With the Grand Massif ski pass you have access to 5 linked ski villages: Flaine, Les Carroz, Morillon, Samoens and Sixt-a-Cheval. This is a total of 265 kilometres of ski runs and 72 ski lifts. Flaine is the highest and biggest ski village of the 5 which is the reason why we have booked our apartment here.
SKI MAP
For more information of the ski area, please go here: Grand Massif Ski Resort
Check out this link for a bigger and more detailed ski trail map: Grand Massif Ski Map
SOME OF THE THINGS WE LIKE:
Flaine, as mentioned in many online reviews, does guarantee of good powder snow. This has something to do with the altitude of the village and the bowl-like location of the area. We only have praises of the quality of snow here during our visit (3rd week January).
There are many ski lifts in Flaine (Flaine Foret and Flain Forum) with access to 265 kilometres of slope run. We were staying at Flaine Foret and the nearest lift from out apartment was Gerats. The main ski lifts at Flaine Foret Flaine Forum were walkable as well.
There were almost no drag lifts here! Dutchman avoids them like the plague. He is a snowboarder, that’s why.
There is a free ski bus that goes every 15 minutes around town which is very handy when you do not want to be hauling your skis and snowboard on your shoulders. We have made use of the bus a few times.
There are 2 passenger lifts between Flaine Foret and Flaine Forum, and they seem to be open 24 x 7.
There is plenty of café and restaurant terraces options on the slopes. Unfortunately, it was snowing on our first 3 days of skiing so there was not much of terrace fun there.
Overall, a great mix of red and blue slopes in Flaine. Since this is France, the slopes are of course very wide and endless.
SOME OF THE THINGS WE DO NOT LIKE:
The long slope to Six-a-Cherval was never opened during the whole week we were there in January. We had a bad feeling that the resort is lazy and only opens this particular slope during the peak season. And we are indeed correct, they opened the route only this February.
In fact, we noticed that there were a good number of slopes, cable car and chair lifts in the Massif part of the mountain (Les Carroz, Morillon, Samoens and Sixt-a-Cherval) that were closed for some reason.
The Serpentine blue slope in Flaine (cable car: Les Grandes Platieres from Flaine Forum) is horribly flat! You will spend some time dragging your skis and snowboard here, if not walking. Best to avoid this by taking the red slope Faust which you will see on your left from Serpentine.
As the 3rd week of January is still low season for wintersport, we did not expect to have busy slopes. Flaine is also a relatively big and popular ski resort village so we found it to be busy than what we were used to. I can just imagine what the slopes would look like in February, like now. Chaos.
If coming from the Massif side of the mountain and back to Flaine, do not miss these 2 chair lifts: Corbalanche and Vernant. They are the main lift connections. If you miss either one of these 2 lifts, then you have a huge problem.
Below are some of the pictures we took on our second day of skiing. We only stayed in the Flaine area as it was very misty on top, we could barely see each other. We only took these pictures when we reached a lower altitude.
Travel Period: January 2016
Destination: Flaine, Haute Savoie (Rhone-Alpes), France
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