- Top of the skiing347m below the median of 2,697m across the 55 resorts we cover.
- 2,350m
- The village237m below the median of 1,350m across the 55 resorts we cover.
- 1,113m
- SeasonThe standard Alpine season, shared by 42 of the 55 resorts we cover.
- December to April
Is Megève right for you?
Megève is one of the most elegant villages in the Alps, built around a medieval square where horse drawn sleighs still pass through. The village sits at 1,113m and the skiing tops out at 2,350m, and the season runs December to April. On the piste it is a real strength for first timers, improvers moving from blue into red and confident intermediates.
Megève at a glance
- Area
- Evasion Mont Blanc
- Best for
- Fine dining · Food lovers · Families with young children
- Fly to
- Geneva, Chambéry or Lyon
- Transfer
- About 1h10 by road from Geneva
- Doorstep skiing
- Limited, use lifts
Who Megève suits, and who it suits less
Best for
- Fine dining. Megève has destination restaurants of real ambition, including tables that have long carried Michelin recognition, with deep cellars and assured service.
- Food lovers. The mountain restaurants have proper kitchens and sunny terraces, and the village bakeries, cheesemongers and delis mean even a night in eats well.
- Families with young children. Gentle gradients, plenty of easy blues, good ski schools and a real village at the bottom make it one of the calmer places for children to learn.
- Non skiers. Non skiers can wander cobbled lanes of boutiques and galleries, take a horse drawn carriage, swim and skate at the sports centre or book a spa afternoon.
- Couples. Cobbled streets, a stone church tower, candlelit bars and unhurried lunches with Mont Blanc on the horizon make Megève a romantic, lived in village.
Less good for
- Snow sure. The village sits at 1,113 metres and we measure only 15 percent of the piste above 1,800 metres, so cover depends more on the weather than higher up.
- Après. Evenings are elegant and calm, built around good wine and conversation, so anyone wanting a foam party or a queue for shots should look elsewhere.
- Off piste. Strong skiers will cover the local highlights within a couple of days, and the steep off piste is a day trip away in Chamonix.
Skiing from 1,113m to 2,350m, village at 1,113m.
Where these heights are
- Lowest skiing
- 1,113mAbout the height of Megève village.
- Village
- 1,113m
- Top of the skiing
- 2,350mMont Joly, the published top of Megève's own lifts. Our own measurement (2,402m) takes in neighbouring sectors of the Évasion Mont-Blanc.
- 34 runs green17%
- 53 runs blue26%
- 78 runs red38%
- 41 runs black20%
Counted by the resort, covering Évasion Mont-Blanc, the whole linked area. No official kilometres by colour are published.
- Black piste
- 23km, 12% of the pisteMore than the median of 11% across the 55 resorts we cover.
- Off piste itinerary
- 5kmMarked routes, not pistes, and never added to the piste figures.
- Ski area
- Évasion Mont-Blanc, 400km
- Cross country
- 45km of trails
Sources
- Village height: en.wikipedia.org
- Lowest skiing: savoie-mont-blanc.com
- Lowest skiing: hautesavoiemontblanc-tourisme.com
- Top of the skiing: skisolutions.com
- Top of the skiing: onthesnow.co.uk
- Runs by colour: megeve-tourisme.fr
- Cross country: megeve-tourisme.fr
- Ski area: megeve-tourisme.fr
- The steep end: our measurement of the OpenStreetMap piste map
The published figures were read on 29 October 2026.
189km of graded piste, measured ourselves.
- 104km green and blue55%
- 62km red33%
- 23km black12%
Of the 104km green and blue, 35km is green.
Plus 5km of off-piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total. The longest is Piste Emile Allais, 2.3km with 601m of vertical. It is an itinerary, not a piste.
- First timersA real strength
- Improvers, blue into redA real strength, on an even spread
- Confident intermediatesA real strength
- Strong skiersFine
The spreadIt scores 0.86 for evenness, where 1 is a perfect three way split between green and blue, red and black. The largest share is green and blue, at 55%.
Longest pisteLa Croix, 2.6km of blue with 395m of vertical.
Measured from the run geometry, Megève has 189km of graded piste: 104km green and blue, 62km red and 23km black. We do not print the resort's published kilometres until we have checked what they count.
Megève among its French peers
Of these five, Megève has the third highest top of the skiing, 2,350m. The median across the 55 resorts we cover is 2,697m.
Know the mountain before you go.
The skiing
The terrain rarely gets fierce, so improvers can rack up the miles and grow in confidence across three linked sectors. Strong skiers will want a day trip to Chamonix nearby for something steeper.
The village and the evenings
The village keeps its character with independent shops, patisseries and some genuinely excellent restaurants. It feels grown up and unhurried rather than raucous.
Beyond the skiing.
Free, and worth knowing
Three audio guided heritage walks. The best free thing in any of the six resorts, and it costs the guest nothing but a phone. Three self guided routes with a free app that talks you round, in French and in English. The village centre route takes an hour, the church route half an hour, and the Calvary chapels route an hour, with a 1.8 km nature trail alongside it.
The Calvary museum. Free entry, up at the Ermitage on the Calvary hillside at the end of the chapels walk, which turns a walk into a morning.
Five marked snowshoe routes. Free to walk, with distances, times and ascent published for every one. The friendliest is L'Elise Allais at 2.5 km and forty minutes with a hundred and fifty five metres of climb. The Jaillet superieur to the Col du Jaillet is the longest at 6 km and two hours.
The Jaillet walk down to the village. Six kilometres and two and a half hours from the top of the Jaillet gondola down into the middle of Megeve, five hundred and thirty metres of descent and almost no climbing. It is the outing to give somebody who wants a proper day on the mountain without skiing.
Three free sledging areas. La Livraz, La Caboche and Pre Saint-Amour, free where you can get to them on foot, plus a free evening sledging event up at Mont d'Arbois. Suitable from two or three years old under supervision.
The Meg'bus. Free to everybody, with no guest card and nothing to buy. Three lines. Line 1 runs the village and Rochebrune, line 3 runs the Cassioz side in winter only, and line 2 is the useful one: it goes from the bus station out past the ice rink, the Mont d'Arbois gondola, Le Planellet and La Livraz to Cote 2000, every ten minutes.
The elf village at Christmas. The tourist office runs a Village des Lutins with free entertainment over the Christmas period, and the lift company lets you carry a sledge up the Caboche gondola specifically to get to it.
A few of the rest
Luge 4 Saisons. A rail bobsleigh run at the bottom of the Jaillet gondola, banked turns and tunnels, and it runs with lights and music after dark. No lift pass, no booking, walk up and ride. Under 20 euros.
Dog sledding at the trapper camp. From a camp on the Planellet road, which is a stop on the free line 2 bus. A twenty minute baptism run with ten minutes among the dogs beforehand, or a half day polar expedition of about three and a half hours, or a full day. Over 50 euros.
Paragliding from Rochebrune. Two state certified pilots taking off from Rochebrune at 1,755 m, flying all year round when the weather allows, and taking children from six. Fifteen to thirty five minutes in the air depending on the formula and the conditions. Over 50 euros.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
16 places we would send you to
The highest thing on our Megeve list and slightly off the main flow, over near the Rochefort and Lanchettes lifts, which is why people who find it keep going back.
Above the village in the trees, a short drive out, and the one people here name first.
Six or seven beers on draught, which in a village where most bars pour one is the reason to walk in.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Opening times and ownership change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
Getting there
Geneva is a little over an hour away by road, so you can be on the slopes within a morning of landing.
- Genevaabout 1h10 by road
- Chambéryabout 1h15 by road
- Lyonabout 2h by road