Family Alps holiday with a few days riding for dad

chrisw333

Hi

I am considering a family holiday somewhere in or near the Alps, and naturally if possible I'd like to go somewhere where I can get a few days riding for myself.

So any suggestions for a fairly family friendly location (kids 8 & 10) - maybe including watersports, family bike trails etc, but close enough to do some more interesting stuff for me?

Wife has suggested Lake Annecy, but no idea what the riding is like there? My natural inclination is to push for Morzine or Les Gets

I should add, that I am not a downhill rider & don't have full face helmet or body armour, (I'm more modest black / red run English & Welsh trail center level - eg CYB - not big jumps or huge drops) so ideally looking for xc standard trails (although like the idea of an uplift so they point mainly down hill). Am I going to kill myself and if I drive will my Giant Trance cope?

Thanks for any advice and tips

rhext

I've just come back from a family holiday in Val D'Isere. We had a great time...

1) Watersports - can't pretend this is great. There's an indoor swimming pool and that's pretty much it. White-water rafting (fun) and canoeing can be had down in Bourg-St-Maurice, about 40 minutes drive. There's no lake.

2) Walking trails. It's the Alps, so there's plenty and they are lovely. Not enough in Val itself for 14 days solid walking..but ample for most requirements I'd say. It can be quite strenuous, however.

3) Cycling - family cycling is limited, tbh. You can do a little in the resort, but for more extensive family cycling, you'd need to go down to Bourg-St-Maurice.

4) Cycling - for you. 'So why is he recommending this' you're probably asking. I have two reasons: free lift passes (well, 5 Euro refundable deposit); and lifts that link across to Tignes. Val is not great for MTB, but Tignes has loads. If you are interested, you probably need to check the lift pass thing applies for next year too (assume you're not talking about this year, because if it's not snowing already in the Alps, I suspect it will be soon).

From a bike point of view, I managed with an old Specialised Rockhopper (hardtail), so you should be OK on your Giant. I'd have to recommend that you invest in some armour, however. The trails we used were generally well made, but the rocks in the alps are uneroded and sharp. If you come off, you can do yourself a lot of damage from a fairly trivial-looking accident, let alone what happens if you come off at speed. We didn't use armour, but wished we had. Knee and elbow pads at the least. I'd also recommend that you invest either in downhill tubes or tubeless tyres. Pinch flats can be frequent and it's a long walk down if you run out of spare tubes (you'd have thought 3 would have been enough for an 8KM trail, wouldn't you?)

This worked really well for us: it's not a cycling resort, but we were able to fill our days with family stuff (kids are 8, 13, 14 and 16), then pop out for a couple of hours in the afternoon (last lift at 4:30). We didn't end up taking advantage of the Tignes link, but if we had, it would have been plenty for 2 or 3 full days. As it was, the couple of blue trails in Val kept us entertained for several descents....and there are also a couple of red trails if you get bored of the blues (try the blues first - 1,000m descent over 8KM means they're very different from the forestry commission blues....) You might also want to check out Tignes itself, as I think it does have a lake, and there might also be a couple of family bike trails.

chrisw333

Thanks, this is really helpful, and gives me something to go on.

I presume you drove down? Can you recall how long it took?

Would Tignes itself be a better option or would there be less to do there family wise?

I have knee pads and would get elbow pads. A full face may be a bit much?

rhext

We drove, stopped overnight in Troyes.

We stayed in Val D'Isere about 3 years ago, came away with the impression that if they could find a way to charge you for the air, they would. We went back this summer to find that they're making a real effort to attract summer visitors: there's lots going on in the town, the lift passes have come down from £50 for 20 rides to £5 refundable deposit; they've opened up more trails, especially the connecting trails; and generally the atmosphere is really relaxed.

I don't know very much about Tignes except to say that we drove there three years ago on a rainy afternoon and weren't very impressed. It didn't seem as attractive as Val: more spread out, more modern etc. But bearing in mind the weather wasn't particularly nice I might be doing it a big injustice, which is why I'd recommend you check it out as an option.

If you want a family holiday, there's loads of places to go: I only recommend Val because I've been there and we had a great time - and we're not all cyclists. The thing it's got for me over the more established MTB meccas, however, is the free lift passes: if you want to go anywhere, you need to check it's got some trails (some places don't) and you need to check lift pass prices. If you're used to our trail centre reds/blacks, you probably need to check they've got at least 1 or 2 blue trails: I reckon their blues are broadly equivalent to our reds, but even if you just use them to warm up before progressing to the reds, they're still good runs in their own right. I can manage Wolftrax, without the black obstacles, but I wimped out of the Alpine reds. Maybe with armour and a better bike (specifically, better brakes)....

rhext

Oh, I don't think you'd need a full-face helmet, as long as you were taking it easy. You tend to feel a little under-dressed as most people are using hire bikes, which come with full safety equipment (at a price!), or were enthusiasts with all the gear. As with all safety equipment, it's a bit of an insurance policy and you have to balance risk. I didn't feel that the risk of bouncing my head off tree or rock was any greater there than it was in UK trail centres because I tend to pick my way down quite carefully. The big difference in the Alps is that if you want to, then you can go really fast over long distances...but you don't have to.

chrisw333

Thanks again. Definitely going to look into Val d'isere and Tignes. The free lift pass thing would be a real bonus, allow you to pick and choose to go up whenever you have a few hours spare during the day. Just need to convince other half it's a 'family holiday!'

I've seen a website with a video of a 15km long blue run in Val, looks perfectly rideable, although would be knackered at the end I think! The red looks a bit scary in places!

http://startlinemtb.com/bike-parks/val- ... bike-park/

Obviously any other ideas / input from people who have done similar would be great

rhext

If it helps, I can confirm that it definitely is a family holiday - with a bit of biking on the side, but definitely not front and centre. Family things to do:

1) Day trip for pizza in Italy over the Col De Petit St Bernard.

2) Snowballing on the Col De L'Iseran (yes, even in August)

3) Wildlife: marmots, lammergeirs, golden eagles, mountain goats.

4) Walking, picnics in the Vanoise national park: one of the most beautiful parts of Europe.

5) Trips up the mountain on ski lifts - walk down or just enjoy the scenery and ride back.

6) The french equivalent of 'Go Ape'.

7) White water rafting.

8) Market/fairs in the resort.

9) Shopping - very nice shops - some of the the richest people in Europe flock there in the winter and they like their shops. There tend to be a lot of clearance sales on in the summer.

10) Outdoor sports (tennis, skateboarding, horseriding, target shooting, mini-golf etc etc).

11) The usual french food and drink.

The weather can be variable. We've been twice now: first time we had 2 or 3 rainy days out of a fortnight (actually one of them was more snowy than rainy); this year we had one showery day and the rest of the two weeks was wall-to-wall sunshine - and what sunshine it is too. Temperature at about 20 to 25 degrees while everywhere else was suffering at over 30. Not one 'Hmmmph, I wonder what we're going to do today' day though!

durhamwasp

Le Grand Bornand is perfect!

Great cycling, and fantastic scenery! Annecy is only 45mins away by bus, which runs all the time.

I highly recommend checking out their official website, as they have so much to offer.... Go Ape, Summer Toboggan runs, cycling, hiking, alpine villages, lakes, ski cable cars up mountains etc etc...

We drove there with a stopover in Dijon on way there, and Reims on way back.

chrisw333

durhamwasp wrote:

Le Grand Bornand is perfect!

Great cycling, and fantastic scenery! Annecy is only 45mins away by bus, which runs all the time.

I highly recommend checking out their official website, as they have so much to offer.... Go Ape, Summer Toboggan runs, cycling, hiking, alpine villages, lakes, ski cable cars up mountains etc etc...

We drove there with a stopover in Dijon on way there, and Reims on way back.

Just seen your post - thanks, another one to add tot he list. What was the riding like?

durhamwasp

Riding is fantastic! You have Col de la Colombiere, Col des Aravis and Col de la Croix Fry all on your doorstep leading out of Grand Bo, then over those you have another 100 col's. I picked up a cycling leaflet from the campsite and there were literally over 100 col's within about 80km. Beautiful place, and some lovely restaurants and reasonable/cheap prices.

chrisw333

Thanks Durham wasp. Can I just check that you are talking about mountain biking and not road riding?

durhamwasp

chrisw333 wrote:

Thanks Durham wasp. Can I just check that you are talking about mountain biking and not road riding?

Both, the cycling maps had loads and loads of off road tracks/mountains to cycle, tho personally I only did road cycling

othello

A bit late on this thread, but if you are looking for an alternative try Austria. We had a weeks family holiday staying in Kaprun and it was excellent. Lots of walking, swimming in the lake at Zell am See, cable cars, trip to the Glacier etc. More than enough to occupy a 7 & 8 year old for a week. We didn't take bikes, as we flew to Munich and took the train to Zell am See, but certainly would next time. You can put the bikes on the cable car, and take the trails down. Trails are way marked and look well maintained.