Skier & Snowboarder-Submitted Reviews for Les Houches
Planning a ski trip to Les Houches? Browse our collection of visitor-generated reviews that rank the mountain and ski town on a scale of one to five stars in the following categories: Overall Rating, All-Mountain Terrain, Nightlife, Terrain Park and Family Friendly. See how Les Houches stacks up to others in terms of skiing and après, and read up on pros, cons and comments from fellow skiers and snowboarders. Don't forget to submit your own Les Houches review! Scroll to the bottom of this page to let other travelers know about your ski area experience.
Skier & Snowboarder-Submitted Reviews for Les Houches
Total (3.4)
A ski resort's overall star rating displayed here is not calculated based on a simple average but takes several factors, including the age of a review, into account.
We’ve been skiing Les Houches for 12 years. All our four children and learned to ski on these slopes with ESF who have been brilliant. As they have grown we’ve tried bigger resorts but miss the tree lined skiing of this little haven.
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Fantastic resort. Great for families and 10 mins bus ride to Chamonix
anonymous
A very comfortable site for families and beginners
Matt Fletcher
We had a family holiday in February. The ski school was excellent and dealt with big numbers quickly and efficiently. Fortunately the Prarion gondola copes well with shifting people up the mountain. The pistes are lovely - wife, well groomed and progressive with several choices for us to use with our beginner kids. Ski school was well organised and dealt well with multi-lingual classes and our kids progressed well.
The scenery is amazing - a little lower ensures you are in the tree line with a mix of east, north and west facing slopes for all conditions.
The downsides are the resort is low at 1800m at the top and 1000m at village level so snow cover can be iffy. It is spread along the valley so you are faced with some long walks to either the better ski lifts or the shops / bars depending where you stay. There are free ski busses which are regular though. The ski lifts are mainly old and slow with only 2 modern quick lifts. The main one to avoid is the terrible Bellevue gondola which is very slow and up lots of stairs. Too many drag lifts in that sector make it not worth bothering with.
Overall though it is fantastic if you want a quiet, relaxed and family friendly ski holiday with enough piste variety to keep you entertained for most of a week.
Manny Manushek
Les Houce is a wonderful resort if you are looking for great family holidays! Fantastic people of Ecole du Ski Français made our daughter feel safe, confident and happy.
Caro Rodriguez
I do not recommend Les Houches ski resort to anyone and I will not be returning to this place. The place is a complete mess, the restaurants, lifts and ski school, are all operated and managed by different owners or companies. The company running the lifts was rude and does not care about customers.
When you are skiing you will most likely end up lost if you take Prarion and when asking staff for help, in English or French, they will reply to you rudely and with little assistance, if any at all; signs all over are poor.
Worst ski resort I have ever been to!
Ken Tucknott
We (5 adults & 2 young children) rented a chalet for 5mths & while the snow was late coming when it arrived, it was brilliant. The terrain varied from very beginner thru to advanced & includes the course for the Kandahar. The locals are very friendly, hospitable & generous. The Chamonix early bird season pass was extremely cost effective & covered the 5 valley resorts as well as limited days @ Verbier & Courmayeur which is brilliant. The other 4 Chamonix resorts offer more challenging piste & all resorts have free videoed race courses. Chamonix is a few minutes drive away, shopping is great & economical. If you don't have wheels, you have your own "private" rail stop & regular buses connect all valley resorts & Chamonix. When the powder comes it is brilliant & the weather is generally sunny with Mt Blanc looming in the background. Boarders about equal skiers & there are no lift queues except short ones in school holidays. Top gun riders & skiers would become bored with Les Houches after a few days & conveniently (& free) travel to the other 4 resorts for more adventurous (& dangerous) slopes. Overall, a not inexpensive adventure but well worth the time & money to enjoy an unforgettable full season in the Alps.
We have just returned from Les Houches with a mixed ability group. Our beginners liked the safe training area at the top of the Gondola although the others felt it offered only a two days ski at best. The experienced skiers went to other resorts in the area which gave the experience like a taster menu although most of the resorts in the Chamonix area are just a day's ski each.
A dispute between the various lift operators in les Houchs and the surrounding area means research is required before committing about 240 euros to a weekly pass. Our Mont Blanc Unlimited pass meant we could not ski in St Gervais just down the road, but could ski Verbier 1 1/2 hours away in a differant country. Our alternative was a 257 euro pass which gave us access to St Gervais and 400 km of Pistes but only one gondola in Les Houches. Les Houches could also do with some investmentin its own lifts as at one end there are some very tricky drags at the bottom of blue runs and at the other end of the resort we stood in the Bellevue cable car for 20 minutes waiting for it to set off
The village is stretched out along the road but is quiet and pretty and has apres ski bars and a choice of retaurants
Was my first trip to the Alps. Great little mountain with easy access to Chamonix. Skiiing was great although the excessive fog was a bit off putting but not sure if this was the Alps or just random. We are considering going back!
Les Houches is a lovely resort with plenty of good, varied skiing and a free skating rink! It is all on wooded hillsides and there is the opportunity for safe, gentle off piste fun amongst the trees. The Ski Schools (ESF) are excellent and they push you to improve constantly (a little too quickly for some in our party). There are beginners' runs at the top of both the gondolas but the one at the top of Bellevue is underused and incredibly tame. At the top of the Prarion there are plenty of runs to take you on past the normal beginners run and quickly give you easy steps to improve your skiing.
For the expert skier the options are limited. Once you've done the tricky Kandahar black run (curiously named La Verte) there's not a great deal to test you. Still there is always the amazing Vallee Blanche just down the road in Chamonix...
In conclusion, Les Houches is a great family resort with a few bars and restaurants and loads of good accomodation. It has plenty of interesting mid difficulty slopes but does not offer the expert much in the way of a challenge. Still if you're in a big group of varied skiers it is a perfect choice.
We had terrific luck with heavy snowfalls duing the night and beautiful blue skies in the day.
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