Megève or Serre Chevalier: the elegant village or the higher skiing
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
Megève and Serre Chevalier are both quiet French resorts with a lot of easy skiing, and our matching engine puts Serre Chevalier closer to Megève than any other resort we cover. Both open from December to April, both are known for skiing in the trees, and neither is a party town.
But the engine also says what they share is short, and the gap is height. Megève is a low, elegant village under Mont Blanc, with Geneva as its airport and food at the centre of the week. Serre Chevalier is sunny, higher and in the Southern Alps, a string of old villages that keeps most of its skiing above 1,800 metres. So the question is how much the village matters to you against how much the snow does.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Megève | Serre Chevalier |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,113 m | 1,350 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 2,402 m | 2,751 m |
| Ski area | Evasion Mont Blanc pass, quoted at 400 km across several villages | Quoted at 250 km, not checked by us |
| Piste we measure around the village | 189 km | 153 km |
| Green and blue | 104 km, 55% of the piste | 91 km, 60% of the piste |
| Black | 23 km | 17 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | 5.2 km | 1.7 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 20% | 27% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 32% | 38% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 15% | 72% |
| Season | December to April | December to April |
| Nearest airport | Geneva | Turin or Grenoble |
Megève wins most of the size rows and Serre Chevalier wins the altitude rows by a wide margin. Both grade the French way, so the colour shares compare fairly here, which is not always true across a border.
Altitude: Serre Chevalier is higher at every level
Serre Chevalier's village sits at 1,350 metres, 237 above Megève's 1,113. Its skiing reaches 2,751 metres by our measure, 349 above Megève's 2,402. That would be a clear gap on its own, but the shares make it a wide one. At Serre Chevalier, 72 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, and 52 percent is above 2,000. At Megève it is 15 percent above 1,800 and 2 percent above 2,000.
Put another way, half of Serre Chevalier's piste sits above 2,020 metres, and half of Megève's sits below 1,607: a gap of 413 metres in the height of a typical run.
Serre Chevalier is snow sure on our measure, with 72 percent of the piste we measure at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,751. Megève is not, and we would rather say so plainly. Nobody can promise snow, but in a thin winter the lower resort feels it first. Megève's answer is its trees: Le Jaillet and much of Mont d'Arbois are tree lined, and those runs hold up in flat light. Serre Chevalier lists tree skiing among its strengths too, so on bad weather days the two are level. On the snow itself, they are not.
Size: Megève has more, and more black on paper
We measure 189 kilometres of piste around Megève against 153 around Serre Chevalier. Megève's own three sectors, Rochebrune, Mont d'Arbois and Le Jaillet, give a group plenty to cover, and its lift pass, Evasion Mont Blanc, is quoted at 400 kilometres. That figure is a pass across several villages, Saint-Gervais, Combloux and La Giettaz among them, not Megève's own skiing. Serre Chevalier's area is quoted at 250 kilometres, a figure we have not checked, so compare the two on what we measure.
Megève also has more at the strong end on paper: 23 kilometres of black against 17, and 5.2 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary against 1.7. Its longest itinerary, the Piste Emile Allais, runs 2.3 kilometres with 601 metres of drop. Hold on to the words "on paper", though, because the gradients tell a different story.
The skiing: both easy at heart, Serre Chevalier steeper at the edges
Both resorts are built around easy skiing, and both have a lot of it. Megève has 104 kilometres of green and blue, 55 percent of what we measure; Serre Chevalier has 91, 60 percent. Serre Chevalier has more green, 41 kilometres against 35, and 38 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 17 French resorts we cover. Megève's is 32.
104 km green and blue 55%62 km red 33%23 km black 12%
91 km green and blue 60%45 km red 29%17 km black 11%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Megève 5 km, Serre Chevalier 1.7 km.
Serre Chevalier is also the steeper of the two. Twenty seven percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 20 at Megève and 26 at a typical resort we cover. It is the more spread out mountain: more gentle ground and more steep ground, so less in between. Megève sits in the cruising middle, which is exactly its reputation.
The measured gradients show where. They are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as how the week feels rather than a verdict on any one run. The blues are close, 16.3 percent at Megève and 16.8 at Serre Chevalier, both near the French average of 16.2. The reds part: 23.1 at Megève, below the French average of 24.3, and 24.9 at Serre Chevalier, above it. Serre Chevalier's longest run is a black, the Tabuc, 3.3 kilometres with 632 metres of drop. Megève's is a blue, La Croix, 2.6 kilometres with 395.
Who each one actually suits
Megève suits families who want children to learn on gentle snow, couples who want good dinners and a romantic village, and three generations sharing a week. The village grew from a medieval one, with cobbled lanes, a church tower and sleighs in the street, and it was developed by the Rothschild family as a French answer to St. Moritz. Lunch is the main event: the mountain restaurants are proper kitchens with sunny terraces, and the village has tables with Michelin recognition. Evenings are calm and grown up, a drink as the lifts close and a long dinner.
Serre Chevalier suits people who want a relaxed, sunny week somewhere quiet, with trees to ski when the weather closes in and the confidence of height under it. It is a string of old villages, and value is part of its appeal. It suits a family with first timers in it, thanks to the green and the gentle share, and it suits a confident red skier too, because its reds have some bite.
The bit nobody tells you
Megève's 23 kilometres of black reads like a mountain with plenty for a strong skier. It is not quite that. Its blacks average 23.3 percent, the gentlest of the 17 French resorts we cover and the second gentlest of the 55 we cover, and about the same as its own reds at 23.1.
So on average a Megève black skis much like a Megève red, and Serre Chevalier's reds, at 24.9 percent, average steeper than Megève's blacks. An average hides the steepest pitch, which is what sets the grade, so expect the odd steeper section. But the overall point holds: good news for an ambitious intermediate, less good for an expert, and the reason our guide sends the strong skiers in a Megève group to Chamonix for a day.
So, which one
the village is why you are going: the cobbles, the food, the calm evenings and the elegance. Also if you want the bigger of the two, gentle cruising, blacks that are on average no steeper than the reds, and Geneva for the flight.
you want the snow on your side, with nearly three quarters of the piste at or above 1,800 metres, more green and gentle ground for beginners, reds with some bite for the confident, sun, trees and a quiet, relaxed week.
It gives you nearly as much easy skiing, more of the gentlest kind, and a snow line Megève cannot offer, and height is the one thing you cannot change once you arrive. Megève is the right answer when the village and the lunch matter more than the snow, and for plenty of people they do.