2 couples, each with a young child so 4 bedrooms required. Self catered, not too dear and in a town so we don’t need a car. Plan is to do our own child care, so 3 riding, 1 babysitting.

Morzine seems an obvious choice but pricey in town. Samoens/Grand Massif?

Any other choices near to Geneva with reliable snow? My experience is mainly the 3 vallees and a trip to La Plagne. I know we could fly to Chambrey but Geneva seems more reliable and it’s cheap.

Any advice welcome.

Chamonix? (busses substitutes car, rather than not needing anything)
Les Houches?

What kind of skiing/riding?

Les Gets has a nicer “small town” feel than Morzine but is a bit further if the snow is patchy and you need to drive to get to Prodains lift to get up to Avoriaz (10 mins drive to Morzine, plus the Morzine to Prodain drive of about 10-15 mins?). Les Gets is a bit higher than Morzine though…

Might be worth trying these guys – top quality outfit that does skiing hols as well as biking. Highly recommended. They’re pretty flexible too, so a good bet for families with kids… http://bikeverbier.com/index_vw.php

Bit of everything snowboard wise, with as much, easy access off piste as conditions allow.

Car hire is coming in at approx £900! so we want to be walking distance from lifts really.

Hadn’t considered the bike hire companies but as one person is staying in each day with a 14 month old and a 3yr old we want a decent size place and sole occupancy.

Depending on when you want to go, you might actually find that a package trip is cheaper. It almost definitely will if you plan on eating out.

Cheapest way to go skiing is a package during the slow weeks when no one else wants to go. Like the week right after New Year for instance.

Have a look at some of the villages near Morzine. We stayed self catered in Montriond, apartment was cheap (£200 pw between 3) and 5 mins from Morzine on the free bus

Chamonix. Free buses up and down the valley. Can take the kids swimming etc.

The Grand Massif is good, I’ve been there a few times.

I would say Les Carroz would be a good bet. A return transfer from Geneva would be cheaper than a hire car and once there you wouldn’t need a car. You perhaps won’t be walking distance from the lifts, but the ski buses are good.

You can ski out to Flaine, Samoens and Morillon too.

I’d go with Les Houches, buses into cham if needed

Chamonix is OK if you want to spend most of your time on a bus rather than skiing.

Its fine if you want to do a bit of ski touring etc. But for your average week a year skier its a pain in the bum.

Kids getting a room each! Extravagent. I’d have them sharing.

Going to go off the wall a little
Praz de Lys Sommand.
Its down the same road as the PDS , Similar transfer time . Smaller resort and not linked to anywhere . Pretty much whole place walkable to the lifts . Depends on what you are after really . Having been to Chamonix I wouldnt go back without the intention of using the car evry day .
Flaine would also work for you, try the Tourist Board in resort for booking a sc appt.

Two couples, each with toddler, equals two of those self catering rooms that are supposed to sleep four adults. Or, an apartment for six.

Chamomix is out as we don’t fancy all those buses. Happy to pay for a bigger apartment/house so that we dont get cabin fever when we’re in with the kids..

I’ll check out the other suggestions though so thank you.

Grand massif ski area, we flew to geneva, return transfer for 3 adults was 210 euros to Flaine last year. Flaine is ugly (and expensive) but the skiing is great, Les Carroz or Morillion are much prettier and probably cheaper.
Transfer time is no more than 1 hr.

Thanks Sprootlet, I’ll have a closer look at those villages.

Mugboo – what time of year ? Morzine/Les Gets are quite low so only really reliable mid season IMO (last year being an exception).

What budget are you on ? The White Room in Sainte Foy (Stevo posts on here) have a great set up and some outstanding prices given quality. Chalets are very close to slopes and it’s really easy to do half days and/or nip back to chalet. From memory it was around 2 hours from Geneva but would need to check.

By the way we have a 2013/14 ski thread for this stuff 😉

Edit: just seen you don’t want to rent cars, so White Room is tough as train from Geneva to Bourg is rubbish. If you do go to Morzine/Les Gets Ski Transfers are good (they do chalet blueridge FYI). You can get a train from Geneva to Les Chable where BikeVerbier are but no car there might not work well)

Have a look at Arosa, fly to Zurich and 3hr train ride (bit long?) inc mountain railway for last spectacular part to resort centre. Everything on your doorstep, boarding from 1900 to 2800m, horse drawn sleighs etc. Swiss supermarket prices might make you wince a little.

Are you going for a week? If so has to be PDS or Grand Massif otherwise will be too small and get boring. Les Houches will get boring but the bus into Chamonix will be too much effort. Download the piste maps and look at the smaller villages that are still connected by lifts. If you’re going for less time look at Megeve or the other villages linked to it

11th/12th Jan for a week & French prices make me wince so Swiss prices will cause a coronary 🙂

Wasn’t sure if this might lost in the big thread…

Google St Gervais Les Bains,nice little town with cable car direct to slopes went twice earlier this year less than an hour from Geneva, good value for money miles of piste with nobody about , some quality off piste and you can pop over and see how the other half live in Megeve!!! I have a good contact if you`re interested.

Does it have to be Geneva? I’d go for Grenoble and AdH…

I’ve stayed in some nice apartments in La Rosiere, Balcons I think they were called and they’re in more than one resort. Don’t know if they’d fit your travel plans but youcouldget an idea of what’s available.

Not everything has to go in the big S&SB thread 😉

£900 for carhire? Are you serious? That’s mental. My friends and I have flown to Geneva and hired a car for the last 3 years or so and usually only pay around £200 for a week in a VW Touran or something similar. 4 of you in a hire car is usually much cheaper than paying for 4 peoples transfers. (depending on finding free parking that is) but if you’re going self catered, you want the car so you can fill up on food and booze at the hypermarket before getting up the mountain.

4 adults, 2 kids, 4 boards & all the bags, we ain’t fitting in a Touran 🙁

Geneva’s cheap and easy to get to and with little un’s we don’t want a long a transfer.

I’ll check out St Gervais too.

La Rosiere might work new bowling alley and ice rink i think last year.
linked with La Thuile , bit of a cranky lift system though.
Unsure of transfer times and I might be biased as there was powder last time i went and girls.

@mugboo – food is cheaper in France than UK, what are expensive are the resort supermarkets. This is where a car helps as you can drive to the hypermarket “in the valley” and buy more cheaply. I have to believe two small cars (Polos are fine) are less than £450 a week in Jan which is low season ?

Have a look at Grand Bornand above Annecy and near La Clusaz

Is La Rosiere still linked to La Thuile by that loooong drag lift? We’ve stayed in La Thuile and two mates had to hike out 🙂

Jambalaya – we’ve done a few of these trips without kids in the past and followed the plan of filling up with shopping in the valley & I agree that it’s a whole lot cheaper. I’ll check out the 2 x small car option, cheers.

Forgot to say, the missus is liking the look of Samoens.

Touran & roofrack for the boards, job done!
Pack all the stuff round the kids in the back and they’ll be loving it. Like their own little den. We’ve used the Touran to get 7 adults and all our gear to the slopes, we didn’t even have a roofrack. Just took the bindings off the boards and had them running down the sides of the car with all the stuff packed around the rest of it.

If you have a roofrack it will be simple.

Polo & 5008 estate, Chambrey £400 ish, Geneva £600 ish so defo cheaper then £900, cheers 🙂

Always wondered – do hire cars near the Alps come with winter tyres and chains?
Good solution btw ^

St Jean D’aulps. 10 min down the road from Morzine. You can ski it’s own small resort Le Grande Terche or you can be on the lift at Montiond in less than a 10 min drive.

Arosa – are you mad!! It a huge trek!!

Genevea to Zurich 3 hours, Zurich to Lanquart 1.5 hours. At least another hours before you are in Arosa.
You could have gone to Breckenridge in that time !!
Don’t rule out Cham – it is a great resort
I hated Morzine – and I am not to sure why, maybe low resort – but the clinetel had their heads up their arses … Avoriaz was good – perhaps because the snow was better.

You are not a million miles from Val d’Isere and Tignes – so I would go there …