Best Short Break Ski Resorts Near Geneva

Geneva airport is a major hub for skiers travelling to the northern French Alps, and with so much easily accessible skiing, more and more people are able to squeeze in long ski weekends or short breaks.

For independent skiers scheduled flights to Geneva are easy and cheap from most major UK cities, and after you’ve touched down various transfer companies and chalet hosts will whisk you off to a choice of the best short break ski resorts near Geneva.

So, which resorts are near Geneva, and how do they compare?

Most of the French ski resorts within easy reach of Geneva are in Haute Savoie, a mountainous area characterised by attractive, traditional Alpine villages and busy year-round communities – a far cry from the impersonal, purpose-built feel of larger resorts in other ski areas. Here, you are in touch with a working community and rub shoulders with the locals in the village bars and local shops

Traditional style resorts are dotted along valleys on either side of the Autoroute Blanche (White Motorway) which runs from Geneva to Chamonix and then through the Mont-Blanc Tunnel into Italy. Villages such as Les Carroz d’Araches, Morillon and Samoëns (Grand Massif), Combloux, Megève and Saint-Gervais (Evasion Mont Blanc), are all really easy to access and are lift-linked to large ski areas.

Also easily accessible are the resorts of La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, Manigod and Saint Jean de Sixt known collectively as the Lake Annecy Ski Resorts. La Clusaz is just 50 minutes drive from Geneva via the beautiful lakeside town of Annecy.

Having lived in the region for years and skied most of the resorts, we decided to compare the most popular areas suitable for a short ski break experience in a quality French ski resort. We’ve put all the main things skiers want to know when planning a ski break – how big a ski area is, how long it takes to get there and how much the lift pass costs – in the quick comparison table below.

For easy comparison of the largest and more popular resorts, we haven’t included a number of smaller resorts. There are, of course, many ski resorts you might consider as close to Geneva, but which don’t quite make the 1hr 15 minutes cut-off time we set for our comparison. Many of these are, however, linked to the main ski domains. The transfer times below reflect what is genuinely realistic during winter, based on our own experiences.