Morzine - village
While Morzine is a lovely, vibrant town to wander in, its scale and spread can slow you down. It can, after all, accommodate more than 25,000 visitors. Frequent buses operate, for getting in and out of town. And the town teems with life, even during the day when most visitors are up an Alp. Restaurants, bars, cafés, shops and even the odd artist’s atelier line the streets, there’s a scattering of historic churches among the cute Savoyard chalets, and locals and visitors alike always seem in convivial mood.
Accommodation summary
With 40 hotels and more than 1500 rental chalets and apartments, Morzine can sleep 25,500 guests. The core of its offer has traditionally been proudly mid-range, with a decent amount of affordable-end accommodation thrown in, but recent years have seen more high-end properties add more luxury allure, with more spa add-ons than you can shake a loofah at.
Hotels Le Dahu, Alpen Roc, Le Tremplin and Champs Fleuris deserve honourable mentions for their environmentally friendly efforts, from recharging points for guests’ electric cars to hi-tech, low-impact heating systems and sustainable guest goodies. And Hotel La Bergerie is one of our favourites for a wallow in wellness, with its outdoor hammam, sauna and pool looking out across spectacular mountain views. As Morzine’s oldest building, a converted farmhouse locally known as Mas de la Coutettaz offers a unique atmosphere and 11 individually decorated rooms, including what was once Morzine’s only prison cell.
Several très chic new chalets have made recent debuts. Simply Morzine unveils the ravishing Chalet Zormine, with roof-terrace hot tub, games room and a sleek, contemporary take on Alpine-chic interior design. Add a cinema room and you have a similarly lavish abode in Lodge des Nants, one of two sumptuous new properties offered this year by Hunter Chalets.
It’d be hard to tempt us away from one of our firm favourites Alikats though, so it’s just as well they’re also bringing two new self-catered gems to the table this winter – chalets Harmonie and Melodie. We love them for their above-and-beyond approach to helping guests take greener vacations, with everything from smart-tech building features to electric-car food deliveries to free return station transfers for guests arriving by train.
Ski/snowboard equipment hire
For mountain hardware, you’re spoiled for choice. All the big boys are here – Skiset has two branches, Intersport three, and Ski Republic and Skimium each have a base in the centre of town. There’s a pleasing number of cool little independents too. We’re keen on Doorstep Skis, which supplies snowboards too, and free delivery, and Francois Baud Freeride at the bottom of the Pléney lift.
It’s worth knowing that several businesses will also store your stuff for you overnight, a boon if you’re staying somewhere quite far-flung. Morzine Storage does this in town, while Ski Room has a handy location at the foot of the Pléney slopes.
Non-ski activities
Ice-diving in a frozen lake, torchlit snowshoe hikes, microbewery tasting tours, escape rooms and massage, massage, massage. There’s so much to do in this town it’s a wonder anyone makes it up the mountain.
Feeling active? The Parc des Dérêches has a 25m pool (with a slightly weird rule banning swim shorts. Ah well. When en France, mettez un Speedo!), a toasty kids’ paddling pool, and a 160m2 spa area with sauna and Turkish bath. There’s also a huge indoor ice rink, home ground of Morzine-Avoriaz’ hockey heros the Penguins, which has a cute little outdoor sister rink outside the Office du Tourisme.
Staying outside, sledging and paragliding are available on the slopes, which also offer more than 200km of tranquil cross-country ski trails. Nature discovery tours and snowshoeing are other soothing ways to connect with the pristine surroundings, and from this season, Flora Richard is offering a life-coaching session while walking a mountain trail, with optional guided meditation. Husky sledding and horse riding are available, or you can up the octane a bit with a snowmobiling session, or a lot with a helicopter tour of the local peaks. And to cool off, how about a nice dip beneath the ice in Lake Montriond?
Culture fans can learn about the town’s Savoyard traditions on horse-drawn heritage tours or tour the cheesery at La Fruitière. There’s an open workshop, too, at Au Délice Chocolaté, the town’s premier artisan chocolatier, and when thirst strikes, microbrewery Ibex will show you round and let you sample the goods.
And then there’s wellness. There are numerous pampering palaces and yoga studios around town, and some of the spa hotels’ facilities are open to non-guests, or you can call a masseur to your accommodation.
Come evening, if you’re not in the mood for après, you can join a torchlit snowshoe tour and drink in the magical mountain silence – and an aperitif, of course. Local guide extraordinaire Véronique Fillon goes one better, and invites you back to her off-road Alpine chalet for dinner afterwards. Contact her via the Office du Tourisme. And a new addition to Morzine’s leisure offer is its first escape room in the centre of town.
Childcare
You can park the little darlings and/or terrors with a number of reliable companies in Morzine, whether to take their first steps on snow or just stay in the warm and be entertained and cared for. ESF’s Club Piou Piou offers fun indoor and outdoor activities for kids from three and a half up, while the day nursery L’Outa is well-equipped to look after littl’uns as young as three months. Alpine Child Care, meanwhile, links parents with independent nannies and babysitters who’ll care for your kids in your own Morzine accommodation.
