St. Gervais-les-Baines claims to be the only French ski resort to combine winter sports with health and beauty spa treatments so while you are skiing, your wife or partner could be relaxing and undergoing (probably not needed!) beauty therapy.
St. Gervais is located in the Mont Blanc region and linked by an extensive system of lifts to neighbouring Megeve, and is an excellent resort as it is based on a traditional French village, originally founded as a spa resort and not for skiing.
The resort has a mid station located at La Bettex which is served either by a mountain road (not too difficult by car) or by a modern and efficient gondola. Some skiers prefer to stay at La Bettex (1400m) as you are then ideally poised for the second stage of the lift to the higher slopes at Bellevue (1820m) or the final pistes to Mont Joly. However, by staying within easy reach of the village, it opens up the possibility of a choice of good restaurants, bars and a cinema for the evenings.
There is the Mont Blanc tramway which is France's highest railway with good skiing on the top slopes. There is also the Mont Joux snowpark which is a great facility for boarders and non-skiers who can enjoy walks along well cleared mountain paths. There is the opportunity to try a snow shoe trek.
Ski slopes are linked across to the slightly more "up-market" resort of Megeve and as the ski pass covers the entire region, skiers usually take advantage of skiing the vast circuit and coming down for that end of afternoon "Schuss" back to La Bettex and the final gondola ride back to the village.
There are three ski areas and 121 ski lifts covering 450km of slopes on the Mont Blanc ski pass so you are spoilt for choice. You can visit neighbouring Les Contamines and Les Houches (accessible by the famous Tramway du Mont-Blanc) or ski across to Megeve.
You can reach this area by car in around 9 hours from Calais (558 miles) or fly into Geneva with a one-hour transfer. The local station is served by the TGV from Paris
Special Offer: We have teamed up with PV Holidays, leading supplier of French Skiing accommodation to offer a Christmas offer of
one night free with every booking.