It’s that time of year again: ski holidays with the family. The French Alps are a prime location for family ski holidays, due to their proximity and wide choice for resorts. But which are the best family ski resorts in France?
That’s what we’re here to tell you.
But it’s more than just finding a resort with lots of greens and blues.
Including non-ski winter activities, easy-to-reach pistes, a healthy choice of chalets and simple transfers, the best family ski resorts in France should offer an easy and fun experience for your family.
The exact resort for your family will depend on who your family members include: are you taking a couple of teenagers who want to snowboard on snow parks? A 2-year-old? Or is it a big mix?
Photo from RxSport
Some resorts are just built with kids in mind. They have more easily accessible green terrain, free sunblock, great ski schools and have kid-friendly food and activities. Skiing holiday in the French Alps with your family can be fun with the right planning.
This list of the best ski resorts for families in France will help you decide.
What makes a ski resort good for families?
Family-friendly doesn’t just mean a lot of green and blue pistes. There are other criteria these resorts need to meet, especially if your kids are younger.
First, those pistes need to be easily accessible. Most resorts have easy slopes. It doesn’t mean you can always reach them easily from the base.
We compiled this list based on the following criteria:
Easily accessible green & blue slopes
The green & blues are wide and mild
High-quality kid ski schools that are easily accessible from the base
Kid-friendly activities (ski and non-ski related)
Designed with kids in mind
Great accommodation short walking distance from pistes
Let’s see what we found!
Best family ski resort in France for the whole family: Morzine
Morzine checks off all the boxes. It’s a ski resort, but it’s also an adorable Alpine town. The capital of the huge, 600-km Portes du Soleil ski area, Morzine accommodations caters particularly well to families.
It’s set at a relatively low altitude of 1,000 km, so be sure not to book too early or too late here. But that also means the temperatures won’t be too extreme, which helps with cold-sensitive little ones.
Only a 75 minutes’ drive from Geneva, this resort has wide and gentle green and blue slopes. It has the Familles Plus accreditation. In order to receive this award, a resort must offer:
Personal welcome for families
Entertainment for all ages
Family activities to enjoy together or separately
Family-friendly shops and services on hand
Children looked after by professionals
This village has all the authentic Alpine charm your whole family could dream of. There are plenty of Morzine accommodations that fit the whole family. It has great ski schools and daycare for kids under 5, but also snow parks for stunt-pulling teenagers and plenty of higher-level pistes.
Morzine has plenty of non-ski related activities for the whole family, such as a cinema, indoor pool, sledging, ice hockey, ice skating and more. After you tuck the kids into bed, Morzine also has a wonderful nightlife for parents who want to stay out a bit longer.
To top it all off, it also has plenty of self-catered apartments, like this luxury ski chalet right in the centre of Morzine, which is the easiest choice for a family trip.
Les Gets, made for children & pre-teens
Les Gets is right next to Morzine. It has some of the easiest and most accessible baby slopes in the French Alps. Plus, the town has the same adorable charm as a Christmas postcard. Got a family with kids from 6-14? This is likely the place for you.
Les Gets also has an ice rink in the middle of town and a sledging piste at the bottom of the Chavannes telecabine. These require slightly more skills than a toddler or very young child can handle, but pre-teens and children love it.
Close to your Les Gets accommodation, you will find day cares and amenities for very young children, but the pistes themselves are better for skiers that have a little bit of experience. There are some easy nursery slopes available.
Avoriaz, best for families with kids under 5
Picture from Villages des Enfants
Avoriaz is a car-free village that has been carefully catered with families in mind. It’s a short 75-minute transfer from Geneva and flexible housing.
It’s home to the Village des Enfants (French for “Children’s Village”), which is a leisure centre and ski & snowboard school. They’ll care for your kids all day until 5:30 pm, so parents can go enjoy the slopes while the kids have fun.
There’s also a British ski school here, the Avoriaz Alpine Ski School, which is more for kids who want to advance faster.
Kids under 5 ski in Avoriaz for free, so if you are coming with younger ones, this is the perfect place. And while the town of Avoriaz is less picturesque than Morzine and Les Gets, it still has the classic outdoor skating rink and an indoor water park for non-ski fun. This resort is very close to our Morzine accommodations.
La Rosiere, for kids 7 and up
La Rosiere, a self-declared “children’s paradise” has great pistes for beginners. The lesser-known resort is only 5 hours away from Paris and sits at a relatively high altitude of 1,850 meters, making it one of the most snowsure resorts on the list.
Thirty-three of its 77 pistes are good for beginners and improvers, which means this is good for the very young ones, but also those who want to improve.
At Rosiere, there’s a snowboarding school for kids 7 years and up, so it’s not only for babies, but for the whole family. La Rosiere also has a wide and quality offer of non-ski activities kids look forward to.
There’s dog sledding, ice hockey, bowling and even rock climbing. Needless to say, nobody’s going to get bored at this resort. The atmosphere is 100% oriented to families.
Meribel, home to the Yeti Park
Sitting at 1,450 meters, Meribel is part of the world’s biggest ski areas, with 50% of the domain being pistes suitable for kids and beginners. In 2013 it was awarded the Famille Plus status for its dedication to serving families with children.
It has top-of-the-class ski schools and daycare facilities, one of them also being the Piou Piou Club by ESF. They have themed ski areas for kids, like one with life-sized woodland animals and another with Inuit-themed games.
It’s also the home to Yeti Park, accessed via the Combles ski lift, a piste that pays homage to a cute abominable snowman. Kids can easily ski down this piste, with gongs, trumpets and prayer wheels entertaining them. Our Meribel accommodations are very well located in relation to all these activities.
Flaine, a less-crowded resort, short drive from Geneva
Only a 90-minute transfer away from Geneva, this snowsure resort is one of the most underrated kid-friendly resorts in the French Alps. It has 250km of north-facing, snowsure pistes that have an eye-squinting amount of sunny days. It’s also one of the lesser known resorts, which works for shy families or people who are overwhelmed by crowds.
Flaine has a huge variety of pistes -- from vertical black pistes to tonnes of gentle green slopes for the kiddoes. Plus, it’s home to two excellent ski schools: the Piou Piou Club and Le Rabbit Club.
There’s no shortage of safety mats and magic carpets for the kids to safely learn how to hit the slopes. The modern architecture makes it stand out from the more authentic Alpine villages.
Flaine takes special care to cater to kids and families. They have a lot of non-ski activities, like dog-sledding, to entertain the kids when they aren’t on the slopes.
Megeve, for teenagers
This beautiful ski resort is good for families with older children.
Megeve’s Medieval town is spellbindingly charming. Lined with cobbled, narrow streets and rustic chalets, this place is one of the best family ski resorts in France for those with older kids. That smell in the air? Michelin-starred restaurants.
It’s perfect for teenagers and kids who already have developed some taste. Here, kids will need to carry their own skis to a lot of the lifts as there are fewer Megeve accommodations close to the pistes.
There’s a superb variety of terrain: 50% green or blue pistes and the rest for the braver ones in the group. After (or instead of) ski, this place also offers paintball, laser & archery tag.
Conclusion
We hope this helped you find the best family ski resort in France for your next ski holidays with the whole gang. Have you been to any of these? We’d love to hear your experience or opinion in the comments below! And if not, hurry up and book your accommodation now:
Book your Morzine accommodation
Book your Les Gets accommodation
Book your Meribel accommodation
Book your Megeve accommodation
