Portes du Soleil Snow Skiing Resort In France, Ski Resort

Portes du Soleil - When Swiss Style meets French Touch

Portes du Soleil means "gates of the sun," a general name for more than a dozen small to mid-size resorts that traverse the two countries, France and Switzerland. This is the largest linked skiing area in the world, truly skiing without frontiers. The fourteen resorts, 209 lifts, 288 marked slopes, 243 km of cross-country skiing, seven snow-parks, three half-pipes, five boarder crosses and a vast network of over three hundred and sixty miles of skiing trails and abundant off-piste skiing all await you at Portes du Soleil.

The main resorts are Abondance, Avioraz Chatel, La Chapelle d’Abondance, Les Gets, Montriond, Morzine and Saint Jean d’Aulps on the French side and Champery, Les Crosets, Morgins and Torgon on the Swiss side. All of them can be accessed by a common ski lift pass but your papers and travel documents may be checked at any.

Portes du Soleil came into existence in the1960s when world famous skiers decided to link Les Crosets and Champéry with neighboring French areas in the Val d'Illiez and Haut Chablais, particularly Avoriaz. Known at first as the Haute Route Des Familles, this borderless ski area was later renamed the Portes du Soleil.

Today Portes du Soleil attracts many families on a ski vacation. There are plenty of activities and facilities for children, making it an attractive proposition. Many skiers prefer to stick to the terrain closest to their resort, but at some stage, during their vacation everyone, is tempted to ski the whole circuit. A must excursion for every visitor is skiing across the Swiss border to Champery, a small hamlet in an isolated valley.

Avoriaz has access to 67 individual pistes. Like the other resorts of Portes du Soleil most of the terrain here is for intermediate and advanced skiers and snowboarders, but each town also offers some beginner’s area. However, there are relatively few super-steeps for which the western Alps are known.

All categories of hotels, cozy apartments or chalets are available at most of the resorts. Portes du Soleil has fulfilled its aim of providing satisfaction to skiers’ desires for freedom, wide-open spaces and discovery skiing.