Where better than France?  If, this winter, you’re looking to ski France offers some of the best pistes in Europe, with Portes du Soleil providing the largest ski area in Europe.  And when you’re looking for a chalet France is surely the first choice location, with catered chalets tailored to suit every group, every taste and every budget.

If you’re traveling from the UK, Morzine in particular couldn’t be more convenient.  Just over an hour from Geneva airport, Morzine is served by regular airport transfers, so you can be confident that your journey will be smooth and comfortable.  When you arrive, your catered chalet in Morzine – under a crisp blanket of whitest snow – will be prepared to the highest standards for your arrival.

Morzine Miscellany

Historically, Morzine is a rural market town made up of several smaller villages.  The area made its money from agriculture and slate mining, but when times were hard, many locals were forced to leave for Geneva or Paris to find work, often using their skills as stone cutters.  The name of the town, Morzine, is said to derive from the German word for morning, ‘Morgen’. Certainly, the view from your chalet window each morning bespeaks the proudest traditions of French and German-speaking generations from this inspiring, border-spanning location.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for an adrenaline rush, or a family looking to take in the sights at your own pace, a chalet holiday in the French Alps gives you the freedom to create the perfect summer break for you and your party.

Save the uphill for the winter training! With miles and miles of interlinking lifts, you can enjoy the rush of downhill Alpine slopes without feeling like you’re doing the full Tour de France.  The Portes du Soleil area alone offers visitors:

- Over 650km of marked trails
- 25 lifts
- 12 resorts
- French and Swiss slopes
- Downhill and cross-country trails to suit all abilities.

Visitors to Les Gets can enjoy no fewer than twelve downhill runs, with Morzine offering an additional six.  Whether it’s jump parks, northshore trails or technical zones, there is something for everyone, no matter if you’re an advanced-level cyclist or just looking for a break in the fresh Alpine air.

It won’t be long before the snow is back, covering chalet roofs in a thick blanket of white.  But the chalets could scarcely look more beautiful than they do in summer, set against vivid Alpine green.

It’s not too late though for you to have your own chalet in the alps for a magical Christmas holiday. We have a few chalets available for Christmas Holidays due to some late minute cancellations. You could look at Catered Chalet Alpazure in Morzine. They’ve had a recent cancellation leaving this wonderful ski chalet available for Christmas! Sleeping up to 12 people in 5 rooms, the chalet is in Morzine, giving great access to the whole Pores du Soleil ski area, the largest ski area in Europe. Morzine is a charming ski resort, all made of wood and stone building in keeping with this traditional village – a wonderful place to spend a Christmas Chalet Holiday

Another catered chalet that’s jus become available for Christmas Ski Holidays is Catered Chalet La Replan in Les Gets. This ski chalet has 4 bedrooms and sleeps up to 10 people. If you’d like your own charming chalet for christmas, in a picture book village, then this catered chalet could be for you.

Finally please remember you can use our school holidays search feature to find a Catered Chalet France that are available for your school holiday:
Christmas Chalet Holidays
New Year Chalet Holidays
Half Term Chalet Holidays
Easter Chalet Holidays

I must start by saying both are wonderful things to do, and you’ll find a lot of us who work in ski resorts do both, myself included. They each have their individual advantages, but whichever way you decide, if you’re like me, you’ll love every minute.

Lets start by looking long term – where you might go with your found talents when you have your chosen snowsport mastered. You can do any terrain and any style on either skis or a snowboard. Ski slopes, freestyle & jumps in the snow park, off-piste powder – all are great fun on skis or a snowboard. There’s a mis-held belief, especially amongst non-skiiers, that jumps & tricks are a snowboarder’s domain – it’s not true! If you go to the snow park you see plenty of skiers and snowboarders, and if you what the videos of the pros then you’ll see the ones doing the biggest jumps & hardest tricks are on skis in fact.

So for the future, you can ski or snowboard on your beginner’s holiday, no bias there.

We’ll talk about the learning to ski or learning to snowboard next – there is a good difference there alright!

Learning to ski is an easier experience than learning to snowboard. There’s still plenty of falls, and it’s great fun too, but in general you pick up the basics quicker and will find your self being able to do laps of the nursery slopes, at least partly in control, in a fairly short about of time. So if progress, with the minimum amount of falls, is on your list then maybe a beginner ski holiday could be the choice for you.

Learning to snowboard can be quite challenging you could say! The first few days will be spent falling over. A lot. It’s good fun, great for those that like to get their teeth into a challenge, but it is tough and the rate of learning to snowboard can be slow at the start. You average person on a beginner snowboarding holiday spends the first 2 or 3 days of their ski chalet holidays falling over. My top tip is padding. Lots of padding on the bum can make a world of difference (I’ve seen people put a cushion down their ski trousers before!)

Then after your first few days of falling over something will click and you are off, snowboarding down the mountain! What seemed an impossible task suddenly starts to be come automatic, and you’ll be snowboarding your way down the beginner ski slopes looking the full snowboarder part!

As you progress forward you’d find snowboarding a simpler sport, whereas skiing is more technical. It could be said that skiing is easier to learn, and harder to master. Every ski chalet holiday you’ll find us skiers always working on improving our technique, trying to ski powder with a more style or making our skis carve tighter and cleaner. Snowboarding though is generally more relaxed, it’s not nearly so technical a snow sport and most of us just ride and don’t worry too much about any little bad habits we’ve picked up along the way.

So there’s a few thoughts to help you on your decisions. If though you’d like to have a chat about such things please never hesitate to get in touch, I’d always be more than happy to chat about beginner ski holidays or beginner snowboarding holidays so if you’d like to chat to someone who does both then please just get in touch anytime.

Next time – ski resort for beginner skiers! I’ll be back with a blog on that but until then if you are considering a beginners ski chalet in france you could look at Ski Chalets in Chatel, Ski Chalets in Samoens or Ski Chalets in La Plagne, all great beginners ski holiday resorts.