Avoriaz

Let’s get this settled straight away. Yes, Avoriaz is a purpose built town with plenty of large apartment blocks, but it’s not as bad as you imagine it to be and far prettier than similar resorts such as Tignes. Avoriaz can get a bit of a bad wrap from many people, although we suspect many haven’t actually been there, seeing as it a bit of a low-rent, party people kind of resort. However it’s has some of the best terrain in the Portes du Soleil, and is as snow-sure as anywhere in the area.

Avoriaz is the highest resort in the Portes du Soleil which gives it the best chance of decent snow. Quite often is can be raining down in Morzine but snowing up in Avoriaz so being able to get between the two is a great benefit of being in the Portes du Soleil. Many seasonaires stay in Morzine but ride in Avoriaz for the more challenging runs and better freestyle options.

The terrain in Avoriaz is more snowboarder friendly than Morzine where you often find a flat section just where you don’t want it to be, and it has the excellent Stash - a Burton sponsored freestyle area set amongst the trees with plenty of natural-ish hits to test yourself on, or as we do, casually ride past because ‘you’re not quite feeling it today’.

The lifts taking you from Morzine to Avoriaz have received a welcome upgrade in recent years, reducing the bottleneck for first getting up to Avoriaz and then making the trip back at the end of the day to get the Super Morzine cable car down to Morzine, which has been the cause of many a swear word in the past.