Morzine - Quick Reviews

If you've been to Morzine, then please give it a quick rating in a reply to this Topic.

Please try to stick to the Ski Resort Review Code as much as you can.

Over to you...

Morzine side perfect for beginners planty of gentle slopes on the pleny and after a few days can adventure further to Les Gets without too much issue.

Plenty of Ski schools to chose from for instruction.

Those first day back on ski's for a year to get the legs going again and get the confidence back as a lot of us only do a week a year.

The old bubble lifts up to the Pleny were a pain, slow & long queues, but the new lift system going in for this season following the fire (Things happen for a reason) will make that much better.

Range of accomodation available to suit all budgets and plenty of variety for eating and Aprés. Just pick accomodation carefully for location to towna nd lifts, but that goes for anywhere really.

Easy access to Avoriaz for the more experience and adventurous and so one of my favourite places to go, will be back early Feb for a 3 day blast, so short transfers and plenty of flight options in and out of Geneva.

Personally, I find Morzine quite an over rated resort.

In my experiences with the PDS I find the following:

Pros (from my Point of View)

Linked in with the rest of the PDS

Cons

Lots of English Bars
Lots and lots of English people
Party town

Middle ground

Lots of accommodation, watch out for a huge variation in quality
Lots of après, if you like that kind of thing

My opinion of Morzine:

I find Morzine a confusing place, Pleney side gets over crowded as the lessons and things are here - and can result in long queues to get up the Pleney lift (even with the new one i'm not sure this'll help) The next lift takes you more 'along' than up anywhere to link in with Lets Gets side - which also gets crowded. Super Morzine is not great, there isn't really anything interesting here for me, and is only useful to get back to the wider PDS via Avoriaz. Prodains is far from Morzine and takes you to Avoriaz and wider PDS again, but why stay in Morzine to get the Prod everyday?

Morzine is considered THE main resort in the PDS, but it's not the best (there are 12 to choose from), and I think a lot of the 'satellite' villages cotton on to this, for example 'Morzine - Le Biot' 'Morzine - Essert Romand' & 'Morzine - Seytroux'.

Lots of resorts in the Wider PDS have tonnes of blues, I do not think that Morzine is specifically 'perfect' for beginners/intermidiates, as other places can easily claim the same title if there are lots of blues

I find that most people go to Morzine just because people go to Morzine,

For me Morzine gets a 5/10 - Access to wider area brings the score down (HAVE to go through Avoriaz, no other options here), the genuine atmosphere of the town, which I find cramped (too many buildings) and not the atmosphere other holiday makers give the resort (wherever you go on holiday you want to have fun, other people having fun makes you feel like you want to have fun - even if all that's available is the Brits abroad type feeling - erg!), the lack of Frenchness brings the score down too (more like little Britain than France), and also limited places to start your day from also brings this score down.

I didn't included Morzine in my previous list, because my visit was over 10 year ago so I'm not sure whether the Cons are still relevant.

Pros
Massive ski area, particularly good in Les Gets and Avoriaz.
Loads for all abilities

Cons
At the time was let down by the lift system, we went during a quiet week and were constantly queuing. The lift system compared very badly to other big linked areas, 3Vs, EK, etc which I also visited around that time.
The journey from Morzine to Avoriaz was painfully slow.
No idea how the system has been developed since, but I haven't seen much written about its transformation so presume it's still a problem.
The mileage quoted for ski area are huge, describing bits of it as linked however is pushing it.

5/10 Although I really enjoyed the skiing, particularly in Les Gets, I have never felt the need to go back. It compares very poorly with other super-sized ski areas.

Also posted in other thread.

Morzine (March 2012, (1 week)

Pros

Lots of mileage, particularly enjoyed the runs in the Les Gets area.
Good for beginners, easy skiing around Morzine itself.
Short transfer from Geneva.

Cons

Low so snow isn't great at resort level or even above this. We went first week of March in a 'good' year and lower runs were very slushy by mid afternoon.
Access to rest of PDS through Avoriaz was dangerously busy when we went, to the point we gave up and went back to Morzine before one of us got hurt, THAT busy! Had skied out Morzine/Les Gets area in 2 days.
Piste grooming isn't great even on reds. All blacks were left as mogul fields (may be a +ve for many, not for me). Many lifts are old and slow.

We were full board and in an on piste hotel so can't really comment on food and drink or the town itself. Seemed pretty spread out but pleasant enough. Also I got food poisoning midweek (lost 1 day) and we had a very heavy powder day with poor visibility (so didn't go far) hence essentially 4 days skiing. May have rated differently if I could have experienced 'rest' of PDS but just didn't suit the type of skiing I enjoy. Bored with Morzine/Les Gets and going farther afield was awkward. Probably wouldn't go back. 6/10 (but only as I liked Les Gets area so much, otherwise 5/10, maximum).

Positives - large area and range of pistes with something to suite all abilities. When there's plenty of snow there's a lot of skiing.
Morzine town is more than just a ski resort that's shut for the rest of the year.

Negatives - quite low so can get warm and slushy. A number of the runs down off the mountain can get very busy, compounded by many of these runs being roads and thus narrow.
Extending to the wider Portes Du Soleil area I would describe Avoriaz as over-developed and thus overcrowded, particularly when the weather is warm and the lower pistes have come to the end of their season.

where has my review gone? :(