Travel to Les Portes du Soleil with travel insurance from Essential Travel

Ski resorts in Les Portes du Soleil

Les Portes du Soleil, meaning ‘the gates of the sun’, is a large region of 14 interconnected ski resorts between Lake Geneva in Switzerland and Mont Blanc in France. The region claims to be the largest ski area in the world, covering 14 valleys and offering a colossal 650kms of pistes.

Most ski resorts in Les Portes du Soleil are small to mid-sized, the largest and best known being Morzine, an old farming and slate-mining village which has retained its heritage and Savoyard authenticity. Perched on a clifftop above it, and also well known, is Avoriaz, the highest of the Portes du Soleil resorts, ensuring good ski conditions even when other areas are lacking.

Other ski resorts on the French side are Les Gets, Montriond, St Jean dAulps, Abondance, Châtel and the Chapelle dAbondance. On the Swiss side of Les Portes du Soleil are the ski resorts of Morgins, Torgon, Val dIlliez, Les Crosets, Champoussin and Champéry.

It’s difficult to beat the skiing in Les Portes du Soleil, with an enormous variety of pistes (over 200) spanning 650kms of varied terrain across 14 different resorts. Advanced skiers and snowboarders are particularly well catered for at Les Portes du Soleil, but each ski resort also has beginner and intermediate areas of some sort and size.

Extremely advanced skiers have more limited choices, with relatively few super-steep runs in the region. One lift pass allows access to the entire system of lifts and slopes, so there is no danger of boredom or banality.

Les Portes du Soleil receives snow well into springtime, and spring is regarded as the best time of the year to visit the 14 ski resorts, due to the good snowfall balanced with blue skies. An additional benefit is that children under 12 years can ski for free after April 3, until the end of the season.

Skiing in Les Portes du Soleil

Les Portes du Soleil is a vast area straddling Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva, and presents endless ski opportunities over a variety of terrain. It comprises 14 resorts that are particularly popular with families, but the variety is such that there is something to suit everyone.

Les Portes du Soleil’s pistes make up a distance of 650kms in total. These are predominantly geared towards snowboarders and upper intermediate/advanced skiers, but each resort has skiing for all levels. Experts may be pressed to find a piste which is especially challenging, but the mammoth number of off-piste opportunities and the 243kms of cross-country trails makes up for the limited number of scarily steep slopes.

The over 200 lifts that cover the 200 slopes in Les Portes du Soleil can all be utilised with a single ski pass, which means that visitors have access to a colossal area of skiing territory that is hard to match anywhere else in Europe.

Apres-ski in Les Portes du Soleil

If you need a few off-slope days to rest your thighs, there are plenty of other activities to keep you busy at Les Portes du Soleil. Between them, the ski resorts offer archery, bobsleigh rides, tobogganing, climbing, horseback riding, ice-climbing, ice-skating, mountain biking in the snow, paragliding, snow-kiting and snowshoe trekking.

There are endless eateries in the area, serving a variety of different cuisine, including traditional Savoyard food and wine. A diverse variety of lodging is offered by the different resorts in Les Portes du Soleil, including: hotels, chalets and self-catering apartments. It is up to visitors to choose the style and price range of accommodation that suits them best.

There is good nightlife at many of the resorts, with bars and a selection of discos and clubs offering après-ski entertainment. A multitude of restaurants throughout the area serve mouth-watering cuisine. In some cases, this includes traditional Savoyard fare accompanied by locally produced wine and cheeses.

Transportation to Les Portes du Soleil

Les Portes du Soleil is located between Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc, and can be easily reached by means of car, plane or train. For those pressed for time, the most convenient way of reaching the region is to fly to Geneva and take alternative transport from there.

If you opt for taking your own vehicle and you are coming from the UK, the journey to the resort will involve taking a car ferry from Britain to the French port of Calais. From here, it is approximately 900kms to Les Portes du Soleil. Most of this distance can be covered by utilising the French autoroutes, speeding up the journey.

You can get to Les Portes du Soleil by using either the A41 to Annecy, or the Mont Blanc tunnel, and then the A40 to Cluses for access from the south. To enter Les Portes du Soleil from the north, follow the road to Thonon les Bains. Les Portes du Soleil is situated 70kms from Geneva, 590kms from Paris, 1,000kms from London, 970kms from Amsterdam, 790kms from Brussels and 430kms from Stuttgart.

Reaching Les Portes du Soleil by train is a comfortable, convenient and affordable method of transportation. Eurostar trains leave from Waterloo Station in the UK, arriving in Paris about four hours later. From the capital, you can connect with a high-speed TGV train headed for Thonon-les-Bains or for Cluses.

From Cluses station, you can catch a bus to the Aulps Valley (Avoriaz, Les Gets, Montriond, Morzine and St Jean d’Aulps). From Thonon Station, you can catch the bus to the Abondance Valley (Abondance, Châtel and the Chapelle d’Abondance). The Swiss resorts can be accessed by means of the Aigle train station.

The quickest and most convenient way of reaching Les Portes du Soleil is to catch a flight to Geneva-Cointrin Airport, and arrange a transfer to your chosen resort.

Eurolines buses run from all over Europe to Geneva and Paris. From these cities, you can connect with a series of local Swiss or French buses to take you to Les Portes du Soleil.

click here for a cheap holiday insurance quotation