The Skiers' Guide to Châtel

Easy access to lifts at various points in the town, with free parking. Access to miles and miles of slopes across the Portes du Soleil area.

The town could do with a larger and cheaper supermarket though.

Came end off Jan 26. Family of 4. Ski conditions were good, runs well looked after. Lots of button lifts, some very long. You can easily access them wider ski areas including avoiraz .
Super markets quite expensive. Food n beer also quite expensive. Nice village and all staff we met were lovely. Been in a few family run restaurants which have been lovely, but expensive.

I enjoyed skiing in Châtel as it was a nice quiet week after the New Year crowds had left, so there was plenty of the space on quite empty pistes.
Although the gondolas are fine and the chairs are ok, there are still too many button lifts. It’s about time some of the longer buttons were replaced with chair lifts, especially the over 1 km long Chalet Neuf!
The skiing was good considering the recent lack of snowfall - the resort had done a good job of retaining and maintaining what snow there was.

This was the second time visiting Chatel and I find it great for if you want to go far and discover Avoriaz and Morzine, but also just skiing around and near Chatel provides some great runs.
Nice big areas for beginners and family, nothing too busy and too steep.
Lots of restaurants with lovely French Cuisine to choose from with very high quality food without obscene prices.
I'd definitely ski Chatel with my family when I get the chance.

It’s been 14 years since I last skied in Châtel- the resort has really developed for the better, lots more to do, much nicer restaurants etc, every meal we had was fantastic. We had some issues as a family with very young children with us - our chalet was slightly out of town so navigating skis etc & buggy’s was at times a lot. More lockers at the bottom of the Super Châtel lift would have been really helpful.

We have skied from Chatel many times for Chatel read the whole of Portes du Soleil, vast area with well groomed slopes for all standards. Currently in a low snow season so no powder for 2 weeks but still loads of piste to go at.
Will be back year after year.

Great family friendly area and safe for kids. Public lift to 2 bars for those that don’t ski but want to meet friends in the bar at lunch or apres

Great restaurants on the mountain. Family friendly, cruisey runs. Connected to much bigger Portes du Soleil but cheaper and quieter than the other resorts

A fantastic resort
Ski in ski out
Connects to masses of other ski resorts including avoriaz
Extremely pretty and accessible
Lovely chalets and restaurants
Skied there nearly 20 years

Chatel is a great resort with many ski runs in the port du soleil region. Whilst it can be busy lifts are very efficient and there is not a lot of waiting around. Accommodation is great with many chalet and hotel options and there are ski runs for everyone. The town itself is amazing with a mix of modern and traditional buildings. There are great places to eat on both the slope and the town. A great place with great slopes for skiers and snowboarders!

Chatel is a lively and charming family-friendly resort. It has direct connections to the slopes with the gondola located near the top of the resort, connecting the resort to Super Chatel where there are a few blues and reds. From there, you can take two chairlifts to reach Linga and two more to reach Plaine Dranse and be able to access the rest of the Portes Du Soleil domain. Also, the buses to either Vonnes, Linga or Pre La Joux are all free which is an added bonus if you’d rather skip some chairlifts. Within the resort, at Christmas time (when I went) there were lots of activities going on, such as an ice rink and a merry-go-round, as well as Christmas-themed events held for kids, so it is very family-friendly. There are a few good bars too but I would say it’s much more directed towards families than après-ski, unlike other resorts such as Avoriaz or Chamonix.

Overall a great resort with lots of lifts and runs covering a huge area. Only criticism is that the slopes weren’t as well posted as experienced in some other resorts.

Had a fab time here. The ski school for little ones was not great for English speaking kids and has caused a bit of a fear of ski school for my daughter (previous ski schools elsewhere she’s loved). Great accommodation and food options

Lovely picturesque village, some beautiful places to eat with awesome French cuisine.

Service was lovely, everyone was friendly.

The slopes were amazing. All well kept. We had a bit of snow just before we arrived and it was a few days of bluebird skiing, but the piste bashers maintained the runs extremely well.

Great mix of all levels runs to go on too. I really enjoyed getting over to Avoriaz and coming back all in the one day.

I thought was pretty great cos connected to rest of portes du soleil. Wasn't perfect as there is a section which has many many many drag lifts which when u with bad skiers came a Lil tedious cos they always do the falling off, but this section can be avoided so not a bad area

Something for everyone and access to huge area with Ported du Soleil. Friendly town and not too big, lovely small hotels and great shops and restaurants.

Nice little ski town with a gondola up to the main ski area. Possible to ski hike if you can do a red run (though it was quite patchy and chopped up when I was there due to the temp)

Also possibility to get a short transfer to other parts of Portes du Soleil network and skin over to Avoriaz / Switzerland for the day and get back in good time. So you won’t ever run out of new slopes to check out.

I've skied in Austria and France, both have been fun but the Old school style of Chatel makes it the winner for me. The town is cute with good access from either Thonon or from Aigle on the Swiss side.
Driving over the pass from Switzerland into Chatel on a sunny Monday lunchtime to the view of a white ski dreamland started the trip off well. Ski hire pickup was easy and troublefree. I stayed on Rue du Petit Chatel with views over the village to Mont de Grange and easy access to the Petit Chatel chairlift, and a quick bus ride to the main lifts to Super Chatel and Linga.
Early skiing on beautiful groomed slopes is always great in and around Chatel with a good variety of skiing and easy slopes to link between the lifts to get all around the resort with ease.
A couple of the red runs are testy and could possibly be rated blacks but being stretched is never a bad thing. The blues and greens are all graded perfectly and can make for some wonderful relaxed final runs down off the mountains.
Overall the skiing is more relaxed here than at neighbouring Avoriaz.

Very good resort for skiing just Chatel village lacks so much infrastructure eg bars and restaurants the town had out grown the catering for the skiers staying there!

Lovely town and his lifts. Weather was changeable but thankfully there was a snow dump on the first day of the trip. The pistes were varied and the on mountain bars were nice with great atmosphere. One run connecting the resort to the rest of Portes Do Soleil seemed to have been closed for a number of years as there were trees growing in it - this necessitated a long slow traverse lift unfortunately. Overall the resort was really fun but the interconnectivity was a small downside. If the price was right I'd still go back