Avoriaz: The French Winter Wonderland Village
The French Winter Wonderland village is right up here: Nestled in the heart of the French Alps, Avoriaz is more than just a ski resort. Whether you're carving on the slopes or exploring the charming, car-free village, adventure awaits at every turn. From thrilling après-ski nights to unforgettable mountain views, discover why Avoriaz is the ultimate destination for skiers and non-skiers alike. Stay tuned to see what makes this place magical all year round! Hello everyone, in today's video I'm showing you all the activities here in Avoriaz for skiers, families, or if you just want to explore this place on a walk. first, we're going to talk about the arrival, then I'm going to show you around the village and after that, we're going to hit some snow on the slopes. sounds pretty cool, and now let's dive into this winter wonderland. Unlike many Winter destinations across the Alps,
Avoriaz is a car-free village and you are required to park your car outside. For this you have two options, you either park down at Les Prodains and head up by cabin to access the village, or you drive up the road from Morzine and just stop at the entrance to Avoriaz. I have tried both, I personally prefer arriving via Les Prodains, but in terms of availability, you have more parking lots right in front of the village. Up in Avoriaz, you only have two ways of roaming around, either by walk or horse sleigh.
Exploring this village by walk is not very straight forward, so I will explain you how you easiest can reach the village centre. However, before we are getting to this part, let me give you a brief introduction about what makes Avoriaz to such a special place. Avoriaz was built on a steep cliff up on 1800 meters and already just based on its look this alpine resort is unlike any other you have seen before. For once, you won’t encounter the usual wooden chalets that are typical for the alpine region. Instead, Avoriaz charms with these uniquely designed tall buildings with a total number of nearly 2000 apartments. This already gives you a hint that Avoriaz is not a village in a traditional sense, and yes, you will be right by thinking that: Avoriaz was built as a resort in the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Similar to other villages of the Alps, Avoriaz is car-free. That gives it a very peaceful, unhurried atmosphere, making it feel like a true mountain getaway, and it even gets better, but that I will save for later! Sounds pretty cool right? now, I assume most of you who arrive here, you'll be a bit overwhelmed by the big size of Avoriaz, so no worries, if you're exploring the village on a walk, then, I'm pretty sure you're going to arrive here by the cabin Les Prodains, and from there, I suggest just take this road here walk up for about 3 minutes. As you arrive here, I suggest you to take this elevator. it's going to work like a shortcut, it's going to save you a lot of time and from the top you need to walk for about 7 more minutes to reach the Village Center. As you arrive up here, you'll first see this building. the locals say it looks a little bit
like a pair. that's by the way the oldest building here in Avoriaz. Avoriaz is a modern Village was opened in the 1960/70s, so quite recent if you compare it to other villages in the Alps. Now to go to the Village Center, you need to take this road it's another 7 minutes' walk.
The moment you see this Merry-go-round and the many restaurants and cafés around, you are reaching the village centre. There is a lot going on in here, yet thanks to the village being car-free it feels pretty relaxed actually. For some of you, this might have already been quite some walking, and you may wonder of how to see the rest of the village, here I do have some very good news for: At the centre, you may enter one of these horse sleighs to tour you through the most interesting parts of Avoriaz. That is something absolutely magical! Avoriaz is the only town in Europe at where horse sleighs are the common vehicle to get around. That being said makes this experience affordable to a broad audience. In other resorts,
going on a tour on a horse sleigh is rather something exclusive and luxurious. It’s really nice to experience a horse sleigh tour during the day, but trust me, it’s even much better if you do that in the evening, which I will be showing you in the following parts. Pretty exciting of what you can get to see only by coming here to explore the village by walk, isn’t it? Things are going to be even better if you come to Avoriaz for skiing. This is by far the most efficient way of getting around the village. From the heart of Avoriaz, the slopes are right
at your feet, meaning this village is perfect for skiing out and in. Already the slopes within the village are pretty scenic, my favorite track is this one entering Avoriaz through this tunnel, passing by the centre, further heading down to the lifts. Avoriaz is part of the Portes du Soleil, one of the 3 largest ski resorts in the world. The resort stretches over the Swiss Alps of Valais into French Haute Savoie, the site on France being about twice as large as the Swiss side. The best slopes of Avoriaz are these here: Lac-Intrêts, Col du Fornet and around Les Lindarets, the latter, we will be getting to in the later part of this video. Taking the Lac Intrêts chairlift is your way to reach pretty much all of the points, you may head down to Les Prodais via Jean Vuarnet, crossing over to Choucas to enter Switzerland or you may take these slopes to get back to the village. These are really nice tracks; all of them are
easy and you always have a great view over the village and the massive cliff it is standing on. Towards the end, you will reach at this spot, at where you can oversee the village of Avoriaz, in my opinion one of the best photospots. You have a beautiful panorama while the village being close to you. By the way, also quite accessible for pedestrians, you just will have to hike up for about 5-10 minutes from top station of the Prodains gondola. To get back to the upper parts of the village, you will need to take one of these two lifts: Tour or Plateau. The plateau lift is slow, you get a beautiful view over the cliff, also suitable for pedestrians, the chairlift called tour takes you on a very scenic ride passing between the housing area of Avoriaz. The lift at times may be crowded, especially on weekends and holiday
season (Christmas-New year and February to Mid-March). After this beautiful ride, you will reach another hot viewpoint of Avoriaz. So that here's is my favorite Lookout Point, because you're standing above the village, getting kind of a drones eye perspective, and this is super cool because in Avoriaz it's not allowed to fly drones here, unless you got a permit. what I really love, you get a view over the entire Village, you also see the valley, you can see Morzine with Les Pleney and then by the way down there that's La Folie Douce, that's a place for parting especially for after skiing. very, very hot place here in Avoriaz, but hey: don't neglect skiing! La Folie Douce is a pretty cool place to go wild. The party is quite fun during the day,
but near sunset and the early night, it’s going to be certainly the most happening. Talking about spending the night up in Avoriaz. First of all, yes, Avoriaz is surely good enough for a one day visit, if you are a non-skier. However, you are going to miss out on the probably best thing up in Avoriaz, and that is the sunset, even the nights up here are magical. So, I can highly recommend to stay here for at least one night. There is however one very important thing I have to share with you: Unlike other ski resorts around the world, Avoriaz is not that kind of village at where you can choose among a variety of hotels. Should you stay overnight in Avoriaz, then you will have to do that at any of the many apartments around. There are very few hotels, and these are really expensive,
while the apartments are really affordable. Apartments need to be booked in advance, the keys and utilities you need to get at the upper part of the village, that’s the place where the luxurious apartments are located at. I will present the upper part including the fancy residences in more detail but let’s first talk about the affordable apartments. Many of the of them are actually located around the central part of Avoriaz. So this here is the apartment I'm staying at. you can see it's from the 1970s, very simple, but this is good because it's also going to be reflected in your cost, so it's not that expensive. This is the bedroom, there are more beds, if you're staying with
friends. now let's go and take look a the view on the balcony. wow! absolutely fantastic! The upper part of Avoriaz – La Falaise – is the one standing on the cliff. This part is a lot less busy, nice to go for a walk if you want to escape the crowds and the skiers. As just mentioned, you need to come here for getting
your apartment keys. So that's the upper part of the village: it's quite more spacious, not so happening, which is nice. it's quiet for walk. now here, you see these blocks they look quite modern, because they've been built much later than the center which was the beginning of Avoriaz. Now here if take a look, you can see that many of these apartments. they are are more spacious, and this is also because around here you have couple of luxurious apartments... and I got
a chance to show you one of them. So, let's go, and take a look, it's called Kouria residences. So now here one of the luxurious Apartments. You can see, it's quite spacious, really beautiful and cozy, like a perfect chalet from a photo book. here's the kitchen... yeah... great place for a holiday time! super cool, now let's go outside Wow! absolutely fantastic view. perfect! So, you can see Village of Avoriaz. by the way, here we're just by the cliff, quite thrilling,
but really perfect to stay here. the view is absolutely premium, unobstructed. And now you can guess why these apartments here are a little bit more on the higher end, because of the location, but also because of the space. And underneath, there's even a spa. so, you really have everything. it's basically like a hotel residence, you could say. And what's important: you need to
book this apartment for for at least one week, if you come here during the hot season, if you come here during off-season, then, you can book it for fewer nights. The minimum would be three. Alright! Now one of the very highlights, something I have been dying for to finally get to see it with my own eyes: Avoriaz is one of the VERY best places up in the Alps at where you can witness fantastic sunsets, and this on a very frequent basis! During the last 10 minutes before the sun sets behind the mountains, you will see all of the buildings at the higher located parts of Avoriaz glowing in this strong orangish-reddish shine. That’s absolutely magical. This being said: Enjoying the sunset goes both ways, by facing the sun, seeing the entire panorama with the snowmoutains, the cliff depending at where you stay or by turning your back at the sun to watch the wooden blocks glowing.
There are many nice places to watch the sunset. I would say near Aquariaz it’s nice to face the village to see the golden reddish shine on the buildings, or up on the hill at the top station of the Tour lift, this is another very popular spot. I can't repeat enough: the best time to explore the villages and cities during winter is after Sunset when it's dusk. so yeah, you can get that's why now with the blue hour it's still bright enough. so there's enough light on the buildings, the same time the streets they are being lit up,
and the snow is absorbing all the colors, which looks especially beautiful, very magical. And in addition to that, it's already January but there's still a lot of Christmas lights all around, and this makes it really exciting to roam around here. And for me, this is also exciting, because I'm actually spending my first night here in Avoriaz in my life! I've been here over 40 times, but normally I always stay here in Morgins in the Portes du Soleil, which is in Switzerland. So here just next to the merry-go-round is the part where you can go and book a tour on the horse sleigh. This is your taxi should you want to get around here in Avoriaz, and it's quite nice, because they offer you Village Tours not only during the day but also during Dusk and night. and it's definitely something I'm going to try out now.
So, whenever you're taking a horse sleigh tour, they will show you a few nice photo spots and that's one of them here with this fantastic view with the cliff. there's another one, let's go and continue. So, that's the second Viewpoint. this one is quite exciting, because you can see the entire Valley. And I'm pretty sure, meanwhile you figured out that Avoriaz is really all about the houses, about the views, if you come here as a pedestrian. I guess seeing all these images and the fact that the Christmas decorations last even past January, you might meanwhile be pretty much convinced that Avoriaz is a true Winter Wonderland. Yes,
it’s already fantastic to be up here during the day but during sunset and night, this place has a very unique charm! In Avoriaz there are a couple of restaurants, I have tried a few of them: they range from fancy to simple ones. Really nice is the Restaurant Mama Alpina at where you can have Italian food, La Cabane is great if you prefer it a bit more fancy and authentic French. Since pretty much most of you will stay in apartments, you also can cook at home, there are supermarkets and shops with local specialties at where you can find pretty much everything you might need. As magical as Avoriaz is during sunset, dusk and night, the sunrise is not any less of an experience! Watch the rays hitting the sloping rooftops and the snow glowing in orange and yellow light. Time for breakfast and then chasing powder on the slopes. Besides the normal tracks, Avoriaz is also a paradise for snowboarders and skiers who want to kick in with some more adrenaline. There are four snowparks in Avoriaz, which it is world-famous for! I am going to show you 2 of them in more detail.
At the top of the village is the Chappelle snowpark, which is suitable for everyone who wants to increase the level of excitement and give it a first try. From small to tall ramps, boxes and rails, there is everything for everyone from easy to pro level. My personal favourite though is The Stash heading down to Les Lindarets, located in the forest. Absolutely beautiful snowpark that you also
can pass if you are not keen to try the rails and ramps. rGreat snowparks up in Avoriaz, slopes with fantastic views, let’s unveil the outstanding photospots of Avoriaz and explore some of the best ski tracks! Really scenic is the track from the Stade down to Combes, you will for the first time see Avoriaz from below. The lift at Combes will take you up to the world cup track named after Jean Vuarnet. What’s pretty surprising is that despite this track being quite famous it happens to not be too busy, frankly, it’s not even a very difficult one! Let’s cross over to Choucas, another go to go point if you want to get access to various tracks and transit to the swiss side.
That's another cool spot here in Avoriaz. you can see the Village from a really nice angle. so definitely great to also take some photos here. Really nice is the track at the Corne du Fornet. It’s also the place from where you get a brilliant view over Mont Blanc, the highest mountain of the Alps with an altitude of 4800 m. The track is long, wide and has a great
variety, in my opinion the best one in Avoriaz. One of the great advantages of this ski resort is that you can freely cross between France and Switzerland, so you can do in Avoriaz, let’s head up to Chavanette, up there I am going to show you one of the world’s most famous ski tracks. So here, we are at the boundary to Switzerland at the Pas de Chavanette, and what you see behind me that's Le Mur, the Swiss wall, one of the steepest slopes in the entire world. The decline is over 90% at times which is almost a 45° angle, it means very, very steep, only for experienced skiers of course! This track takes you to Switzerland but it’s only for good skiers! It will take you quite some time, there are many bumps but if you make it, then you definitely have achieved quite a lot. Also part of the station of Avoriaz is Les Lindarets. This is a pretty nice place to go for lunch either at Lindarets itself or at the wonderful village des Chèvres. I really love this tiny cute village, you also can come here
by walk. From the top station of the cabin that you need to take at Ardent, it will be roughly 10-15 minutes of walking. The track down to Ardent is also quite nice, especially after fresh snowfall. Tired of skiing and walking around, let's go for some Wellnessing at Aquariaz! Aquariaz is open daily up from 13:30 till 19:30, on Saturdays, it remains closed. Enjoy yourself in the warm water, relaxing at the stream,
running down the slide or by admiring the breathtaking view at the outer whirlpool. There is even a water slide here. I think there's really nothing that doesn't exist. this is your perfect aquatic Disneyland up here in Avoriaz. ooh! this slide is quite high up! okay let's go and try! Really great to be here in Avoriaz for skiing, or even if you're just exploring the village by walk. if you want to watch more videos like this, then, I'm going to see over there. Otherwise, if you're more interested in the top 10 winter attractions of Switzerland, then let's meet in this video!
2025-03-03 19:37
