Flaine occupies a high bowl between 1,600 m and 2,500 m, built in one piece in the 1960s to a single architectural idea rather than grown village by village. The resort is known for that architecture as much as for the skiing.
How to get there: Geneva is the nearest airport, with the approach through the Arve valley and Cluses.
Slopes and lifts: Flaine itself has 64 pistes and 24 lifts. It is the top end of the Grand Massif, which links five resorts — Flaine, Les Carroz, Morillon, Samoëns and Sixt — over 265 km with 139 runs and 60 lifts.
The Cascades: from the Grandes Platières cable car at 2,500 m, the Cascades red run drops 14 km and 1,700 m of vertical, finishing at Sixt. It was opened in 1994 and is the longest run in the Grand Massif. The top station also gives a view round to Mont Blanc, the Aravis, Belledonne and the Jura.
Where you stay: the resort is compact and built on the slope in tiers, so nothing is far from a lift; accommodation is residences and apartments, with hotels among them.
