France Travel Forum

I'll be in europe up until mid december, and i really want to go skiing in some decent mountains (I'm from australia and our mountains are pretty pathetic).

- does anyone have any recommendations on the best area in the french alps to go, considering that i have a reasonably small budget, will not have a car with me, and have only been skiing a few times in my life before.

- how much would I be looking at to hire full skiing gear for 6 days?

thanks in advance for any responses.

Hi are you from ausralia, i am looking for a letter of invitation from australia nationale please dont turn me down, i have promise my wife and kid that i will take them ther please, can i get a help from you. I promise to pay what ever you demand. this is my mail add: richardpaul2u@yahoo.com

Thanks

hi Richard, it would be wise to add some information on your VT page, where you are from, which nationality, etc. I highly doubt anyone will give you a letter of invitation. It involves much more than writing a letter. Why don't you apply for a visa?

Shafan, Courchevel seems to be the largest ski-able domain in Europe.

Hi Shafan,

To answer your actual question, most ski resorts in France do not open until Christmas, but it entirely depends upon the year. Some years, some will open in November. One of the places you will be sure to be able to ski is at Tignes, which is on a high glacier and is even open in summer (limited skiing but open). You will have to look online for Tignes tourist information to find out about ski gear hire etc.. Courcheval is known as a very expensive resort for rich people, by the way so if you are on a budget I'd skip it. Tignes information can be found in English here: http://www.tignes.co.uk/ . It's not pretty as it's a purpose-built resort, but the snow is reliable in early season, which is when you will be here, however it doesn't have a huge variety of pistes for your ski level.

If you happen to arrive and the snow season is good this year, and many resorts are open early, then you might want to check out the Morzine-Avoriaz 'Portes du Soleil' ski area which is enormous and is more charming looking, and has great beginner to intermediate skiing. http://www.morzine.com/?langue=1&saison=0 Another one to take a look at with a lot of skiing over 2000m (better for early snow) is Alpes d'Huez. http://www.alpineskimaps.com/france/alpedhuez/winmap.html

I live in Chamonix, which is a great resort but often doesn't open until end of December and is not as suitable for your level of skiing as the aforementioned two - you would find much more area to be able to ski on in the other two resorts, especially early season. The unfortunate fact is that often the more gentle slopes that are used by intermediates are at a lower elevation, hence open later.