Les Gets Ski Resort: An Honest Guide from Someone Who's Been There

A Les Gets ski holiday is worth considering if you want a French ski resort with proper mountain food, a manageable feel and the faint possibility of returning with stories you did not strictly ask for.

Photo by Reese Braam on Unsplash

That is probably not the official tourist board line. Still, it is an honest one.

Les Gets sits in France, close to the Swiss border, and my memories of it are not the glossy, frictionless kind that travel brochures tend to prefer. They involve a tiny hotel room, a knee that gave up early, and food good enough to rescue the whole thing from becoming a cold weather sulk in specialist trousers.

What was my room in Les Gets like?

I was staying in a hotel where I was given what I can only describe as a Harry Potter style cupboard under the stairs. There was a tiny cot bed on the floor, and not much else to recommend it as a triumph of hospitality design.

The odd thing is that it did not register as terrible at the time. It should have done. On paper, a cupboard, a cot and a skiing holiday are not exactly a royal flush.

But travel does this to you. Sometimes you are so pleased to be somewhere else that your normal standards take a brief holiday of their own. You look at a room that would alarm you at home and think, well, this is character.

How did skiing in Les Gets go?

The skiing itself did not last long. On the second day I damaged my knee pretty badly, which brought the skiing part of the Les Gets ski holiday to a swift and undignified end.

There is something particularly irritating about being in a ski resort when you can no longer ski. Everyone else keeps doing the thing you came for, while you become a sort of heavily clothed observer of your own poor timing.

I had expensive insurance, and for once it did exactly what expensive insurance is meant to do. I activated the policy and was repatriated to the UK within a couple of days.

You might reasonably call that a disaster. I probably should. But I have never quite been able to think of it that way, because it was still a trip, and I love to travel.

That sounds annoyingly cheerful, I realise. Nobody wants a motivational poster with a swollen knee on it. But there is a difference between a perfect trip and a trip that stays with you, and Les Gets has certainly managed the second one.

What rescued my Les Gets ski holiday?

The food helped. Quite a lot, actually.

At the bottom of the slopes there was a cafe selling a sort of hotdog, though that word does it no favours. This was not the usual mechanically recovered mystery tube that appears at sporting events and causes you to make private bargains with your digestive system.

This was proper pork, smoked and spiced beautifully. Warm, savoury, full of flavour, and exactly the kind of thing you want when the air is cold and your body is wondering why you have attached planks to your feet.

There were also hot drinks that sat somewhere in the mulled wine family. I am not going to overclaim a precise recipe, because I was more focused on drinking them than investigating them, which is often the correct balance.

Together, that food and drink gave the place a very particular memory for me. Snow, cold air, a damaged knee and something smoky and spiced in my hand. Not ideal, but not nothing.

Who does Les Gets suit?

If you love skiing, Les Gets is worth a look. It has that French mountain feel, and it worked for me as a place, even though my own skiing career there had the lifespan of a mayfly with poor judgement.

It is not a destination I would dress up as something it was not. My visit was too eventful for that. I cannot pretend I spent day after day floating beautifully down the slopes, because day two rather settled the matter.

But I can say it left a mark. The resort had enough charm, food and atmosphere for me to remember it warmly despite the practical inconvenience of my knee attempting early retirement.

That says something. Plenty of trips go more smoothly and vanish from memory almost immediately. Les Gets did not.

Would I go back to Les Gets?

Yes, but possibly not in the same way.

I would go back for the nostalgia, and I suspect I might choose summer rather than winter. That is not a judgement on Les Gets as a ski resort, more a quiet negotiation with my own joints, which have made their views known in the past.

There is something appealing about seeing a mountain resort outside the ski season. The same slopes, the same buildings, the same air, but without the daily business of boots, bindings and trying not to fall over in public.

I would not rule out skiing completely, but I would be lying if I said I would rush at it with youthful confidence. Youthful confidence is lovely. It is also responsible for a great many insurance claims.

How should you plan a Les Gets ski holiday?

If you are thinking about Les Gets, I would start with the kind of holiday you actually want, rather than what a ski holiday is supposed to look like.

Do you want to ski hard every day, or do you want a gentler trip with good food and plenty of time to enjoy being in the mountains? Are you travelling with keen skiers, cautious beginners, or people who mainly like the idea of snow when viewed from somewhere warm with a drink?

These things matter. A ski holiday can be brilliant, but it has moving parts, and not just the ones you hope to keep attached to your knee.

Insurance matters too. I do not say that because it is glamorous. It is not. It is the travel equivalent of reading the boiler manual, but when something goes wrong you suddenly become very fond of the boring bit.

The right trip is the one that fits your pace, your comfort level and the way you actually like to travel. That is usually more useful than chasing the version of a holiday that looks good in someone else's photographs.

A final thought on Les Gets

Les Gets, for me, is not a neat little success story. It is a reminder that travel does not always behave itself, even when you have planned it properly and packed the right socks.

But I would still rather have gone than not gone. I remember the place, the food, the strange little room and the way the trip turned into something other than what I expected.

If you are halfway through planning a Les Gets ski holiday and your browser has started to look like an air traffic control screen, I can help you narrow it down. Tell me what you want from the trip, and I will find options that fit the way you like to travel, so get in touch with me.

Frequently asked questions about a Les Gets ski holiday

Is a Les Gets ski holiday worth considering?

Yes, a Les Gets ski holiday is worth considering if you enjoy skiing and want a French resort close to the Swiss border. My own skiing was cut short by a knee injury, but I still remember Les Gets warmly, which is not a bad recommendation under the circumstances.

Where is Les Gets?

Les Gets is in France, close to the border with Switzerland. Les Gets has the Alpine setting you might be looking for in a mountain holiday.

What is the food like in Les Gets?

The food I remember from Les Gets was excellent. The standout was a proper pork hotdog at a cafe at the bottom of the slopes, smoked and spiced beautifully, with hot mulled-wine-like drinks alongside it.

How long did skiing in Les Gets last for me?

Skiing in Les Gets lasted until the second day of my trip. I damaged my knee pretty badly, activated my expensive insurance and was repatriated to the UK within a couple of days.

Would I go back to Les Gets?

I would go back to Les Gets, although probably for nostalgia and possibly in summer rather than for another full-on skiing trip. Les Gets stayed with me despite the way my visit ended.

Does Les Gets suit a gentler mountain holiday?

Les Gets could suit a gentler mountain holiday if you want good food and time to enjoy being in the mountains. My own experience was cut short, so I cannot pretend to offer a long account of skiing there.

Can Kite and Compass help plan a Les Gets ski holiday?

Yes, Kite and Compass can help plan a Les Gets ski holiday that matches your pace and the sort of trip you actually want. If you want help choosing, get in touch with me.