Published on September 15, 2018 On Ski Holidays

What is the Portes du Soleil?

The Portes du Soleil is one of the largest ski areas in the world, with 600km of pistes spanning both Switzerland & France. It is located in the Northern Alps, rising up from Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) towards Mont Blanc and Geneva airport is only 90 minutes away.

History of the Portes du Soleil

The concept was born in 1956 with the first cross-border ski link between Châtel & Morgins, both traditional alpine villages. 20 years later, Avoriaz was purposely built as a ski resort and other villages joined the group – at the time the area was described as an uncomplicated ski area with a choice of resorts to suit everyone.

Today, the ski area includes 12 ski villages in two countries of which 10 are connected by ski lifts.

Portes du Soleil Ski Area

The skiing ranges from 900m to 2400m with snow sure areas in Chatel and Avoriaz. Although this may seem strangely lower than other ski resorts in France but the microclimate formed between Lake Geneva and the Chablais mountain range creates a higher volume of precipitation in the mountains which in winter means one thing, snow!

French Ski Resorts

Chatel
La Chapelle d’Abondance
Abondance
Avoriaz
Morzine
Les Gets
St Jean d’Aulps
Montriond

Swiss Ski Resorts

Morgins
Torgon
Les Crosets/ Champoussin
Champery

Find out more about the different ski resorts of the Portes du Soleil.

Chatel and Avoriaz generally open the first weekend of December before the full ski domain opens between the 15th and 20th December. The smaller ski villages close the first weekend of April with Chatel and Avoriaz closing about the 20th April.

We often get asked why they don’t stay open longer as there is usually plenty of snow on the pistes and there are two reasons – the resorts need to remove the snow to get ready for the summer bike season and all the workers need a rest after their 5 months of working for the resort.

The Portes du Soleil Ski Pass

The Portes du Soleil ski pass includes all 12 villages, making it one of the best value ski passes in the world for the amount of pistes on offer. You can see this in detail in our ski pass price comparison.

Ski Holidays in the Portes du Soleil

If you are thinking of a ski holiday in the Portes du Soleil, you will want to read our reasons to ski in the Portes du Soleil post. In the winter, Chalet Cannelle is a catered ski chalet, taking care of everything for your ski holiday.

Quick facts

200 ski lifts
650km of on-piste skiing terrain
30 Snow parks
316 ski pistes
34 green
119 blue
101 red
32 black

You can read more about the skiing and snowboarding in the Portes du Soleil on our dedicated page

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