Portes du Soleil opens its doors to snow buffs, thrill seekers and hygge fans

Festival Fever hits the slopes
Rock The Pistes (17-23 March 2019) is back by popular demand. At an altitude of 1,500 m, this music festival is like no other, with live performances across five different stages across the resort of Portes du Soleil. This year’s line-up will see Gaetan Roussel, Feu! Chatterton, Ofenbach DJ Set, Hyphen Hyphen and Charlie Winston perform to crowds of nearly 30,000.

The renowned brand, La Folie Douce has opened in Portes du Soleil this season. Located in Avoriaz at 1,800 m, this Ibiza style atmosphere is both unique and surreal. With a living backdrop of dancers, divas and DJs, La Folie Douce invites fun-seekers of all ages to share their unique mix of original, delicious cuisine and high-altitude clubbing. Partying in ski boots and thermals has never looked so cool.

Best for families
Portes du Soleil offers a wide range of activities for all the family.
New Lil’Stach in Avoriaz 1800 is a snowpark specially designed by Jack Burton (an American snowboarder and founder of Burton Snowboards) and aimed at children between the age of 4-14 years.

On 13 January 2019, sign up and try out the Family Ski Famigros, a fun-day in the village of Morgins where families compete with each other on skis, snowboards and free-heels.

Les Gets now offers scenic tours on electric skidoos with Mountain E-Park specially adapted for children over the age of five.

The resort of Les Gets houses a children’s video park like no other as well as an Indians and Trappers play area complete with tipis and totem poles and a winter barbeque area.

The Milka chocolate ski run can be found in Les Gets and Châtel offering children a mouth-watering day out on the slopes.

Geocaching in the snow is growing in popularity amongst families and is now available in Les Gets and Torgon. Download the app for free at https://en.lesgets.com/organize-book/summer-activities/geocaching.html and log entries along the way.

Avoriaz 1800 is a family-friendly resort featuring Aquariaz, an indoor waterpark-oasis, plus an ice rink, and a nursery ski-school in the centre of town that is perfect for keeping an eye on young learners.

To the north of Avoriaz 1800, the small village of Abondance offers a fine line in traditional friendly skiing options for those looking for an old-school ski trip.

Morzine is a beautiful village, offering a good mix of easy blues and mellow green runs to provide a perfect setting for all the family plus some good off piste, red and black slopes for those feeling more adventurous.

Health & Wellbeing
New for this winter season, is the introduction of new bubble accommodation with Bulles d’Aulps, which offers guests spectacular 360° views of the Vallée d’Aulps. Located in the heart of the village of Saint Jean d’Aulps, these futuristic bubble pods are perfect for recreating that cosy feeling, plus star gazing and reconnecting with nature.

Outdoor sessions of Yoga on the Piste is also new this season and the perfect recipe for releasing inner zen. Head to the Le Beldévère Restaurant in Les Gets for a full work out and leave feeling completely revived. Sun salutations at 1,750 m altitude overlooking Mont Blanc simply don’t get better than this!

The long-awaited Chalet Sapphire located in Morzine and the brainchild of architect Hervé Marullaz finally opens this winter. This high-end chalet oozes sophistication. Visitors will find everything they could possibly need including an indoor swimming pool, hammam, fitness centre, massage suite, jacuzzi and sauna topped off with spectacular panoramic valley views.

If you want to give the pistes a rest and try something a little different then head to La Chapelle d’Abondance, renowned for its dog sledding and cross-country skiing this area will have you reconnecting with nature in a gallop, skip and a mush.

Ski Joëring is available throughout the ski resort and is another incredible and unique experience that can be practised by anyone who loves skiing and horses. Be it a gentle stroll or a thrilling hack, this is guaranteed to get your adrenalin levels going.

Snow Buffs Snake and Spin this Way
Adrenalin junkies, snow buffs and fans of freestyle kicks should head to the Swiss Wall, one of the trickiest and steepest descents in the Alps.

This winter is the start of something very new. Try Split Boarding on a new ski touring piste in the resort of Avoriaz 1800 – a snowboard that splits in half into two skis – guests choose the moves and the grooves dependant on their skill and ability as well as personal preference.

Alternatively, strap on a headtorch and embark on a new ski-touring trip with a qualified instructor under the cover of darkness in Morzine. The mountains will be quiet at this time, and skiers and split-boarders can carve through glorious, untouched powder, beneath the moon and stars in peace.

This winter try out the new FatBike tours on snow in the resort of Les Gets, and for those feeling really adventurous a Full Moon FatBike tour in Avoriaz 1800 tour is ideal. With more than 14 kilometres of dedicated fatbiking pistes this definitely promises to keep adrenalin levels high.

Food & Drink
Given its size, Portes du Soleil offers a mouth-watering array of restaurants, cafes and bars to suit all budgets and tastes. In fact, Portes du Soleil offers visitors more than 90 restaurants at high altitude to choose from.

Chez Coquoz is a family run restaurant, a mountain refuge that was converted in 1952 and a gastronomic mecca at high altitude (1860 m to be exact). It is one of the oldest and most popular restaurants in the resort, famous for its seasonal, plant-based and locally-sourced food and its impressive panoramic views.

Le Communale is a Gault & Millau awarded restaurant in Champéry that has one of the finest selections of local wines and where the cuisine is based on locally-sourced and seasonal ingredients.

Raclette de Savoie is the local speciality to try during a visit to Portes du Soleil.

Other News
The newly launched Portes du Soleil App will appeal to many skiers and snowboarders, providing users with weather updates and access to live webcam footage across the 12 resorts. Users can download the App for free from Apple Store and GooglePlay.

For more information on things to see and do across the ski resort visit www.portesdusoleil.com