Finding a family-friendly ski holiday can be a minefield (or should that be mogul field?). When I worked as a ski rep in the French Alps, one of my client-families was so exhausted by getting to the meeting point for their lessons on the first day — sweating in their thermals, clunking clumsily in their boots, dragging their skis and poles — that it was the only time during their week-long ski holiday that they showed up to actually ski.
Skiing with children can be a mission. But if you can choose the right resort; if you can equip yourself with easy access to the slopes; if you can ensure there are staff around you to help arrange kit hire, lessons and lift passes; and if you can balance polished hotel frills like a spa and gastronomic restaurant for you with entertainment for your children, then — as Rudyard Kipling never said — you’ll be a happy family who ski together. Make our guide to family-friendly ski resorts in France your jumping off point, and you’ll be all set to turn those ifs into whens.
MEGÈVE
Family-friendly skiing
Megève is well known for its wealth of intermediate-friendly blue and red runs, but also has more than 40 beginner green runs and a choice of nursery slopes designed for novice skiers and snowboarders.
The village has three ski schools, each offering private or group tuition. And a family offer means you’ll get a 10% discount on standard lift pass prices when you book for at least two adults and two children.
And when you’re not skiing…
Megève has four luge areas — aka tobogganing slopes — and you don’t have to be under 12 to find this entertaining; there’s a carefree joy to hurtling down a shallow hill with only the smallest of wooden (or plastic) chariots between you and the snow.
We’re eyeing an evening trip that Smith-approved stay L’Alpaga runs to a mountain restaurant: one for slightly older children, it involves taking a chairlift and snowshoeing to a mountain restaurant for traditional Savoyard cuisine (in short: cheese), then riding back down on a yooner (a souped-up sledge-meets-blades contraption).
Budding skaters can perfect their glide at the all-season ice rink at the Palais des Sports, or at the winter-only outdoor skating rink on Place de la Résistance in Megève. And for literal family highs, belt up for a small-plane or helicopter flight to admire Mont Blanc from the air.
Where to stay
L’Alpaga joined Smith’s collection originally as a romantic, upscale stay that brought sophistication to the trad Alpine aesthetic in a just-out-of-town location in Megève. It still has the refined, region-led cuisine, spa frills, first-class interiors and stellar service that keep adults happy, but over the years, it’s been amping up its offering for little Smiths, too.
There’s a choice of multiple bedrooms or family suites, plus chalet options, and its excellent concierge team can organise kit, lessons and lift passes. To whisk you to the slopes (no sweaty kit-lugging here), there’s a hotel shuttle.
At the Kids’ Club, you’ll find games, books, arts and crafts, and a media room primed for cinema screenings and video games. There’s also an evening programme of entertainment for juniors. For all activities, you’ll need to accompany your children, but babysitting can be organised, too. And a brand new outdoors heated pool — set not far from a barrel-style hot tub and wood-fired sauna — favours the brave.
VAL THORENS
Family-friendly skiing
Although Val Thorens’ relatively high altitude means a more exposed position that warrants an extra layer or two of warm clothing, this child-friendly resort has a well equipped beginners’ zone, Le Rond Point des Pistes, and in the wider ski area, there are 20 (beginner) green runs. You can save around €70 on a six-day adult lift pass for the Three Valleys with the ski area’s Family Flex offer. And a long winter season here makes Val Thorens a good bet for Christmas or Easter skiing, too.
And when you’re not skiing…
Beyond hitting the slopes, there’s little need to stray far: the centre of Val Thorens is surprisingly compact to navigate. Le Board sports complex — to have in your back pocket for whiteout days — is a walk away, while a seasonal ice rink is just off the main street. Thrillseekers can try ‘bee-flying’ on Val Thorens’ double zip-line.
If you’re staying at slopeside Le Val Thorens, staff organise snacks and tobogganing just behind the hotel in the late afternoon for six-to-12 year olds. Options to try fat-biking, snake gliss (a linked convoy of sledges) or supervised fun in the snowpark are on-point for teenage Smiths.
Where to stay
Set centrally in the Three Valleys’ highest resort, Le Val Thorens is a hotel that’s had a few lives, but in its current incarnation brings together modish interiors dressed with retro flair — a nod to the mountain stay’s Seventies beginnings. You’ll find overly garnished cocktails in its fondle-worthy velvet-upholstered bar; riffs on bubbling cheese at its Savoyard dining spot, La Fondue; and Snö and Igrane treatments at its pool- and hammam-toting spa. So far, so pleasingly grown-up.
With little Smiths in tow at this Val Thorens escape, an equally welcome, family-friendly skill set comes into play: some rooms take extra beds, and Privilege Rooms come with a second bedroom fitted with bunk-beds. From your child-friendly base, it’s a gentle ski down to the Ski School meeting point, and you’re right by the Castor et Pollux magic carpet lift and the Piste aux Étoiles toboggan run.
There are mini spa treatments tailored to children, and the spa pool — backdropped by arch-window-framed valley views — scores big on parenting points with little Smiths of any age. And if La Fondue restaurant feels overly formal, the hotel’s all-day brasserie and terrace will hit the sweet spot for young diners.
Best of the rest
A quieter valley with access to the Evasion-Mont Blanc ski area that it shares with Megève, Saint-Nicolas de Véroce is where you’ll find Armancette Hôtel, Chalets & Spa. In Val d’Isère in the Tarentaise — best known for its lively après-ski and vast network of runs linked with Tignes — La Mourra Hôtel Village has chalets, multi-bedroom suites, an accomplished concierge team and shuttles into the centre-ville. Six Senses Residences Courchevel is a complex of spacious apartments in Courchevel 1850 that is brought together with a ski shop on-site, shuttles to the slopes, excellent concierge services and — the holy grail for trail-weary parents — fine dining (Japanese) and a stellar spa, both within shuffling distance.
If our Gallic guide has you craving a winter trip to Alpine France, discover our full collection of French ski hotels