Samoëns in the Montagnes du Giffre is just a stone’s throw from Morzine but has an entirely different vibe. These are steep, natural trails with challenging riding from high mountain terrain, to tight tracks through dense forest. In Samoëns there’s trails for all types of rider including XC, Downhill, Enduro and E-MTB.
By Matt W. · Last updated June 2026
Steep, natural, forest and high Alpine trails. Quiet trails and no lift queues.
Off-camber roots and rocks can be challenging for novice riders. Slippery when wet.
Elevation
Summit
Vertical Drop
Base
Lift
Total
Cable-Cars
Chairlifts
MTB Trail Highlights
XC
Downhill
eMTB
Total Riding
Bike Park
Bike Wash
Beginner Trails
Intermediate Trails
Advanced Trails
Expert Trails
Plan Your Trip
Everything you need to book your Samoëns mountain biking trip — bike-friendly accommodation, the gear to pack, how to get there, and activities to book.
Practical Information
Opening times
Resort prices
Nearest airport
Tourist Office
Samoëns Accommodation
Samoëns splits cleanly into two bases, and which one suits you depends on what kind of trip this is. The old town — all lime-tree square, stone masons’ houses and narrow lanes — is where you want to be for atmosphere, restaurants and evenings that don’t revolve around the lift. It’s a 10–15 minute walk or a short pedal down to the Grand Massif Express, manageable with a bike but not the zero-effort option. Basing right at the lift base, around the gondola and the Giffre campsite, cuts that walk to almost nothing — you roll off the trail straight to your door, which matters more than it sounds after a long Dian-Dian lap when your arms are done and you just want the bike racked and a shower running.
Because this is a one-lift village, the trade-off is starker here than somewhere with two or three lift bases to choose between. Stay by the gondola and you sacrifice some of the old town’s charm and restaurant density for maximum riding efficiency. Stay in the old town and you get the better evenings but add ten minutes each way to a day that’s already long once you factor in the climb to the Plateau des Saix and back down again. Whichever you pick, prioritise secure bike storage and easy access to a wash point — Samoëns runs a free bike-wash station at the foot of the Grand Massif Express through the summer, open daily, but you still want somewhere lockable to leave a good bike overnight.
Use the live map below to compare prices and find places to stay in Samoëns, from hotels near the lifts to self-catered apartments and chalets.
Samoëns Guide
Samoëns sits at the western edge of the Grand Massif, a linked bike area covering Samoëns, Flaine, Morillon, Les Carroz and Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval on Haute-Savoie’s Giffre side of the Alps. Keep it straight in your head: this is a separate network from the Portes du Soleil around Morzine and Les Gets — the two areas sit within driving distance of each other but share no lift, no pass and no trail. The Grand Massif runs to roughly 27 marked downhill and enduro trails across the five villages on a single mountain-bike lift pass, with terrain running from valley-floor cruising at 700m up to the mineral high plateau of the Grandes Platières at nearly 2,500m.
Samoëns itself is a one-lift village, and that shapes the whole trip. Only two lifts run directly from the village: the Grand Massif Express gondola, which climbs straight out of town to the Plateau des Saix, and the Chariande Express chairlift, which continues higher again to the Tête des Saix once it opens in early July. From the Tête des Saix that same lift chain also puts you within pedalling distance of the Les Carroz bike park — genuinely useful if you want to sample its groomed trails without getting in a car. Morillon’s Sairon chairlift and Flaine’s Grandes Platières cable car are the exceptions: reaching either still means driving or shuttling to a different village. Budget for some of that driving if you want to sample the full spread of what the Grand Massif offers.
Don’t expect Alpine-scale lift queues or Portes du Soleil-scale trail counts here. The Grand Massif trades breadth for character: fewer lifts, fewer trails, but a noticeably higher proportion of natural, root-and-rock singletrack over machine-built flow. Whatever else you pack for Samoëns, make sure your travel insurance covers mountain biking — see our travel insurance guide for what to check before you go.
The Riding in Samoëns
From Samoëns you ride long, wild, natural descents that are the area’s calling card — this has never been about manicured berms, it’s about raw singletrack, roots and proper vertical, closer in character to an enduro race stage than a groomed bike park. For bike-park hits — seven graded pistes over 14km, blue right through to the double-black that hosts the French Championships — ride the Chariande Express and Tête des Saix lifts across to Les Carroz; no car needed. The trails there are shaped by hand rather than machine-built, so it’s a groomed step up from Samoëns’ natural lines rather than a manicured pump-track park. Morillon, one village over on the valley floor, has its own small chairlift-served network reached by road, and Flaine adds high alpine terrain reached by its own cable car.
Beginner
Samoëns’ own lifts don’t really cater to first-timers — both routes off the Grand Massif Express are long, remote, natural descents, not learner terrain. Base yourself in Morillon instead for your first days. The Sairon chairlift out of Morillon 1100 serves Marvel, a 4.5km blue billed locally as “the run for beginners”: a gentle alternation of forest track and 4×4 road with none of the technical surprises of Samoëns’ own trails. If Marvel still feels like a lot, Marveline peels off two-thirds of the way down as a green escape route back to the valley. For flat, lift-free pedalling with kids, the valley-bottom paths along the Giffre river out of Samoëns itself are traffic-light and shaded, good for an easy warm-up spin before you commit to a lift ticket.
Once Marvel feels automatic, Samoëns’ own blue — Dian-Dian — is the natural next step, but treat it as an intermediate trail rather than a true beginner one; see below. If you’re travelling with young kids who just want to be on two wheels without a lift ticket in sight, the flat cycle paths through Samoëns village and out toward Vercland make for an easy pre-dinner spin.
Intermediate
This is where Samoëns earns its reputation. Dian-Dian, the blue off the top of the Grand Massif Express at the Plateau des Saix, is the area’s signature trail: 8.9km and around 700m of descent back toward the village, opening with fast, flowing sections before easing into rooty singletrack lower down. It’s graded blue but it’s long and remote enough that you want your fitness and your line-reading sorted before you drop in — this isn’t a bike-park blue, it’s a proper mountain descent. Treat it as the warm-up lap that also doubles as the big day out.
Over in Morillon, Stevan is the red off the Sairon chairlift: natural, rooty and rhythmic, the honest step up from Marvel before you’re ready for black. If you want bike-park mileage with a clear grading ladder rather than one long descent per lift lap, that’s what Les Carroz is for — a 15-minute drive delivers green-to-black progression, jumps and flow trails you won’t find on Samoëns’ natural terrain. Use Samoëns for the long alpine descents that make the trip memorable, and Les Carroz for the repeatable laps that build the skills to ride them well.
Advanced
Dré dans l’Pentu is the trail advanced riders come for — a Rhône-Alpes Cup and France Masters DH Championship course that starts with a short 4×4-road link from the top of the Sairon chairlift, then drops 2.5km and 500m of black-graded natural trail into Morillon. Expect roots, rhythm sections, jumps and banked turns, and expect it to ride greasy and technical the moment it rains. In Morillon itself, L’Arrête adds a second black: a steep finish through undergrowth with gullies and switchbacks that rewards riders who can hold speed on loose ground. Note that Dré dans l’Pentu and L’Arrête are both reached via Morillon’s Sairon lift, not a Samoëns lift, despite Dré dans l’Pentu being commonly associated with Samoëns.
For the area’s biggest single descent, drive up to Flaine and ride the Grandes Platières black: 12.5km from the top of the cable car, mineral and exposed at the top with Mont Blanc filling the skyline, before dropping into faster, gripped-up singletrack lower down. It’s reserved for confirmed riders — the exposure near the summit is real, not marketing copy. A red alternative, Flaine to Morillon via le Lapiaz, crosses the lunar Désert de Platé on rocky, technical terrain for 10km if you want the scenery without committing to the black.
eMTB
An e-bike changes what a Grand Massif trip looks like, mostly because the area’s best trails start a long way above the valley floor and the villages themselves sit some distance apart. From Samoëns, the Grand Massif Express carries bikes as standard, so you’re not restricted to pedalling up — but on the days the lift queue is long or you want to lap a lower section of Dian-Dian without waiting for the gondola, an e-bike lets you climb back to the split point under your own power instead. The same logic applies harder in Morillon and Flaine, where extra motor-assisted vertical opens up combinations — Sairon plus a climb back to Dré dans l’Pentu’s start for a second lap, or a Grandes Platières run followed by a self-powered pedal back toward Les Carroz — that would otherwise burn a whole day on lift queues and shuttle logistics alone.
An e-bike also makes the road distance between villages far less of an obstacle. Samoëns, Morillon and Les Carroz sit close enough on the map that a fit e-biker can link two of the three home lifts in a single day under their own power, something that’s a big ask on a standard bike after you’ve already climbed and descended once. Xtrême Glisses and the other village hire shops stock current e-MTBs alongside standard rentals, so there’s no need to bring your own.
The Trails & Facilities for Mountain Bikers
Beyond Samoëns’ own two home descents, the wider Grand Massif packs in a solid spread of marked trails and rider facilities across its five villages. Here’s what you’ll find across the area:
Les Carroz is the area’s classic bike park, and it’s genuinely reachable from Samoëns without a car — pedal up via the Grand Massif Express and Chariande Express to the Tête des Saix, then drop into Les Carroz’s own lift-served zone (the Kédeuze cable car serves the park itself). Where Samoëns is about one long natural descent, Les Carroz is the opposite: seven graded pistes covering more than 14km, running blue right up to a double-black that hosts the French Championships, all shaped by hand rather than bulldozed — fun, well-maintained trails built for repeatable laps rather than a single epic run. It typically opens a little earlier than Samoëns’ own lifts, from late June through early September — worth building into your trip if you want bike-park mileage to go with Samoëns’ longer, wilder lines.
- Ride the signature blue Dian-Dian and reach it via the Grand Massif Express, the only lift running straight out of Samoëns village.
- Plug into around 27 marked downhill and enduro trails across the whole Grand Massif — Samoëns, Flaine, Morillon, Les Carroz and Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval — on a single lift pass.
- Ride the Chariande Express and Tête des Saix lifts across to Les Carroz for the area’s FFC-approved bike park — seven pistes, 14km+, hand-shaped and 100% natural, blue right through to the double-black that hosts the French Championships.
- Reach Morillon’s Sairon-served trails — Marvel, Stevan, Dré dans l’Pentu and L’Arrête — by car or shuttle, not directly from Samoëns.
- Ride Flaine’s high-altitude Grandes Platières and its Désert de Platé Lapiaz red, both reached by Flaine’s own cable car.
The facilities are more modest than a bigger resort, but cover the essentials:
- A free bike-wash station at the foot of the Grand Massif Express, open daily through the summer.
- Two lifts running directly from Samoëns itself — the Grand Massif Express and, from early July, the Chariande Express.
- Village hire and repair shops stocking DH, enduro, hardtail and e-MTB rentals a short walk from the lift.
- Additional demo and hire shops in Les Carroz and Morillon for a wider range if Samoëns’ own shops don’t have your size in stock.
Bike Hire & Repairs
Samoëns doesn’t have Morzine’s density of shops, but what’s here covers hire, repair and e-bikes without needing to leave the village.
- Xtrême Glisses — the shop at the lift, opposite the Giffre campsite and around 100m from the Grand Massif Express gondola. Rents DH, enduro, hardtail and e-MTBs, runs an MCF-certified riding school, and handles repairs and servicing in-house. Best for grabbing a rental and rolling straight onto the lift. (730 Route du Grand Massif, 74340 Samoëns.)
- Mountain Bike Shop Samoëns — a village rental specialist open seven days a week, stocking e-bikes, standard VTT and electric “Rosalie” quad-cycles for families. Best for flexible daily hire away from the lift-base crowd. (175 Rue des Billets, 74340 Samoëns.)
- JaimeSport — general sports shop in Samoëns village with a bike-hire counter covering VTT and road bikes alongside its ski business. Best for combining bike hire with other gear in one stop.
- Anthonioz Ski — long-standing Samoëns village sports shop with a summer VTT rental arm. Best for a familiar local outfit if the lift-base shops are booked out.
For serious demo bikes or a wider DH/enduro range, Les Carroz and Morillon both carry additional hire shops geared to their bike parks — worth the trip (pedal across to Les Carroz via the Tête des Saix lifts, or drive to Morillon) if Samoëns’ own shops don’t have your size or spec in stock.
Food, Après & Events
Samoëns is the reason people extend a Grand Massif bike trip by a night. It’s the only French ski resort classified a historic monument, and the old town — stone houses, the covered market, the seven-century-old lime tree in the main square — gives you somewhere genuinely worth sitting still in after a long day on Dian-Dian or Dré dans l’Pentu. The food leans hard into Savoyard tradition: fondue, tartiflette, and farm-table cooking that doesn’t apologise for the cheese.
For the classic mountain refuel, L’Accueil Savoyard is a working farm-restaurant a short drive from the centre, serving fondue, tartiflette, croziflette and a proper Savoyard omelette using its own produce. In the old town itself, Au Relais Septimontain does the same regional playbook — fondue, tartiflette, Haute-Savoie specialities — and L’Étable matches it with a warm, family-run room built around seasonal terroir cooking; worth checking both are open through the summer season before you plan around them, as Savoyard farm-restaurants sometimes close for a summer lull. When you want a break from melted cheese, Alti Pizz serves wood-fired pizza and burgers from a terrace behind the old town hall, and Le Sérac pairs its own wood-fired pizzas with the same fondue-and-steak Savoyard staples. For cheese and charcuterie to take back to the chalet, Le Refuge des Saveurs stocks local produce and lends fondue and raclette sets free with a purchase.
For après straight off the last lift, Le Kern sits at the foot of the Grand Massif Express and is the obvious spot to land in kit — a proper trailside bar rather than a walk-into-town job. Evil Monkey Pub runs a big air-conditioned terrace and a solid drinks list into the small hours, and Big Bear is the newer boutique lounge-bar option with live music for a change of pace. None of it matches Morzine’s après scale, and that’s rather the point — Samoëns evenings run quieter and end earlier, which suits a valley built around long days in the saddle rather than long nights out.
Vélo Vert Festival — check before planning around it
Samoëns and the wider Haut-Giffre valley have hosted the Vélo Vert Festival, one of France’s biggest season-opening MTB expos, in past years — but for 2026 the festival has relocated to Bourg-Saint-Maurice/Les Arcs, running 12–14 June 2026. Don’t build a Samoëns trip around it: if you want the expo experience, that’s now a Tarentaise trip, not a Grand Massif one. Samoëns’ own summer events calendar runs smaller, village-level animations — check the current Grand Massif events listing closer to your dates rather than relying on this being a fixed annual fixture in the valley.
Samoëns MTB Gallery
Samoëns MTB Videos
Samoëns Mountain Biking FAQs
The Samoëns bike park is open from 02 June to 27 August. Lifts generally run 9:00am – 5:30pm. Dates shift each year, so check the resort’s official site before you book.
Lift pass prices at Samoëns are around 1 Day: 29 € | 6 Days: 125 €. They change each season, so confirm on the official resort site before you travel.
The nearest airport to Samoëns is Geneva (85 km, 1 hr 15 min). Shared and private transfers run from the airport, and most will carry your bike for a small fee.
Samoëns rides from a base around 700m up to 2480m, giving roughly 1780m of vertical drop.
Samoëns has 7 bike-carrying lifts, so you can lap the descents without the climb back up.
Yes — Samoëns has a lift-served bike park, so you can session the jumps and berms and lap the descents all day.
Samoëns has 1 dedicated beginner trail plus easier blue runs, so newcomers can find their feet — but a lot of the riding suits confident intermediates and above, so build up gradually.
Bring a capable bike: a 150mm-travel enduro bike is a sensible minimum for Samoëns’s descents, ideally on tough dual-ply tyres, with full downhill bikes at home in the bike park. The long, rough descents are hard on brakes and tyres, so arrive with everything in good order.
Samoëns is a summer-only bike destination, open across roughly 02 June to 27 August. Late June and late August into early September are usually quieter and better value than the mid-July to mid-August peak.
Yes — check your policy explicitly covers mountain biking and downhill riding, as many standard travel policies exclude them. It is cheap protection against an expensive mountain rescue.
Please leave a comment below if you need specific advice for your mountain biking holiday to Samoëns, or if you have any recommendations to help us improve this guide. Happy holidays!
