The Skiers' Guide to La Rosière 1850

I’ve been going to La Rosiere with my family for years now. It’s the perfect quieter resort for families and has plenty of quieter greens and blues for new learners.

Lovely family trait with variety of runs. Great connection to Italy for additional pistes. Lift queues rare, variety of off piste. Definitely a trait to return to.

Very quite first week for the season. very family friendly as lovely staff all around, ESF staff great, although some impatient with beginners. Food places are very nice and not too harsh with pricing. Hotels and accommodation very lovely and lots of variety (hotel alparena was gorgeous, great ski in/out)

Been going to La Rosiere since I was 7 and love it more every time I go! The skiing is fantastic and links well in the la Thuille so there’s lots of options!

La Rosiere is a great area for a family ski holiday. The ski schools are really accessible and it’s easy to hit the slopes after dropping them off. There’s loads for children to do after a day on the slopes. The ski area is good but would definitely benefit from more ungroomed/off piste areas and fun parks.

Great French resort; many French people choose here to enjoy great skiing.
Lifts are fast and facilities abundant.
Resort is split into two bases with good bus services

• Great for families
• Lots of ski in/ski out options
• Very friendly
• Very helpful resort staff
• Some free lifts for complete beginners
• Traditional chalet style village
• unbelievably picturesque
• cosy restaurants and great bars
• Chilled vibe
• Loads of resort activities for families
• Visibly conscious of the impact of the resort on the environment

Great resort for a mixture of abilities! Most slopes are well pisted and wide for maximum fun. It's a quiet, dark horse on the border of France/Italy that benefits from great weather on the other side of the border (general rule of thumb is if the weather is bad in France, it's good in Italy and vice versa). Excellent food and drink choices!! Brilliant for families but Apres is good if you find the right place with the right group of people

Brilliant week snowboarding in this quiet resort. Pistes were wide and queues were low. Brilliant ‘Narnia’ walk between the resort centres. Ideal for families.

A nice area with a decent amount of runs available on the French side, with loads to explore on the Italian side of La Thuile also. Fairly quiet in the evenings, with bars closing at 8 or 9pm so not ideal if you like to party late! Some narrow flat pistes (roads/tracks) to return to the resort make it difficult for novice snowboarders until you’ve got the hang of them. Some good mountain bars and restaurants and a good variety of places in town as well. Easy to get to from Bourg St Maurice - we went by train!

I've skied in La Rosiere every year since 1999 apart from the Covid impacted years. I should really say the Space San Bernardo because you can ski in France and Italy. on the same lift pass.
La Rosiere has grown and become more popular in the last few years especially since Club Med opened a hotel right on the piste. I've skied since the 1960's and I'm still skiing, I chose to purchase a chalet in La Rosiere because we liked the village so much and my son ran a ski holiday company there for many years.
Firstly, La Rosiere is not a mega resort so it's not overrun by too many visitors, the access road is quite narrow and steep so there is a limit to the number of visitors the resort can accommodate. Both points in it's favour as far as I'm concerned, there is a vibrant acres-ski scene but it's not wild, it is a very well regarded family resort by French and Belgium visitors who make up the majority of visitors.
The pistes in La Rosiere are all south or south-west facing, there is only one north facing piste in the domain, so it's a very sunny location. It's high at 1850 meters, the same level as Val d'Isere, the pistes go up to over 2800 meters and down to 1176 meters, so snow cover id usually good it has one of the best snowfall records of all French resorts, usually in the top five rated resorts annually.
There good points and less good points here, firstly there aren't many tree-lined runs, so if the weather turns ugly you've just to grin and bear it. In early spring the skiing can be magnificent, long sunny days and good snow cover. The downside of the high pistes are linked to the weather and the wind direction, the Col de Petit San Bernardo, the link with Italy channels the wind especially when it's in the north - from Italy.
There is a good variety of pistes ranging from green through to black and my favorites are the red and black pistes from the village down to 1176 metres - Fontaine Froid, there is a perfect little stop there, the Vieux Chalet and the chair lift back to the village is a delight, going through the forest.
When we ski Space San Bernardo we inevitably head to La Thuile in Italy, totally different slopes all north facing and some very challenging terrain, Pista 3 is the steepest piste in Italy, We also like the mountain restaurants there, lots of choice and good value. The only issue is the drag lifts to get to Italy are very long but you do get superb views of Mont Blanc en route.
The other plus points for La Rosiere and La Thuile are they are good value resorts, there isn't a huge price differential between food and drink purchased on the slopes to purchases in the village.
Finally there are good ski schools, if you need lessons, the ESF brigade in La Rosiere even had an Englishman as their director, alternative EVO2 have operated for many years very successfully, you can book a heli-ski trip with either of them.

Great and varied resort - well linked with lifts for a group of mixed riders - so everyone can lift up together but ride down appropriate coloured runs

Great resort for families - everything localised, easy slopes for small children. Great linking slopes
Fun kids ski park, night ski display - lots for the little ones

Amazing resort, went as two couples and the snow was unbelievable and great coverage across to Italy as well. Something for everyone at all levels

A great family resort that is underrated. High up enough to get good snow, with a range of decent blues and reds.
Skiing into La Thuile is a nice addition, although lengthy time sink due to the distance required to get there and logistics to consider.

Not great for advanced skiers as there there’s very little in the way of difficulty.

There’s a few decent bars but it’s hardly apres ski central, but it’s not tough to have a good time here.

Recommended, if you’re looking for good snow, well maintained pistes at a decent price point.

I’ve been to La Rossiere a few times and it never fails to impress. The runs are groomed well and there’s a good variety for all levels of skier. The lifts are reasonably quick and never too busy. The busiest of lifts at the busiest times only take roughly 5-10 minutes of queuing. The food and après ski is good with options on the mountain and at base camp. The snow usually holds out till near the end of Easter but can get slushy in the afternoons lower down the mountain. Overall, one of my favourite skiing destinations. Would recommend!

Easy to get to, good quality accommodation, lovely open runs with access to Italy for more. Great resort for all levels particularly with good snow to offer varied off piste. Generally quieter than many resorts. Great selection of mountain restaurants!

The resort was lovely, family friendly and we all enjoyed it (children included). Everything felt walkable and there was enough to do for a week.

Great family resort. Loads of ski in ski out options. Quiet slopes and quiet in the evening. Always the option to ski into Italy to expand the runs.

The snow was hard packed and icy but the resort did a great job with the snow cannons getting the pistes in good condition for skiing. The link across to La Thuille was open 5 out of 6 days and opened the area to a great variety of blues and red runs where the north facing slopes provided softer snow and enjoyable skiing: