St Jean d'Aulps, Portes du Soleil

Resort altitude: 850 m

Saint Jean d'Aulps is a small, typically French town, surrounded by beautiful scenery. It is a great location for a holiday home; situated just 10 minutes away from Morzine you get more space for your money compared to the larger resorts.

Winter
During the winter, the village is very well placed to access the huge ski domain of the Portes du Soleil, which, with over 650 km of pistes, is one of the largest linked ski areas in the world.

From Morzine, you can ski the pistes of Pleney and Nyon, which link into Les Gets, or the pistes on the Super Morzine side which link into Avoriaz and the Swiss resorts. The cable car at Ardent, also 10 minutes drive from Saint Jean d'Aulps, takes you right into the heart of the Portes du Soleil, enabling you to ski into Avoriaz, Chatel or into Switzerland.

Saint Jean d'Aulps also has its own local ski area - La Grande Terche, which is an excellent family resort and ideal for beginners and intermediates. A cable car takes you from the centre of La Grande Terche to a wide open plateau with two beginner lifts which provide an ideal area for learning the ropes and a longer lift and chair lift for progression after your first few days. There are 34 km of downhill ski slopes around the Roc d'Enfer with beautiful views of Lake Geneva, the Dents du Midi and the Mont-Blanc range.

There is a free bus service between the village of Saint Jean d'Aulps and La Grande Terche.
There is also a service from St Jean d'Aulps to Morzine (1 euro per journey).

Summer
In the summer there are lots of activities on offer for a great holiday. From mid-June to mid-September, 23 ski lifts open again to give access to 500 km of sign-posted routes for mountain biking or walks through Alpine meadows and forests.

You can choose from white water rafting, canoeing, canyoning, bungee jumping, rock climbing, golf, swimming - or you can simply relax with a picnic beside stunningly beautiful mountain lakes and rivers.

Lake Geneva with its water sports activities and spa resorts of Evian and Thonon is 25 minutes away; a little further afield, Chamonix and Annecy, make fascinating day trips.

Saint Jean d'Aulps has a great community feel and has plenty of year round festivals where second home owners can join the locals - the Autumn fair, the Mediaeval fair in the grounds of the 11 century Abbey, 14th July fireworks...

In the centre of the village you will find 2 good restaurants, a very popular pizza bar, 2 bakeries. a supermarket, a pharmacy, banks and a gym.

Click here to see ski chalets / ski apartments in Saint Jean d'Aulps on our Alpine property page...