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New year ski holidays – how to celebrate in Morzine and Les Gets
Let’s face it: New Year’s Eves can often underwhelm. That’s not true of New Year ski holidays, though, and decidedly not when you let us take care of everything within France’s snowy Alps. Do that, and a truly memorable NYE is guaranteed.
Prettily illuminated by fairy lights, Morzine and Les Gets promise special après-ski parties, fireworks, ice rinks and torchlit descents as the year ends. Some revellers party into the early hours; others cosy up in their catered chalet, clinking bubbly or marshmallow-laden hot chocolates. Then, one sleep later, there’s also something impossibly perfect about beginning a new year by skiing down pristine slopes.
New Year ski holidays in Morzine
On afternoons and evenings over Christmas and into January, Morzine’s cute square hosts the Enchanted Village: a twinkling place of light shows, face-painting stalls, performers and an ice-skating rink. During early evening on New Year’s Eve itself, ski-school instructors usually zig-zag down the nearby Pleney slope, dramatically carrying red torches as loud music sounds.
The plaza morphs into one large, jolly dancefloor, with locals and visitors gathering at midnight as fireworks explode, their dazzling colours lighting up the surrounding mountains. Most then amble back to their snug chalets, perhaps plotting to enjoy the next morning’s unusually-empty pistes. The most devoted merrymakers party on amid Morzine’s famous nightspots: twirling ski boots to DJs at Bar Robinson, say, or singing along to cover bands in Beanies. Reservations are typically required on New Year’s Eve, so do ask our concierge to make those.
New Year ski holidays in Les Gets
Les Gets’ village square is always charming, but over the festive period – with colourful Christmas lights strung in trees, an outdoor ice-skating rink and traditional carousel set up, and warming hot chocolate or mulled wine on tap – it’s especially bewitching. Once Father Christmas and his elves have retreated to their home in the illuminated forest on 28 December, New Year’s Eve brings a speech from the mayor and then a fabulous fireworks display.
In catered chalets, our talented chefs will provide a special dinner for at-home celebrations; alternatively, Les Gets restaurants such as the elevated La Grande Ourse offer one-off New Year’s Eve menus while Bar Bush dependably plays cheesy music. The quaint, family-friendly village remains abuzz with special activities on New Year’s Day, and during the following days; Monday evenings also see the ski school memorably stage synchronised, torchlit runs down a nearby slope.
New Year ski deals
Whether you want to go catered or self-catered over New Year, our luxurious chalets and apartments promise a stay to remember. Not only do these hand-picked homes in Morzine and Les Gets rank among France’s finest, but we enhance them with an ‘anything is possible’ service style. Our owners Finlay and Wendy, who live year-round in Morzine to ensure unrivalled expertise, have managed some of the world’s leading lodges.
In other words, you’ll be tremendously well looked after. Each catered chalet comes with a host, a talented chef who’ll cook four-course dinners, a snow-specialist driver, and – especially handy on New Year’s Eve – complimentary bubbly, fine wines, spirits, beers and soft drinks. As for self-catering guests, a concierge service is included, too: enabling you to reserve restaurants, have ski equipment fitted in your chalet, arrange a massage or determine when the fireworks start.
Visit our Prices & Availability page to discover fantastic New Year ski-holiday deals, and read on for suggestions of France’s best New Year’s chalets.
Top luxury ski chalets for New Year
The Old Macaroni
One of Morzine’s finest views is offered by this hillside chalet’s lounge and massive deck: over the village church, over snowy slopes and down the entire valley. Better still, on New Year’s Eve you’ve also a front-row seat for those zig-zagging torch-carriers and fireworks. Catered during winter, this 18-person, custom-made old farmhouse throws in an art-deco cinema, hot tub and glass-fronted barrel sauna for good measure, while each spacious bedroom is inspired by a classic novel. No prizes for guessing the kids’ fave: not the Dr Zhivago or Little Prince ones, but a Harry Potter-themed chamber with built-in cabin beds.
Lodge Des Nants
On the large deck crowning Morzine’s five-level Lodge Des Nants, a lantern-lit hot tub looks up-valley to Avoriaz – heaven for firework-lovers. Just inside, the timber-accented party space features a bar, pool table and Christmas tree, while there’s an open-plan dining area below ready for the chef’s fabulous creations, and a cinema too. Between beautiful bedrooms sleeping 16, the wellness floor incorporates an indoor pool whose current one can swim against, a hammam, a sauna and a treatment salon to host visiting massage therapists. Again, this sumptuous chalet is fully catered in winter.
Chalet 46˚
Pour pints from the beer tap in Chalet 46˚’s sprawling, top-floor kitchen come lounge, and head out onto the balcony for uninterrupted views of the Pleney slopes – down which torch-carrying skiers scenically slalom on New Year’s Eve. Equally party-worthy is the home’s huge deck, whose pizza oven and fire pit enables al-fresco dinners – courtesy of your chef, as this chalet is catered in winter – or midnight marshmallow-toasting. Mere metres from Pleney’s slopes, Chalet 46˚ can sleep 20 in cahoots with adjoining Apartment 6˚. We also love the chalet’s cinema room, sauna and a massage or beauty-treatment room for après-ski pampering.
Le Coin Perdu
Families can watch Les Gets’ magical NYE firework show before the short stroll home to this lavish, self-catering duplex penthouse. It’s set above an exclusive new spa, and you get discounted access via a private door to the pool, treatment rooms, sensory showers. Back upstairs, 11-person Le Coin Perdu – whose large size is more chalet-like than apartment – further seduces with two entertainment areas. Its bar has a pool table and adjacent hot tub is the perfect party space; and the open-plan top floor’s fine-wine cellar, sofas and a drop-down film projector enable cosy group movie nights.