Avoriaz and Morzine

[BeeBee]

Wanna snowboard in Avoriaz and Morzine next winter, hope someone can help me in below questions:

1/ Avoriaz and Morzine are supposed to be linked, are they conveniently linked? If I stay in Avoriaz can I snowboard to or ride a chairlift to Morzine easily, or it's so inconvenient that I should stay in Morzine when I snowboard in Morzine?
2/ Any other resort that I can easily access to if I stay in Avoriaz? Chatel? Les Crosets?
3/ Which is the best month for snowboarding in Avoriaz? Is Feb okay?
4/ Has anyone stayed in Club Med Avoriaz before? Any comment?


Thanks.:)

[saikee]

Morzine and Avoriaz are physically linked but is separated by a town within walking distance.

There is a car-powered small train that take the skiers to go to each side. Never ride it myself but it should be 5 to 10 minites ride.

You can stay on either side. However Avoriaz is linked to the Swiss side. Morzine is linked with Les Gets and is a sizeable skiing area on its own. One of the link between Avoriaz with Switzerland is the "Wall of death", dubbed as one of the difficult black runs in the Alps.

You can stay on the Swiss side as well but for convenience Avoriaz should be the strategic place to be as you go one way to Morzine and the other way to the Swiss side. It is a long way to ski across Avoriaz and the terrain is not ideal for long distance travelling. You lierally come off the mountain to get into Morzine!

French schools break at the month of February. Various French regions operate a rotating system (each school taking a different week off) and so from the beginning of 1st week in Feb to the end of the 2nd week of Mar will be a bad time to ski any French resort, unless you like queues. The schools from UK also operate school breaks in this period.

No experience with Clun Med Avoriaz. Avoriaz is know to have ugly huge apartment blocks in the middle of the skiing resort at the top of the mountain and I would imagine it would be OK for ski-in and ski-out. However it is a long way off from a normal Swiss or French villeage.

For some reason Avoriaz has been able to sell itself as a popular snowboard resort.

The French side of Porte Du Soleil (Avoriaz, Morzine and Les Gets) has modern lifts. Swiss side of PDS is often criticised for its dated surface drag lifts in rather large number. That may explain why the Swiss side isn't talked about as much as the French side.

[BeeBee]

SaiKee,
Good morning and thank you so much for your info.
What about snow condition in Avoria in late Jan or mid March? Which will be a better bet?
Bee Bee

[saikee]

Late Jan and Early Mar will be a good bet. Snow should be OK.

The highest point in Porte Du Soleil is about 2200m and that is in Avoriaz which is also the highest resort of the domain. Bottom of Morzine is at 1000m but Avoriaz is build on the top. It is inside a bowl just like Flaine.

If you can't get good snow in Avoriaz then there won't be a better place to go in PDS and have to ski in a resort with a glacier which usually situates at 3000m.