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La Clusaz

La Clusaz is a small ski resort forty minutes from Annecy and an hour from Geneva airport, located in the Aravis valley. Despite its accessibility for international tourists, La Clusaz is predominantly a resort favoured by French families, who appreciate its charm. The resort has been a farming village much longer than a ski resort, so the chocolate-box houses outnumber the few purpose-built winter lodgings, and its possible to buy cheese, eggs and other local produce from the farmers directly.

The pistes are varied in length, width and difficulty, providing something suitable for all ages and abilities. The resort contains five peaks: Beauregard (the lowest, warmest and easiest); Manigod (quiet, tree-lined runs); l’Etale (steep); l’Aguille (something for everyone); and La Balme (great off-piste area). World freestyle champion Candide Thovex grew up in La Clusaz, and it’s on the La Balme peak that he holds his Candide Invitational event each March, attracting world-class skiers and snowboarders from all corners of the world. A ski pass can also be purchased to cover the neighbouring ski resort, Le Grand Bornand, accessible by car or by the free regular shuttle bus.

With Annecy so close by, the busiest mountain days are weekends, when all the locals spend their days off in the resort. Even so, the busiest times in La Clusaz are still quieter than other, larger resorts, such as Meribel or Chamonix. Unlike those larger resorts, don’t expect to walk into a shop in La Clusaz and speak English: you may be served by someone who can speak English, but the predominant language spoken in the resort is still French, and not all shop and restaurant staff can speak English. Apart from downhill skiing and snowboarding, the resort offers lessons in telemarking and cross-country skiing (ski du fond). It also offers dog sledging, night skiing on Thursday nights, full-moon skiing (literally skiing with just the moonlight) two or three times each winter, outdoor ice skating, outdoor swimming in the heated swimming pool, and snow-shoeing.

Another local winter activity is sledging with the ‘parait’ – a sledge that’s more like a giant ice skate because it has one horizontal piece of wood that touches the ground and a seat on top of it to balance on. You use your legs to brake and a vertical piece of wood in front of the seat to steer. Falling is easy, but lots of fun, and parait hire is free during night skiing on Thursday nights if you can provide some identification.

A variety of ski schools exist in La Clusaz, including some English-speaking ones such as Skieo and the usual French Ecole du Ski. Lessons are often booked well in advance by in-the-know French families, so book early to ensure a place.

La Clusaz is almost as popular in summer as it is in winter, with two downhill toboggan tracks, water slides, mountain walks, overnight refuges nearby, paragliding, a via ferrata, mountain biking, ice skating and lots of family activities and events. The in-between season months of May, June, September and October are much quieter, and most of the shops are closed. If you’re visiting, make sure you visit in summer or winter.

Local specialities

La Clusaz and the Aravis area are famous for Reblechon and Tomme de Savoie cheese. Reblechon is used to make the local dish, tartiflette – potatoes, garlic, onion, lardons and Reblechon cheese – to provide the perfect stodge at the end of a long day on the pistes. Other regional dishes such as fondue, raclette and beignet du pommes de terre (like a hash brown, served with unaged Reblochon cheese known as Tomme Blanche’, but no relation to Tomme de Savoie) are readily available in the many traditional restaruants in town and on the pistes. La Ferme is fantastic for some lesser-known traditional dishes and great desserts, while l’Outa provides consistently great food with a broad range of menu items for kids, vegetarians and fussy adults.

La Clusaz: tourist information, map, travel plans and gites

Tourist Classifications for La Clusaz

- approved Station Classée (resort paying particular attention to facilities for tourism)

Places to visit near La Clusaz

Explore places within about 70 kilometres on a map at La Clusaz. Some of the closer places are listed below (distances from La Clusaz are approximate).

Albertville Conflans, Albertville at 26 km Megeve ski resort near Chamonix-Mont-Blanc at 22 km Sallanches Recommended stopover town at 23 km

See also La Clusaz (version Francais)