Morzines best walks. A guide to some of our favourite short walks.

Our top 5 family-friendly Morzines best walks (less than 2hrs) in and around Morzine. Hopefully a phone-free activity!

1. Loop of Lac de Montriond + optional extra to the waterfall.

Everyone loves the loop of the lake! You can see the loop in one eyeshot, so you know exactly what you are signing up for.

From the end you arrive at first, coming from Morzine, the right is often the shaded side and has a parallel upper path in the trees, the left side is the sunny side.

Walking anti-clockwise for example (parking near the Lac Tuel restaurant) you will pass the pony rides, kids’ swimming lake, minigolf, round to the far end with the BBQ pits and the Auberge restaurant. If you wish, you can continue up to the Ardent waterfalls an extra 30 minutes) and either walk back down, take the bus back down or continue up to the Ardent cable car for further adventures (see Brochaux walk).

Continuing from the Auberge restaurant, walking down the other side, in season, there are wild strawberries on the banks on your right. If you pick them, please do wash them, as if a fox has peed on them, you can end up swiftly at the doctors! You will arrive at the kids’ playground, kayak hire and the fabulous Hotel Du Lac for a well-deserved drink!

2.Mont Caly + optional loop around the back

From the top of the Mont Cheri cable car, follow the farm track (on the map link above) all the way to Mont Caly. In season, there are wild blueberries/bilberries (myrtleberries) on the right-hand side*

The track goes from forest to farmland as you pass the cows that make the cheese from Mont Caly and ends up in the little Alpage village of Mont Caly, where the farmers would stay when grazing their cows in the summer. There is a great little restaurant at the end called the Les Chevrelles, and sporadically a Field to Fork food truck or just a great picnic spot.

In order of length. From here, you can (1) Come back the way you came. (2) Take the lower branch of the path that rejoins the path you came on at the end. (3) Go to the summit and take the chair lift back to the cable car, make sure you have the right ticket for this (4) Do the long loop that goes around the back to where you started via the fantastic Pottery Des Gets in Lazzare.

*If in doubt, the best foraging practice is not to! However, booking a guided walk with DaysAwayAdeventures is an annual summer highlight for us and will help you get the right path for all sorts of things, including berry identification!

3. Dérêches Park Loop (Morzine) + optional extensions

Option 1 follows the nature trail that we co-authored on this route, available with the Explorama app.

Option 2: Starting with you, back to the skate park, follow the right side down past the swimming pool, through the fitness trail, towards the playground and the tree top course. Here, should you wish, you can rent a go-kart to continue or even a Shetland-type pony! The path continues and has 3 bridges one can use to cross back over and creates a loop.

If you continue past the second bridge, the Ibex Micro Brewery is a great stop. If one goes all the way to the third bridge and crosses over here, the path continues, crosses the road, and you can go all the way to St Jean D’Aulps following the river if one wishes.

Back at the skate park, if one wants to extend in the other direction, following the right bank through the town after the library, the route becomes a quiet road, then eventually a path again. One can follow this all the way to the Nyon waterfalls and treetop course. Or even all the way up the Valley Du Manche!

4. Lac Du Min D’Or Loop + optional extension to Freterolle Farm

We LOVE the Valley Du Manche. In parts, it can feel like proper wilderness. Take the bus/drive all the way to the end of the valley. Past the Crappahutte restaurant (well worth a visit) to the Lac Du Min D’Or (Lake of the Gold Mine). Here you take a relaxed stroll around the lake. 7 generations of the same family have run the restaurant Lac Du Min D’Or and have information about the old gold mine and also serve trout from the lake.

Beyond the lake, following the farm track 20/30 mins in the mountains is the Freterolle farm (closed Mondays). This is one of our favourite spots, farm foods at great prices on a working farm. There is also a path that meanders up here through the woods on the far side of the lake from the restaurant.

From the farm is possibly one of the longest walks in the area; one can continue past the farm, past the big white cross to the Col Du Cou at the top. Then follow the smugglers’ path all the way down to Balme in Switzerland, where one can continue by bus or path to Champery. Up the Champerry Cable car. Across to the Mosettes chairlift, up and down the chairlift to the Brochaux waterfalls. Then, along the farm track to the Ardent cable car. Here you can descend and join up with the bus network or you can take the chairlift to Avoriaz, walk down through Avoriaz to the Prodain cable car, descend and rejoin the bus network.

5. Brochaux steam side walk to the Brochaux waterfalls!

One of our favourite walks! Starting on the left-hand side of the stream/river. Follow the farm track, then take the first path on your right after the Alpage restaurant; the signpost is below.

Cross the bridge and continue as the path gently ambles up on the right bank towards the waterfall. There are plenty of roots for kids to climb over and through, wild strawberries and blueberries if in season for foraging and paddling spots too.

The path ends at the legendary Brochaux waterfalls. The book ‘The possession of Morzine’ recounts how churchgoers would take their hysterical wives up here after church service to bathe them in the holy waters, curing them weekly of their possession until the following church service, when they would become possessed again! Back then, they would have had to walk all the way from Morzine and back!

The falls are a great picnic spot; there are a couple of restaurants up here, too. Or you can loop back around on the farm track, passing the rock with all the ancient dates carved in it and go a little beyond where you started to Petite Linadrets (aka the goat village) for lunch.

Bonus round: Honourable mentions

The walk along the ridge from the top of the Chaux Fleurie chair lift to the Haute Bise restaurant
The walk to the viewpoint at the top of Nyon
The lake Geneva walk from Margencel to Anthy, ‘beach front’ walk

For further adventures, feel free to…

Or for a true taste of Skiology, come stay with us!