Top Resorts off the Beaten Track
6th May 2020
Last modified on May 14th, 2021
Next season may be the best time to head to the smaller quieter resorts. Our friends at Maison Sport have compiled their top 5 small french resorts, and we mention a few of ours too.
The company, which allows you to book your independent ski and snowboard instructor online, is rather good at coming up with useful advice.
Here are a few of them we featured last season.
Four Top Ways For Kids To Carry Their Skis
Top Tips For Skiing With Children
The latest list from Maison Sport looks at the top 5 French resorts off the beaten track to explore next season.
Away from the crowds.
Les Carroz
Great for families, Les Carroz is a quiet village packed with activities for the whole family.
The resorts boasts the Oasis Cool Zone, a great area for kids featuring jumps, palm trees and sunshine.
Seven cameras and a widescreen TV allow you to watch your family ski though the exciting course and share your runs on social media.
The resort also has paragliding, iceskating, dog sledding, a Christmas market, bowling and a 850m downhill Alpine Coaster.
PlanetSKI last visited Les Carroz in January 2019 read more about our trip here.
Les Saisies
Les Saisies hosted the biathlon and cross country ski events in the 1992 Winter Olympics and the resort still maintains the 120km of cross country skiing tracks.
With a a great mix of black and red runs for competent skiers to challenge themselves and blue and green runs for beginners and intermediate skiers to learn on, Les Saisies is a great resort for all ability levels and caters to groups perfectly.
Montgenevre
Straddling France and Italy, Mogenevre provides the opportunity to ski in two countries.
Wide and peaceful runs allow for a gentler ski, whilst the fairly undisturbed off-piste region is great for advanced skiers to explore and carve new tracks.
This traditional Alpine resort with traditional architecture has magnificent views of the surrounding mountains and is a great spot off the beaten track.
Champagny
Located lass than an hour and a half from Chambery airport, Champagny is a great place for intermediate skiers to hone their skills.
After spending the day on their cruising clues skiers can relax in one of the many bars found in town.
Champagny also offers the opportunity to climb up a naturally frozen waterfall, this activity really is one to write home about.
Chatel
Escape the hustle and bustle of busy resorts and enjoy a history rich ski break in Chatel.
Entertain yourself all day long with floodlit skiing open until 9:30pm on Wednesdays, or take the evening off in the Aquatic Centre where the kids can splash about while you relax in the spa.
Evening rides on electric snow-mountain bikes are certainly a great way to get around.
Regular reader will know we are huge fans of the smaller, less well-known resorts.
Unknown is even better.
Last winter we were based in Aosta in the Aosta Valley in Italy and in the busy half-term week headed to a few of the smaller resorts.
Avoiding the crowds in the Aosta Valley: Crevacol
Avoiding the crowds in the Aosta Valley: Torgnon.
The previous winter PlanetSKI was based in Innsbruck in the Tirol.
At half-term in 2019 when the crowds were out we had a similar strategy – visiting Glungezer, Axamer Lizum, Patscherkoffel Muttereralm, and Nordkette
See here for our full and detailed round-up report:
Avoiding the crowds around Innsbruck
PlanetSKI in Axamer Lizum, the Tirol. Image © PlanetSKI.
