Enjoy a chalet holiday in the lovely Chalet Forestiere for less during March and April. The chalet’s location is perfect: Just a stone’s throw away from the town centre and the piste, from where you can explore the fantastic skiing in Les Gets and the wider Portes du Soleil.

If you’d like a quick getaway with just a few days on the piste, then why not try a short break skiing holiday: Just £295pp for a 4-night (Sun-Thurs), or 3-night (Thurs-Sun) stay.

Please see our prices and bookings page for availability.

The Pass’Portes du Soleil is an unforgettable mountain bike trek covering 7000m of downhill in France and Switzerland. Using 15 ski lifts, the 75km circuit will take you through stunning scenery from 1000-2250m in altitude.

With 4,000 riders starting from 9 different resorts in the region, this event is not to be missed if you’re a keen mountain biker. The price for entry is €40 and includes lift pass and access to 8 refreshment points enroute.

There are 9 different resorts you can start from, Les Gets being one of the most popular, so if you’re keen to register don’t wait too long!

Special offer for groups of 6 or more
Register here - the official Pass’Portes website
More photos of mountain biking in the Portes du Soleil

We loved it so much that the group decided to leave the one piece in our care, on the proviso that the garment itself would live on: our mission was – and still is – to get other people to wear it until we find a new owner, who will keep the dream alive, and keep wearing the one piece. There is a facebook group (One Piece Dreams) which tracks the progress of the one piece… would you like to be the new owner?

Below is a video of all the guests who dressed up, did their hair, grew out their mustaches and wore the one piece with pride. We take our woolly hats off to them for their courage, determination and stamina - it takes a lot to ski in full sun wearing a 100% nylon suit.

We both love Italian food, and thought that a fabulous Italian meal would be a great addition to our menu in the chalet. Thankfully, we knew just the place to go to learn the art of pasta-making and the like.

Last year we spent our honeymoon in Italy (because we like the food so much), where we stayed with the lovely Lismay at her B&B. Lismay runs Villa Anne, where she caters for guests from her beautiful home on the outskirts of Rome. Her garden is full of olive, lemon and orange trees, and she herself is a trained Italian chef and a wonderful hostess.

During our stay last week we went to visit the local olive press where we watched the fascinating process of cleaning, grinding, pulping and pressing the olives, until the beautiful yellow oil poured out. Of course olive oil is central to Italian cooking, so we bought some of this lovely local extra virgin oil to use in the chalet this winter.

The cookery course was great fun and Jim and I feel that we’ve definitely added to our culinary repertoire. So thanks to Lismay, we’ll be cooking up an Italian feast for one night of your stay: Maybe homemade gnocchi for starters, mozarella chicken or meatballs for the main, and a luscious tiramisu for dessert. Bellissimo!!

So one morning we made the decision to go, and took with us our friends from the chalet, a picnic and a map, and drove the short distance to the small resort village of Praz de Lys in the foothills of Le Marcelly.

The climb was steep in places, and took us across fields of autumn crocuses, past a lake high up in the mountain and onto the long ridge that leads up to the summit.

There we sat and had our picnic lunch, over-looking the 1200m drop to the valley below.

We then followed the ridge along, with beautiful views into a hazy distance, and scrambled on our hands and feet for the last leg of our ascent.

At the peak, we had a wonderful 360 degree panoramic view of the surrounding mountains: Absolutely breathtaking, and just so beautiful.

The route down seemed even harder on our knees and thighs than coming uphill, taking us through pretty wooded areas and down steep rocky paths. With the hard work behind us and the van parked only a mile or so away, we stopped to relax next to a pretty mountain stream, where we soaked our feet in the freezing cold water, and polished off the remainder of the sandwiches.

It’s been great to do another long walk in this lovely area, and we would certainly recommend this one to our future summer guests. As for Jim and I, it now feels good to think ‘Been there, done that’ when we look out of the window!

The family got into it when Marie bought a unicycle for Richard as a Christmas present five years ago, and when children Rob and Alex saw the fun that was to be had, they decided to join in on the action.

Although it looks impossible, according to Rob it takes about 2 weeks of everyday practice to get to a fairly competent level on the flat. Then it’s a matter of determination and endurance to take it onto the mountain – obviously a whole new ballgame altogether!

In order to progress, Rob would take his cycle along to the park where his friends would be doing tricks on their bikes, and would try to outdo them on his one wheeler! Of the family, Rob is the most passionate about the sport. Having started from the age of 12, he is now keen to get sponsorship to try out new cycles and make videos for manufacturers, so keep an eye out for him!

There is clearly a big difference between mountain biking and mountain unicycling, the most obvious and scary is the lack of brakes! In order to overcome this you have to really build up your leg strength because you use your legs as the brakes. As Richard said, mountain biking is mainly about speed, whereas mountain unicycling is more of a battle of nerves and balance against the terrain. And having seen the videos and photos of some of the things they were doing, this family has some serious nerve!

When asked what they thought of Les Gets as a destination for their sport the family were unanimous in their praise. With all the walking paths and downhill tracks there was plenty to challenge them, the only problem was dealing with the lift attendants who weren’t sure whether to categorize them as walkers or mountain bikers!

But who knows, maybe one day unicyclists will be competing for space alongside the bikers on Les Gets’ mountains. But until that moment comes I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Richard, Marie, Rob and Alex for showing us something new and for inspiring us to keep pushing the boundaries!

Check this out – another unicycling enthusiast who, coincidentally, was also introduced to the art after receiving an unexpected Christmas gift:

Accompanied by our savvy friend Chris from Rush Adventures who was showing us the trails, we started our adventure in Les Lindarets - a short drive from Les Gets, but you can bike there too. We took our first lift of the day to the top of the mountain, from where we could link a couple of really long downhill runs before arriving in Pre Le Joux. The trails just seemed to go on forever, and took in some great scenery too.

At the bottom, we changed gears and prepared ourselves for the next stage: We climbed steadily (though not too steeply, thank goodness!) up through pretty wooded passes, so that in 20 minutes we were looking down at Linga and the town of Chatel. With its lovely lake and pretty streets and restaurants, it’s the perfect place for a lunch stop.

Feeling refreshed and ready to roll, we went up the Super Chatel lift, and then did a mixture of downhill, cross country and road, until we came to another pretty lake and our first town in Switzerland - Morgins.

We took another lift up and enjoyed a really beautiful and scenic ride down to Champoussin through fields of cattle grazing, and shepherds calling their dogs.

Up another lift to one of the highest points of the trip - at over 2150m we ambled along a great mountain pass high up on the ridge, where you could see for miles in all directions.

After a long descent, often riding on the edge of the mountain, the pass eventually brought us out into Les Crosets, and not a moment too soon as we only just made this - our last lift - before closing time.

The lift took us back to France, and onto the ‘right side’ of the mountain. From here we took a really challenging downhill run, joining onto a great cross-country trail that took us along the banks of the Lac vert.

Now that we weren’t rushing to catch more lifts, we felt we’d earned ourselves a relaxing drink at the very well placed bar/ restaurant at the end of the lake.

We slowly made our way back down to Les Linderes on a long cross-country track that cut through rolling hills of green pasture, soaking up more stunning scenery in the warm late afternoon sunshine.

Here’s a map of where we went, if you’re interested in our route:

View Pure Mountain biking in a larger map

We’ve been out taking photos of our beautiful surroundings, and thought that you’d like to see what Les Gets is like in the summer, if you haven’t already had the pleasure to see for yourself.

The view from the chalet, and the beautiful Lake Montriond - a great place for a BBQ.

Alpine meadow, and its inhabitants!

Mont Blanc, seen from one of Les Gets’ peaks (right).

A paradise for walkers – there are so many spectacular views along the walking trails.

Countless flowers of every colour hide in the lush meadows that blanket the slopes.

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It has been fantastic weather here in Les Gets for the last few weeks, and today was no different. With our super-duper bikes and protective gear from Evasion Sport, we got ourselves warmed up on the baby slope, where we went over see-saws, practiced a few tight corners and wobbled our way over raised north shore (wooden cladding, to those learning the lingo).

Feeling more confident, we peddled to the Chavannes lift where our trusty bikes were fitted on, and we sat beside them - a very odd feeling when you’re used to having skis attached to your feet. Once at the top we headed for the easiest downhill (DH) run on the mountain, a gentle (or so we thought) green run that takes you back down to the village. We negotiated tight bends (or ‘berms’), tree roots and loose stone on great single track, and some faster fire tracks that brought us through beautiful woodland scenery. We were amazed by how much you had to concentrate, and how important it was to anticipate the track in front of you.

Although the track was a level green, it was still pretty challenging (certainly to us!), but we learnt all the time, and felt brave (or stupid?) enough to branch off onto the black DH run towards the bottom of the mountain. Here, the berms are enormous, and keeping your momentum and bottom firmly behind your seat is even more important if you want to stay on!

At the end of the track we counted our blessings, crossed the town and headed up Mont Chery. We followed a great trail that took us through really challenging woodland single track over loads of tree roots and rocks, at quite a steep incline in places. After a while we came out of the woods and went through lovely meadows and grassy fields before joining an easy part of the black DH route that took us back to the Mont Chery lift.

Tired and hot, but definitely having caught the bug, we finished by going up the Chavannes lift again, taking a different route, this time via Morzine. Lots of great fire track, north shore and more beautiful scenery, and we were back in Les Gets with smiles on our faces and a new-found love for that great invention, the wheel.