Samoens

Anyone been to samoens? Looking at places to head out for a family alps trip where dad can do some biking but plenty of things for kids to do and stuff to do as a family.

Some extremely technical riding, set your bars up higher than usual to allow for the rad steepness. Les Caroz suited our skillset and bikes better. The tandem paragliding pilots drink beer before flying customers.

I’ve been a few times. Love it there. If you stay on the camp site you get free entry to the municipal swimming pool, 2 pools and a water slide. The lake down in Morillon is good for kids with other stuff there as well like go ape type stuff and tree top nets. nice easy bike ride down the river. The ride up to Sixt is really nice and family friendly.

I’ve only ridden some stuff in Morillon and le carroz but the riding in Samoens is meant to be great if you like steep natural type stuff rather than bike park motorways. Le Carroz has a couple of really nice greens for kids as well.

I echo what @qwerty said, but to add that in my experience (I’ve been three times, most recently last summer) they don’t seem to do much maintenance. Tracks that should have been red/black were so blown out they were dangerous. Les Carroz is excellent, accessible from the top of the Grand Massif if you were set on Samoens, and there’s a rollercoaster through the trees for the kids that looks so much fun I’m annoyed I didn’t try it!

Sounds good for dad but also the kids. Looks beautiful and lots of swimming poolls/lakes for the kids

We went last year as part of our Alps tour and stayed on the campsite which is just across the road to the lifts.

Weather was good and the trails were steep and rooty.  Some good of piste stuff about which was easy to find. Loads of other stuff to do and the town is also spot on. Would defiantly go back

Went skiing there this Easter, so can’t comment on the riding, but the town is lovely. Links to Morzine via the Col de Joux Plane, which is on this year’s TdF.

Been a couple of times, lovely wee place. I’d happily go back but my kids (18 and 15) only have eyes for Morzine, last time we went I got fed up driving over and back half the week.

Typical Alps-y activities, more laid back than Morzine in general, but the riding is not! Brilliantly steep and tech (no easy return to the village) but obviously far less to go at than the PdS offers. If your kids want to ride you might want to consider what they’d be capable of.

Considered Tignes? A lot less pretty, but decent riding for all levels and loads of activities and spaces on offer, plus big indoor swimming pool etc for bad weather days. We went a couple of times when the kids were much younger and we all had a great time, crazy-golf family warfare notwithstanding.

We’re off to Les Carroz for the weekend, but sadly I won’t get any bike time. We’ll probably be back in August for a few days if our daughter enjoys herself enough.
That campsite in Samoëns sounds like it’s well situated, I’ll give it a look.

Les Carroz’s lovely, with tons to do and access to some really nice techy XC type riding as well as some iconic road climbs – Joux Plane, Colombiere, Romme, Grand Bernards, Col de Aravis etc

If you go, check out alpsmountainbike for potential guiding.

Samoen is a lovely little village/town. I can’t comment on general activities but the riding is top notch but as others have said, techy and steep. Seem to remember the lifts ran at funny times too but not sure if that’s still the case

So I’m literally on my way to morzine…

Got a route planned into Samoens…. But…. HOW do we get back out towards morzine/les gets? Bar a 1600m climb that is…. I can’t see chairlifts that side….

DrP

no chairlifts from Samoens towards Morzine, just the Col du Joux Plane. Taxi is probably your best bet

So I’m literally on my way to morzine…

Got a route planned into Samoens…. But…. HOW do we get back out towards morzine/les gets? Bar a 1600m climb that is…. I can’t see chairlifts that side….

DrP

Apparently there is a bus that takes bikes, also one of the bike shops in Samoens does anuplift service. Hopefully.

There’s a bus that runs over the CDJP over to Morzine it passed us when we were climbing up from Sameons side not sure how regular but I’m guessing at least 1 morning and afternoon. Trails at Sameons are steep and tech, fairly blown out last year in July. Add some rain to them, then your into a different ball game.

We went last year and it sounds like we stayed on the same campsite as many others, near the lifts, and by the swimming lakes.  Town is lovely and the trails off the first lift a superb if you like steep techy trails like golfie etc.  I would not recommend going any higher on the lift network for the following reasons

The bike park on the other side is ok if you like very sandy trails.
The rest of the trains are nearly all fire roads including most of the blacks.

In addition the reds from the top down towards Samoens don’t exist anymore following work to build in new ski pistes. They just hadn’t got round to updating the trail map so we wasted lots of time trying to find them.

There is a bus that runs from Samoens up to the col de joux plane, and it takes bikes, and it’s only 2€…but it doesn’t start running until July 1st.

I think the telecabine up the other side is running already though, so you could do a couple laps over there before the climb back up. Or pedal along the valley to taninges and up the road to les gets, cuts down the ascent from ~1000m to ~500m

https://www.mairiedesamoens.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Navettes-estivales-Montagnes-du-Giffre_Depliant-2023.pdf

Found it – that’s the link to the Navette service from Samoen – there’s one listed that heads up to the col, to allow you to then ride back down to Morzine.  It takes 6 bikes,

I would not recommend going any higher on the lift network for the following reasons

You have to go to the top, tete de saix, if you want to get to Le Carroz or Morillon. When coming back from Le Carroz you can ride over to Morillon from the Carroz lift then head down to the bottom, if you’re knackered and want an easy trail then pick up Marvel from top of Morillon and along the river back to Samoens.

Brilliant @GavinB, thank you! Made my day, that.

La Bourgeoise (sp?) is suddenly much more appealing if you’re staying on the Morzine side, which I am shortly!

Almost makes up for Morgins being out of action this summer.

<p><span style=”font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’; font-size: 16px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #eeeeee;”>You have to go to the top, tete de saix, if you want to get to Le Carroz or Morillon. When coming back from Le Carroz you can ride over to Morillon from the Carroz lift then head down to the bottom, if you’re knackered and want an easy trail then pick up Marvel from top of Morillon and along the river back to Samoens.</span></p>

<p>Agree if you want to go to the bike park. Down to Morillion is black or fire road. The SS1 trail on Trailforks from the top down to Samoens doesn’t exist any more</p>

We had a great fortnight there a few years back with 2 young kids. There’s tonnes to do in the valley for families and the town’s lovely. I didn’t do any riding so can’t comment on that (unless you count the four seat/two pedaller contraption you can hire and ride round town, which was fun!)

I hate you all! I stayed in Samoens for a week, a few years ago. It pished almost 24 hours a day for a week. The lifts were closed. No biking. So swimming pools. It looked like a great spot – but not in constant rain. Typical mountain holiday risk!

Our daughter went on our recommendations a couple of months after us last year. It rained all the time.

I have no idea how they managed all the roots. But they still had a good time

For those asking how to return to Morzine via Col de Joux Plane without the 1600m climb. Go see the guys in Mountain Spirit in Samoens, they run a shuttle for not very much. Well worth it to drop in from La bourgeoise down to Samoens for lunch then shuttle back and take the off piste back to Les Gets via La Chapelle de Jacquicourt.

very different to a day in the park.