French Alps · France
Avoriaz
Avoriaz perches on a dramatic cliff at 1,800 metres above the valley town of Morzine, connected to the outside world not by road but by ski piste, snowshoe track and horse-drawn sleigh. It is one of the most architecturally distinctive resorts in the Alps: a cluster of angular, timber-clad apartment buildings that fan across the clifftop, entirely car-free and seamlessly ski-in, ski-out from every door.
Purpose-built in the 1960s and designed by architect Jacques Labro with the idea that skiers should never need to take their boots off, Avoriaz has aged remarkably well. Today it serves as the French gateway to the Portes du Soleil — one of the largest linked ski areas in the world — and its bold architecture, convenient layout and position at the heart of the circuit make it one of the most practical and atmospheric resort bases in the French Alps.
Clifftop resort, Alpine gateway
The Avoriaz cliff is the resort’s defining feature: an almost vertical rock wall dropping away below the village to the Morzine valley far beneath. Arriving by gondola from Morzine, skiers emerge onto a plateau where every building is within easy reach of a lift or a piste. There are no cars — luggage arrives on horse-drawn sleighs or snowmobiles — and the result is a resort centre that is genuinely peaceful on foot.
From here, the Portes du Soleil network fans out in every direction. The circuit links twelve resorts across the French–Swiss border, including Champéry, Morgins and Les Crosets on the Swiss side, and Morzine, Les Gets and Châtel on the French. A full lap of the Portes du Soleil circuit is a classic Alpine day, covering well over 100 kilometres and crossing the border more than once.
The terrain & skiing
Within the Avoriaz sector of the Portes du Soleil, there are around 36 marked pistes — broadly split across green, blue, red and black grades, with a particularly strong offering of blue and red cruising runs on the broad, open slopes above the village. The Arare sector and the runs back towards Les Prodains are among the best, with long, sweeping descents and great views of the Chablais Alps.
The wider Portes du Soleil pass — which most skiers based in Avoriaz will use — covers around 196 runs across twelve resorts, with roughly 28 green, 112 blue, 43 red and 13 black. That gives the circuit one of the most beginner- and intermediate-friendly run profiles of any major European ski area, while still offering experts the Wall of Champéry (Switzerland’s steepest mogul face) and the Swiss Wall above Chavanette — Avoriaz’s own notorious black run.
The Swiss Wall at Chavanette, dropping from the French–Swiss border above Avoriaz, is a rite of passage: a mogul field so steep that it is regularly cited as one of the hardest on-piste challenges in the Alps. The rest of the domain is kinder, making Avoriaz a resort that genuinely works for the whole spectrum of ability.
The village & car-free life
Avoriaz is the rare resort that is as enjoyable to be in as to ski from. The car-free centre, lined with its unmistakable dark-timber buildings, has a calm that most ski resorts never achieve: no traffic noise, no diesel fumes, just the swish of skis and the occasional creak of a passing sleigh. Restaurants and bars are clustered close together, most of them slope-side.
The après-ski is relaxed rather than raucous, in keeping with the resort's family-friendly reputation — Avoriaz has long been one of France's most popular resorts for families with young children, thanks to its traffic-free layout, ski kindergartens and gentle green runs near the village. For a livelier evening, Morzine is 15 minutes away by gondola and offers a fuller nightlife scene in a traditional Savoyard town.
Why we put it in the game
Avoriaz’s Ready Steady Slope Resort card reflects the gateway character of the resort: one green and three blues, with no red or black. That blue-dominant profile is a nod to the Portes du Soleil’s famous accessibility — the vast linked network that spreads out from Avoriaz’s clifftop is built around long, rewarding blue runs that let skiers of all levels cover enormous distances across the circuit.
It makes Avoriaz a flexible, crowd-pleasing card — easy to play, hard to dislike, with a blue-heavy profile that gives it solid value without the edge of a resort loaded with blacks. Much like the real resort, it is the kind of card you are always glad to have in your hand: a gateway to big terrain and big distances, with the greens and blues to keep everyone happy.
Where is Avoriaz?
French Alps, France
How to get there
| Nearest airport | Transfer time (by road) |
|---|---|
| 🇨🇭Geneva (GVA) | ~1 hr 30 min |
| 🇫🇷Chambéry (CMF) | ~2 hr |
| 🇫🇷Lyon (LYS) | ~2 hr 30 min |
Graded runs at Avoriaz
The in-game Resort card is a stylized approximation — here are Avoriaz's actual marked pistes by grade.
| Grade | Runs |
|---|---|
| Green (beginner) | 9 |
| Blue (easy) | 14 |
| Red (intermediate) | 10 |
| Black (advanced) | 3 |
| Total | 36 |
Quick facts
Ready to hit the slopes?
With our game you can bring Avoriaz to your table. Click below to find out where to buy, or visit the actual resort. Or even better… do both, and pack the cards for the après!