could nip out on for a couple of hours. Ideally, I’d like to be close to cable cars to maximise my time for this! I’ve been looking at Saalbach and also the Dolomites.
Does anyone have recommendations for a suitable location and accommodation?
Stock answer: Morzine.
We love it. Lots to do when we’re not riding. Trails for all. It’s lush.
We go every two years, kids are now 11 and 13 and we’ve got our 3rd trio coming this summer. They won’t let me even suggest going somewhere else...which is fine by me. When they’re bigger and if they’re still into riding then we’ll go elesewhere. For now it’s the perfect place for our mountain biking family.
Morzine.
Been to Saalbach and Morzine with the kids. If you stay in the town most accommodation in Saalbach comes with some free lift access which is really good for grabbing a run here and there around family stuff. Loads of good stuff close. Worth checking details of lift passes first.
Morzine has plenty to do off the bike but is less centered as an area so less good if time is short. Lift passes add up too.
In morzine some accommodation comes with free MultiPass, even if you buy one for a week it's not a lot of money. It doesn't cover bike uplift for that you need a vtt ticket but it covers chairlifts to go walking, free access to the swimming complex and loads of other activities discounted.
Check it out on the morzine website
We went to Les Gets last year with kids of 7 & 10 - plenty to do and less “busy” than morzine. Stayed in a self catering chalet that was recommended on here. Only good things to say about the whole trip. We’re going beach this year, but I’m hoping mountains in 21 http://chalet.hotelalpina.fr/en/
Otztal valley in Austria. Really good set up for families, one pass which covers every activity.
https://www.oetz.com/summer/everything-about-oetz/region-oetz.html
Megeve has some good facilities for the kids, but it's quite pricey generally. Trails for dad are there but not in Morzine's level or quantity. A week would be okay but any more and you'd be running out of trail.
Went to Saalbach last year. Great place and as above came with free lift pass, water park and bus access. There was more than enough for our weeks stay and would happily have stayed another week. There a huge go ape place at the head of the valley of that appeals to. 2 lifts rubbing right out of Saalbach when we were there with another 2 in hinterglem
The main problem with Austria is that you can have real bad luck with the weather in summer. Weather systems have a habit of getting held up over the Austrian Alps. I have often experienced absolute crap weather in Austria only to come over the border to Italy where the skies are blue and temperatures in the high thirties. You have a higher chance of good weather in the Dolomites. Or how about a bit further south at the Garda Lake? It’s the German MTB Mecca.
+1 for Hotel Alpina chalets in Les Gets. Our kids love it. Pool and garden. Lots of space. Secure bike storage. Plenty of other stuff to do when the weather is good. We have our 3rd visit planned for this summer.