Morzine, Portes du Soleil · Saturday 6 to Saturday 13 March 2027
The Morzine Ski Week
Seven days on one of the biggest linked ski areas in the world, with the food sorted and a group to ski it with. £1,950 a head, and the chalet is held.
Refunded in full if the trip does not go ahead. 8 needed by Sunday 15 November.
It’s Freddie here, founder of Jove Club. I’m so excited about the possibility of us doing our first ski trip! A lot of Jove people have asked us about it since day 1. I know we’re often associated with big challenges and physically demanding trips, but this will not be one of them.
The ski week falls into our ‘Social’ category of trips, which means you do whatever you like. There’s no guiding or instruction (unless you want to go to Ski School of course). I’m sure we’ll end up going out together most days, but people can do whatever they like. Either way we’ll be back at the chalet for big dinners and socials in the evenings.
The ski area is huge and snow reliability is strong, which is why we chose Morzine/Avoriaz. The ski pass we give you will cover all of it.
This trip has to work slightly differently to how we’d run a normal adventure, but hopefully we can make it happen.
Where we are going
Morzine sits in the middle of the Portes du Soleil, which links twelve resorts across France and Switzerland on one pass: around 650km of piste, one of the largest linked areas in the world. You can spend a day riding across the border to Champéry and back and still not see the same run twice.
That size is the reason we picked it. A group this size will never all want the same thing, and here they do not have to. There is wide gentle ground above the village, long tree-lined cruising for anyone happy on a red, proper terrain parks up at Avoriaz, and the Swiss Wall for anyone who wants to frighten themselves before lunch.
Morzine itself is a working town rather than a purpose-built resort, which means proper bars and restaurants and somewhere to go on the night the kitchen is closed. Every place we are looking at is within walking distance of a lift, because nobody enjoys a bus at eight in the morning with their boots on.
About these photos: this will be our first ski trip, so we do not have any glossy, polished shots of it yet. These are mine, from ski weeks I have been on before. They are not of Morzine and not of this trip, because it has not happened. I would rather tell you that than borrow someone else’s and let you assume they were ours. There will be real ones after March.
The week is Saturday 6 to Saturday 13 March 2027. Seven nights, Saturday to Saturday. The French school holidays in this region finish on 8 March, so the slopes empty out two days into the week.
The chalet
We have picked one, and it is held for us until Sunday 15 November. Here is what you would be booking.
You ski back to the door
The chalet sits at 1,165m at the foot of the runs down from Avoriaz, which is the high, north facing, snow sure half of the area. You finish the day on a blue, red or black straight back into the garden. The cable car that puts you in Avoriaz at 1,750m in four minutes is 350m away, and there is a beginners lift 50m from the door.
Six en-suite bedrooms, every one a twin or a double
Twelve people, nobody in a bunk. That matters more than it sounds, because three in four people who book our trips book on their own and end up sharing with someone they have not met. A sauna and an outdoor hot tub as well.
The food is theirs, not ours
Cooked or continental breakfast every morning, afternoon tea with something baked when you get in, and a five course dinner with wine on six of the seven nights. The chef is off on the Wednesday, which is our night in the village.
The honest catch
It is twenty minutes above Morzine rather than in it, so a night in town is a fifteen minute bus. The free shuttle runs until 21:00. Avoriaz is the other way, four minutes up the cable car, and that lift runs until 21:00 in the week and midnight on a Friday and Saturday.
Go and look round it yourself
It is Chalet Plan des Rochers, run by Chilly Powder in Les Prodains. They have a 360 tour of every room, so you do not have to take our word for any of the above.
One thing to be straight about, because that link makes it look more settled than it is: the chalet is held for us, not booked. We commit on Sunday 15 November if enough of you are in. If it fell through between now and then, you would hear it from us the same day and your £50 would come straight back.
What the price covers
£1,950 per person
The same whether eight of us go or twelve.
- Seven nights in a catered chalet, sharing a twin, or a double for couples
- Breakfast every morning, cooked or continental, and afternoon tea when you get in
- A five course dinner cooked and served on six of the seven nights, with wine
- Six-day Portes du Soleil lift pass, the whole area. Most ski packages do not include one
- Return airport transfers from Geneva
Not included, and worth budgeting for:
- Flights to Geneva, roughly £120 to £200 return if you book early
- Ski or board hire, £130 to £250 for the week depending on what you take, arranged for you in resort
- Lessons, booked direct with a ski school, we will point you at one
- Lunch on the mountain, £15 to £25 a day
- Travel insurance with winter sports cover, not optional, and check it covers off-piste if you plan to go there
All in, someone skiing every day with kit hired out there should expect the week to come to somewhere around £2,350 to £2,600 once flights, hire and lunches are counted. I would rather you knew that now than worked it out in February.
What people say about our trips
Not about this one, because it has not happened. These are from the weekends and weeks we have already run, and they are the bits that tend to worry people about a ski trip too.
“Enjoyed a wonderful weekend of hiking, camping, trail running, navigation & fitness sessions (and some cracking pubs, pie & pizzas!) in the Peak District with a group of wonderful people. We all had different levels of previous outdoor experience & all were catered for.”
“Got there and they helped set up my new tent, very friendly from the off. Zero judgement across the weekend for anything. It gave me my confidence back outdoors, and I have booked onto my next trip already.”
“It has definitely been one of the highlights of my year! The Jove team were so down to earth, and everyone in the group was so nice.”
Why this one works differently
This is our first ski trip. Normally we book the accommodation and the instructors, then hope we fill the trip. A ski chalet is too much money for a business our size to tie up before anyone has said yes.
So the chalet is held, not booked. The owner is keeping it for us until Sunday 15 November. If enough of you are in by then, we sign it that week. If not, nobody has lost anything.
How this works
- 1
You pay £50 now
Refundable if the trip does not go ahead. We take it off the deposit you pay later.
- 2
Sunday 15 November, we count up
8 or more and the trip is on. Fewer and we refund everyone, tell you straight, and nobody is out of pocket.
- 3
We sign the chalet and confirm the exact price
You get the name, the address and their photographs before you owe another penny. The price does not move: it is £1,950 whether eight of us go or twelve.
- 4
The deposit, £450 a head, charged to the same card
Your £50 comes off it, so £400 is taken, charged automatically to the same card the day after we confirm. This is the point we have to pay the chalet, which is why it lands here and not later.
- 5
The balance, around £1,500, on 5 January 2027
Charged to the same card, 60 days before we go, which is our usual.
Hold a place for £50
8 needed by Sunday 15 November. Refunded in full if it does not go ahead.
If it does, we charge the rest of the £450 deposit to this card automatically.
What I do not know yet, in one list
Whether we reach the numbers, and the transfer times, which depend on everyone’s flights. That is the whole list. The price is not on it: £1,950 is settled whether eight of us go or twelve.
Tuesday 10 November, 7.30pm
Come on the ski briefing call
Half an hour on a video call before the deadline. Where we are with the chalet, what the money looks like, what happens if we do not get the numbers, and whatever else you want to ask. Cameras off is fine and you do not have to say a word.
Save me a spot on the callThe questions people ask
What will I actually pay, and when?
Three payments, and this is all of them. £50 today to hold your place. £400 when we confirm the trip, which makes a £450 deposit once your £50 is counted. Then the balance, around £1,500, on 5 January 2027.
The second one is automatic: the card you use today is saved, and we charge the £400 to it the day after we confirm. No link, nothing for you to do. So mark Sunday 15 November down, because if the trip is on, the money leaves your account that week.
If that timing is difficult, tell us before you pay anything and we will work something out.
Why are you taking money before the trip is confirmed?
Because £50 is a commitment and a free form is not. Most people who fill in a register of interest do not end up booking, and we cannot sign a chalet this expensive on a hunch.
That will not work for everyone, and we would rather lose you now than take your money on a promise we cannot keep. Get this first one right and next year we will book the place up front like we do with everything else.
What happens to my £50?
One of two things. The trip runs and it comes off your deposit, or we do not reach 8 people and we refund it in full.
There is no version where you pay and get nothing.
When is the balance due?
5 January 2027, which is 60 days out and the same as all our trips. We charge it to the card you hold your place with, so there is nothing for you to do.
If paying it in one go is a problem, say so and we will work something out. We would much rather do that than have you drop off.
How good a skier do I need to be?
You do not need to be any good. Come if you have skied every winter since you were six. Come if you have never had a pair of skis on. We are not setting a bar and we do not want one. There is a beginners lift 50m from the chalet door.
The area is big enough that people at completely different levels ski all week and still eat together every night. If you are learning, book a few mornings with a school and you have got the rest of the day with everyone else. Tell us and we can help sort that out for you.
Who is leading the skiing?
Nobody from Jove, and we want to be clear about that. France reserves paid ski instruction to instructors holding its own state qualification, and quite rightly. So we ski as a group of adults who can ski, and if you want teaching you book a local instructor, which we will happily help you do.
Freddie is coming and sorting the week out, but as the host rather than your guide.
Can I have a room to myself?
Honestly, probably not, and we would rather say so now than let you find out in March. The chalet is six bedrooms for twelve people, so a room to one person is a bed we cannot sell, and if we fill the place the only fair supplement would be most of another ticket. That is not a price worth either of us paying.
If we end up short of full there will be spare beds, and we will offer them round at that point. We just will not promise one before we know.
Is it awkward coming on your own?
Three in four people on our trips do. You will be sharing a room with someone, eating with the group every evening, and riding up chairlifts in twos and threes all week. After a day or two nobody is even thinking about it.
What if there is no snow?
The skiing is high, which is why we picked this end of the Portes du Soleil. Avoriaz sits at 1,800m and the runs above it reach around 2,400m on north facing slopes, which is the snow sure half of the area. The chalet sits right at the foot of it.
Your pass covers all twelve resorts too, so if one sector is thin you move to one that is not. Early March is one of the more reliable weeks of the season. Nobody honest promises a powder week, but the trip runs whatever the forecast.
£50
Refundable holding deposit. Comes off your trip price.
Hold me a place8 needed by Sunday 15 November. Refunded in full if it does not go ahead. If it does, we charge the rest of the £450 deposit to the same card automatically.