Destination Samoëns

Destination Samoëns Morag and Andrew Ashworth from Scotland fell in love with Samoëns, an alpine town, famous for its skiing, in the Haute Savoie. They have a rental holiday home, The Lodge, there and tell us why this part of the French alps is the perfect place for both winter and summer fun… What makes Samoëns a really great place for a summer holiday? Beautiful landscapes with stunning waterfalls and summer pastures, plus there’s so much to do for all ages and levels of fitness with activities from rafting to parapenting to road and mountain biking. It’s like living in a large playground! The village is beautiful and authentic with wonderful botanic gardens and lovely town centre What makes Samoëns a really great place for a ski break? For beginners and learners, Samoëns 1600 offers an ideal base, with a nice variety of green and blue runs to challenge you as you progress, and a great kids area. The rest of Samoëns, Morillon and Les Carroz offer mainly intermediate skiing with fast blues and red’s, although at the top of Samoëns there are some tough blacks and great off piste. The “green” Marvel run in Morillon is often portrayed as one of the world’s most picturesque ski runs (after heavy snow fall there’s nowhere prettier), and it’s a 4-5km cruise down to Morillon 1100. The Flaine bowl is one of the premier ski areas in France and has a great snow record due to the “Mont Blanc effect”. There are views of Mont Blanc from Tete de Saix, en route to Flaine, and from Flaines Les Grandes Plantiers.

Samoëns is a historic town, with a traffic free centre, the streets are full of gourmet food shops providing mouth watering locally made cheeses, bread, cakes and produce. The weekly market is one of the best in the region. It's a great place to visit - year-round. and across the top of sheer limestone cliffs, eventually arriving in Sixt which is a small ski area in its own right. Ski season this year runs from Saturday, December 15 to Monday, April 22, 2019. Tell us about The Lodge Flaine’s pistes are superb and there is plenty of scope for off-piste skiing. There is also an enormous variety of skiing. The Serpentine piste is tremendous, a favourite with ski instructors on their day off, it is wide, fast and rolling. Lucifer lives up to its name with unexpected depressions interrupting your beautiful carving. Diamiant Noir is a black off piste couloir – definitely not for the faint hearted. One of the most picturesque runs in Flaine is Mephisto Superieure, with awesome views across the Mont Blanc massive - Mont Blanc is the big one in the middle! From the top of Flaine you can also access Cascades, this runs for 14km by waterfalls The Lodge at Samoëns is an incredibly beautiful and spacious chalet, which comprises of contemporary split-level living for families and groups in a luxury, fully equipped home from home with comfortable furnishings and a wood burning stove. There are three south facing balconies and the mountain views are stunning, sitting out here, or lying on the loungers just contemplating the majestic scenery is a fabulous experience. We benefit from Samoëns’ low-lying Alpine climate - when it’s ski time up at Samoëns 1600, down in the town it can be 23°C! The house is set in a large extremely private garden with such amazing scenery it’s like wandering through a photo album. We’ve gone for cosy, comfy and stylish and there are 5 bedrooms, loads of garage space and storage – essential for all that ski equipment!