Great for Freestyle
Large ski area
High altitude
Ski-in/out
Short transfersabout 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.
need to know
Total ski area:400km
Pistes:300
Number of Lifts: 199
1 day area pass:€51
6 day area pass:€255
Official website
http://www.avoriaz.com/
Linked areas:
Morzine, Abondance, la Chapelle d’Abondance, Châtel, Les Gets, Montriond, St Jean d’Aulps, Champéry, Morgins, Torgon, Val d’Illiez, Les Crosets, Champoussin.
getting here
By air
Fly to Geneva for a transfer of around an hour.
By road
Avoriaz itself is a car-free resort so if you're coming by car you'll need to park in either the covered car park at the entrance to the resort, or the open car park which 400 metres away. To get there take the A41 towards Chamonix then exit 18 Cluses towards Taninges on the D902, then head to Les Gets and Morzine, then follow signs to Avoriaz 1800.
By train
Closest train stations are Thonon-les-Bains, Cluses (France) and Lausanne, Montreux and Aigle (Switzerland).