We are a family of 5 and purchased this apartment after visiting Valmorel Les Granges Aux Fees during a Winter holiday. We fell in love with the Belle Valmorel and now enjoy going back frequently to our own cosy place.
We love the idea to have other families enjoy our apartment when it is available. It is a fantastic place in a great location with stunning views and lots of things to do in Winter and Summer.

This family-friendly and very French village resort in the Alps is often overlooked but it’s great for kids, beginners and low-level skiers, and easy to get to from Geneva, Lyon and Chambery.

Created in 1976 at 1,400m, Valmorel is one of the few purpose-built resorts in France that’s not a concrete eyesore. Learning from earlier mistakes, planners stuck to classic Savoyard design: low-rise wooden buildings and sloping slate roofs. Le Bourg, the pedestrianised high street, is full of shops, restaurants and bars. It’s friendly, relaxed, predominantly French and very family-focused. Club Piou-Piou in the centre takes children from 18 months to six years, and there’s a family snowzone with snow park, picnic areas and pedestrian access.

It’s blue and green heaven for beginners and low intermediates, with mainly wide motorway runs from 2,030m in Valmorel (and up to 2,300m in Saint-François-Longchamp). Novices have six areas, including two just for children. There are snow parks graded from green to black, including the very tricky black Combe du Riondet snowcross. Off-piste skiers wanting a challenge can hire a guide to tackle the Massif de la Lauzière, which is gaining a reputation among expert skiers who want a mountainside pretty much to themselves.

There’s no shortage of other activities. Hurtle down the slopes on an airboard (head first on short fat lilo), a snowskate (skateboard on snow) or in a snake gliss (train of toboggans). Go for a snowshoe trek through the forest near L’Aigle Blanc, or try paragliding on skis on a tandem flight with Here We Go Parapente. If that all sounds too energetic, enjoy a massage, sauna or hammam next door (at a charge).

For a small village, Valmorel has a good choice of bars in Le Bourg. Neighbours La Source, Le Petit Savoyard and Le Petit Prince all have terraces for the 4pm crowd, many of whom return in the evening. Le Perce-Neige has snuggly seats outside huddled around heaters. The buzziest is Jimbo Lolo, which serves a mix of Tex-Mex and tapas, with a jungle theme and wooden swings round the bar. And the Sound Pub & Club, which is open till 5am, is a favourite with off-duty bar staff.

Ski Roc in Le Bourg is one of the best and busiest restaurants in the village. It serves the usual Savoyard dishes, but with some innovative touches – a tartiflette ravioli, for one. It has sister restaurant at the top of the Altispace chairlift, Les Voiles du Nant, which does excellent burgers. And L’Altipiano, at the top of the Pierrafort cable car, does a great reblochonnade – a version of tartiflette with melted reblochon cheese and ham.

La Grange aux Fées is a stylish new self-catering residence beside the Lanchettes chairlift, with warm wood and exposed stone interiors, plus an indoor pool and hot tubs (at a charge).

Valmorel has 165km of pistes; 50 lifts; highest altitude 2,550m.
Good for families, authentic French charm, value, tranquillity