Samoëns - Community Reviews & Ratings

W elove Samoens for it's huge beginner area that is excellent for building confidence and enjoying the scenery. Out of school holidays, it is nice and quiet. It is perfect for families.

Great ski resort with a mixture of runs for all abilities. Runs are very quiet with small lift queues.

We love the village and easy access to the whole grand massif ski area!It is a beautiful resort with a wide range of runs, plenty of cafes along the slopes too!

Such a gem of a resort. Very accessible from Geneva, only an hour. Great accommodation near ski lift. Beautiful restaurants in the village. Very economical. Returning for second time next week.

I learnt to ski this year at samoens at 34. Loads of great slopes to learn on and plenty to progress onto where my more experienced fiancé coupe have fun as well. The town is lovely and the bus service works a treat and is free. Looking forward to getting back out there next year.

Great family friendly place. Supermarket on outskirts of town is normal prices good for self catering. We hired skis that had storage at the bottom of the Main ski lift really handy / made things easy

Love Samoens, family friendly, great little bakeries and eateries and close to the lifts going up to linkages to flaine and the like. We loved it so much that we are going back in April.

Samöens is an overall good resort with relatively high snow reliability from mid December- March, with a great ski area in the Grand Massif. However in Peak weeks like New year or February holidays, queues for lifts such as Chariande Express can be upwards of 30+ minutes, with the runs at the summit of the mountain (Tete des Saix) being very congested and being full of moguls come lunchtime, not ideal at all and is quite frankly dangerous with experienced skiers mixing with beginners inevitably resulting in collisions. This is caused by the other chairlift at Samöens 1600 the Chariande 2 being unserviceable as one of the pylons has since moved, thus being deemed unsafe. But lift queues can be avoided by accessing the Coulouvrier lift. However this lift has been built slightly too low, so the snow quality isnt always the best and can be a very icy run, however I would ski down (if able) to access the Coulouvrier lift to save queue time. So in terms of the ski side of things, Samöens is an excellent resort if visiting outside peak weeks, but still a good resort during peak weeks (as unfortunately queues are inevitable nearly everywhere in the Alps at this time). There is a great selection for ski lessons as well, personally I believe the best school in Samöens is 2skifly, they teach skiing and snowboarding to a high quality in different languages. But of course you can find others e.g ESF. In the village after skiing there is a vast range of restaurants and bars as well as Apres Ski Samöens which has always got a good vibe to it and regularly holds a live DJ set. Pricing is pretty standard averaging 6-7 euros a pint of beer, and 18-20 euros for burger and chips. However when having lunch at Samöens 1600 be sure to eat at Brasserie des Saix which is cheaper and always quieter as Im fairly sure it can only be accessed via the red (marmot) run. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Samöens with some great bluebird powder days and would like to come back and would recommend it 100% outside of peak weeks but still during peak weeks just as long as your know what your doing and a confident skier. Stewart.

Lovely family ski resort with a range of pistes. Good restaurants up the mountain with traditional feel and good food. Reasonable resort wit options for apres. Good bakeries for breakfast. Pretty pistes and a very unspoilt resort.

Its a great resort! It has great links to areas like flaine which are slightly higher and allowed for harder pistes and better snow! Samoens itself is quite low and the snow isnt excellent but its great for kids and as a family. The ski school is great and easy to locate! The runs have a good range of difficulties and there are challenges for everyone which is rly nice. The calibre of food isnt as great and very expensive but the igloo is really nice! Would highly recommend !!!

Took my son on his first ever ski trip between xmas and new year for 4 nights and 5 days. He could ski on greens and blues and by end of the trip he tried a few reds. Great resort linking to the 4 villages (Morillon, Sixt, samoens and Les carroz) tonnes of off piste, black runs, blues etc. However in peak season I.e school holidays this place is jam packed. Traffic gridlocks the towns, lift queues on main slopes can be half and hour wait times. Restaurants and bars in slopes you will be queuing also. Everywhere has cashed in, and x2 burger and chips and a few drinks at lunch will cost you around 50.00 euros. Dinner for 2 will be around 100.00 euros. I recommend you download the grand massif app where you can see and track shuttle buses and purchase ski passes along with tracking your ski activity. Amazing, pretty and friendly resort but would avoid in peak season.

I have been travelling to Samoens for 10 years now with my family. Lovely village with plenty of food options & shops etc for non skiers. The Grand Massif range gives a large amount of options for all types of abilities. We blast straight out to Flaine first thing then hit as many slopes back to Samoens 1600 as possible then chill in Morillon for the afternoon. Lots of options available slope wise, well worth a visit.

Its a great family friendly resort with a range for different abilities. Not a massive amount of off-piste or blacks but easy access to the rest of the grand-massif which provides more varied skiing.

We had a fantastic trip to Samoens - one of the most reasonably priced ski trips I've had with some lovely runs. Lucifer is my favourite run!! There's less additional things than bigger resorts, for example no parks or bordercross, so if you want things like that then bigger resorts may be for you, but we enjoyed the quieter slopes with a more 'local' feel. Lots of good food places but they do get booked up in school holidays so it's worth booking ahead of trabelling

Ski school, and guides are great. Well worth booking, even as an experienced rider to get a guided tour of the area. Its so large, so great to get expert knowledge of the area

Been to Samoëns a couple of times and stayed in the village. Short walk or free ski bus to the express gondola upto 1600 and then a short green run down to the main chair upto the top of samoens. From here it a choice of runs back down to 1600 or over to neighbouring Morzine and Les carroz. The last option is taking the link over to Flaine and making a day of it over in its bowl. Lots of great runs and great value compared to some of the higher resorts.

Excellent resort, can get extremely busy in peak weeks. Lots of eateries on the slopes with great access to other resorts in the ski domain (Grand Massif). Plenty of off piste and loads of groomed runs. Not much in terms of apres, but some great bars still. Plenty of blues, greens and reds with enough black runs for the advanced among us.

I love Samoens, either in Summer or Winter, great Apres Ski with lots of fantastic bars and restaurants

Been going here for years. Place used to be 100% locals, now more touristy but still a classic French village. Connection to the Grand Massif area is great, if you can go to Flaine then do so as it is much higher (albeit with far less trees). It is not designed for apres ski - that is either a positive or negative depending what you like! There are 2 or 3 places in the town itself that are effectively just loud pubs. Tiffanie is the boulangerie - essential to visit every morning

If you are a beginner or using Ski School. then Samoens is a good base as the gondola goes straight to the plateau where the ski schools gather. Otherwise, it's a good base to start from to explore the wider Grand Massif area, with Flaine, Morillon ans Les Carroz all within easy reach. On cold mornings, if the piste is really hard parked, then the Aouia piste down to the Coulouvrier lift can be quite challenged for beginners - wait for the sun to get on it first. For beginners, avoid both blue runs down to Coulouvrier in warm spring snow conditions unless you are comfortable with large heavy snow bumps. If there is a huge queue for the gondola, it can be quicker getting the bus to the Vercland lift. The red Marmotte is a great run back down - likely to have a few moguls on the top section, but can be better than the top of the blue Perce-Neige run from Tete Des Saix at the end of the day. The red Chamois from Test Des Saix is steep, but usually in great condition and it takes you down to the snow park. Been here every year for 10 years - don't worry about the lack of snow at town level. The Grand Massif area is generally snow sure and there will always be somewhere to get some good skiing in the area. The Cascade run down to Sixt from Flaine is excellent, but check snow conditions first. The last part is the summer road and in shade most if the day. Take note of wind warnings when crossing over to Flaine as there is no ski bus service connecting back to the Samoens / Morillon / Les Carroz / Sixt side. The moutain restaurants are generally really good, but try to avoid the self service places. Only a couple of these around and there are far better options near these places.