Of all the ski resorts across all the Alps, why choose Morzine? Well, the key to our search is mini-breaks – that means resorts you can travel to quickly from London, that have all the snow, runs, lifts restaurants and facilities you need, but are not hours and hours from the airport.
So here's how the logic runs… Geneva is the cheapest and shortest flight to the Alps. You can get there in 90 minutes flying time from London. And it is a big airport, so there are lots of flights going there, meaning you can choose the time of your trip, and still get a cheap price. On Kayak.co.uk, there are return flights through the height of the season for £60 with easyJet, and £100 or so with British Airways and Swiss.
So then the next choice is, which resort. Morzine is an Alpine town situated close to the border with Switzerland, linked to neighbouring Avoriaz and Les Gets and the enormous Portes du Soleil ski area. At just 60km from Geneva, it is the closest resort with a very large ski area. So it's a no brainer. Tignes, and the other excellent French resorts to the south, have lots of snow, lots of high lifts and maybe better facilities.
Tignes is fabulous, with lots of high runs, but it is 180km from Geneva, so a three hour drive. Fine if you are going for a fortnight, or even a week, but not a couple of days.
And of course, Morzine is part of the Portes du Soleil – one of Europe's largest ski resorts, spanning France and Switzerland and encompassing the eight French resorts: Abondance, Avoriaz, La Chapelle d’Abondance, Châtel, Les Gets, Montriond, Avoriaz, St Jean d’Aulps and the six Swiss resorts of Champéry, Champoussin, Les Crosets, Morgins, Torgon and Val d’Illiez. So once you get there, you have access to the charming slopes of Les Gets, the high resort of Avoriaz, the famous “Swiss Wall”, and you can slip across into Switzerland for lunch.
So then that just brings us down to the facilites in Morzine. OK, it's not fabulous. Morzine and its surrounding villages have lots of chalets and apartments with a mix of traditional and more modern design, offering plenty of accommodation options. There are a few good restaurants and hotels. There is not a great deal of charm to the town, this is not Austrlia, but it is functional.