Les Portes Des Soleil

Les Portes du Soleil :  www.portesdusoleil

650 km of marked pistes and about 200 lifts in total, spread over 14 valleys and about 400 square miles. Portes du Soleil is one of the  largest ski areas in the world. Almost all of the pistes are connected by lifts - only a few marginal towns can only be reached by the free bus services in the area. Highest point of skiing is 2.400 metres and the lowest is app. 900 metres. 

The Portes du Soleil is a series of linked resorts enabling skiers to move from village to village and cross French/Swiss borders. The most used area is Avoriaz linking over to the Swiss resorts on the other side. You can can but buy a pass that allows you to move from resort to resort or restricting you to certain areas.

The main resorts are: Avoriaz (high and best bet for snow when in short supply), Morzine and Chatel.

Les Gets is linked from Morzine and is a great ski area and easily accessed by road driving past Morzine.

Abondance, Chapelle d'Abondance St Jean d'Aulps are the lesser resorts on the French side

Champery, Morgins, Torgon Val-d'Illiez -Les Crosets-Champoussin are the Swiss resorts mostly visited by skiing over from the French side.

The nearest point of access from Thollon is Chatel, or Morzine. From the other side of Morzine (to Avoriaz) you can easily spend a day touring the Les Gets area. The larger French/Swiss area is accesed from the cable car to Avoriaz, either from the centre of Morzine or access by driving to the car park (free) at Ardent/ Les Lindarets. Accessed by driving to Montriond and following the road that goes past the Montrion Lake and then on to the Ardent lift. Avoriaz is the hub of the resorts.