The chalet is a great base for a family summer holiday, with lots to do and great weather. 

Local activities 

Just down the hill in Morillon you have Lac Bleu, with a café, a BMX/skateboard pump track, ice cream, a beach, a water park on the lake, an inflatables park (with a water section) and the treetop adventure. Lots to do and just a couple of minutes away. 

 Lac Bleu is connected to Taninges and Samoens by lots of bike & walking paths down the banks of the Giffre, a shallow, wide river you can certainly find a quiet spot to picnic by. Bike paths run all the way down to the Cirque, which is a dramatic and interesting place to cycle or walk. 

At Samoens, there are two connected lakes, the Lac aux Dames, with the larger being for recreational activities (bathing, inflatables, swimming, golf driving range) and the smaller for fishing. There are bike & walking paths around the lakes, plus a couple of cafés and some play equipment, plus another treetop adventure. 

By the Lac au Dames is the swimming complex, with three pools (diving/lane swimming pool, family pool and infants pool) and a 25m slide. There’s a café here too, and it’s heated, so you can be splashing about with the family in the mountains while golden eagles, buzzards and paragliders silently soar overhead. 

Paragliding is pretty popular throughout the alps in general and the Giffre valley landing area is just by swimming complex, with the take off point up at Samoens 1600 lift. There are a few companies that will introduce you to paragliding with a tandem jump where you’re attached to an instructuor. It’s a serene, exciting way to get the best view of the valley and alps.  

The local Samoens tourist office do a great job with festivals and outdoor activities in summer. Often there’s live music and fireworks at the weekend.  

Elsewhere in the Grand Massif 

Les Carroz is a nice village and resort, with lots of cafés, a cable-car that operates in summer, mountain karting and the alpine coaster. The karting and coaster are particularly good. At the top of the cable-car are some great views and a nice restaurant with a good cup of Segafredo coffee. The views are also spectacular and as you can see from Tete des Saix over to the top of the Flaine bowl, you can really appreciate the Grand Massif area. 

Flaine itself is at the base of a huge mountain bowl. During the summer, the Grandes Platieres lift operates up to the highest point of the Grand Massif, at 2,500m, which means you’ll find snow up there in August. It’s technically a desert up there – rocky with crevasses. There are some well marked paths and spectacular views of Mont Blanc, particularly good from the café at the lift. Again another decent coffee to be had here. 

Flaine is quite a nice place to hang out for an afternoon – nice cafés, treetop adventure, the huge mountain bowl it sits in feels insulated from the rest of the world. 

Further afield 

Aiguille du Midi is a real bucket list item, where a cable car takes you to 3,800m for some amazing views of Mont Blanc, it’s glaciers & the Vallée Blanche. There are few places in the world where you can see the glaciers carving through the mountain side, or watch climbers battle the elements at close quarters. Allow a few hours – there’s quite a bit to do up there and you’ll be whisked back down just as you begin to get altitide sickness! 

Also in the Chamonix region you have another alpine coaster at the Domaine des Planards. 

Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva, is just over an hour away – around 1hr 15 to Thonon-les-Bains, a small town on the French side. There are over 100 beaches around Lake Geneva, an immense amount of choice, and the lake is very warm – around 20C in the summer. It’s great for swimming, paddle-boarding, canoes/kayakes, inflatables, or hiring a boat or pedalo. Perhaps head to Plage Chantrell, where there’s parking and a buvette close to the lake.   

There’s also a big water park at the eastern end. 

Similarly Annecy is smaller but very pretty and also about 1hr 15 away. The town is a little larger and you could easily spend some hours there, but the lake is the main draw – again, it’s as warm as Lac Leman at around 20C in the summer. Again, here the full range of summer water activities is allowed –  swimming, paddle-boarding, canoes/kayakes, inflatables, or hiring a boat or pedalo.  

Secure your dates!

Check availability here, or to book simply send an email to tim_j_sharpe@hotmail.com and we’ll talk you through it, or send us a WhatsApp/text at +44 7980 681207.