Anywhere better than Morzine for summer in the French Alps?

[JQ]

We're planning to do a summer family trip to the French Alps this summer (4 adults and 4 kids, 13 to 17). We know Morzine well having skied there for the last 10 years and having had a summer holiday in Les Gets a few years ago. The plan is to go back to Morzine in July, but just wondering if we're missing out by not exploring somewhere new. Things we like about Morzine:

MTB - my kids are massively into downhill MTB and will be doing huge gap jumps and generally tearing the place up with me. Rest of the family will likely engage in some slightly more sedate cycling.
Lac de Montriond - we'll take paddleboards and BBQ and happily spend the day there swimming, eating and messing about.
Huge outdoor swimming pool in Morzine where we can spend the day
Lovely walks in the mountains with mountain goats and cows
Lots of the lifts will be open due to the MTB'ers
Inflatable water park in Les Gets
Lots of restaurants and bars will be open due to MTB'ers
Kids know the town well and can be left to explore on their own
Lots of other activities available - zip line, skate park, padel, tennis, golf, mountain coaster, etc
Multi-pass system will give access to most of these activities for a few Euro per day

Are there any other resorts that offer a similar breadth of activities that we should be investigating? Would be great to explore somewhere new, but at the same time know that we'll have a guaranteed great time in Morzine so why risk it.

[blue_haddock]

You can do most of what you have listed over in Andorra too if you prefer trying the other side of france.

[Lotobear]

Some years ago I did Arc 2000 in Summer with the family after a skiing trip there in the winter - besides MTB there were zip lines for the kids and plenty of river stuff to do in the valley.

I did a lot of mountain biking, the run down to Bourg from 2000 was epic - sore palms at the bottom! Loads of great single track above 2000 and elsewhere.

The 'villages' themselves are a bit Disney/manufactured but the facilities were great.

[JQ]

Cheers for the recommendations, will investigate both.

Any suggestion which is the most suitable resort in Andorra?

[thisnameistaken]

We did Bourg and Peisey-Nancroix last year and rode Les Arcs. I'd highly recommend and the riding in Les Arcs is genuinely great
if you fancy a different place but as a mountinbiker you probably know there's nowhere better than Morzine.

Also agree on Andorra. Really lovely place and eating paella in the mountain restaurants is fun but again, IMO not a patch on Morzine.

[blue_haddock]

JQ said:

Cheers for the recommendations, will investigate both.

Any suggestion which is the most suitable resort in Andorra?

Its not a huge place but i would say staying away from Andorra La Vella.

Canilla, Grand Valira and Soldeu would be my first logical bases but we have previously stayed in La Massana and the hotel we used was literally attached to a ski lift up the mountain where red bull had a mountain bike downhill event a few weeks later.

[malks222]

I’ve been to bourg st maurice quite a few times in summer. Although it’s not ‘up the mountains’ with the views to go with it, it’s a proper ‘town’ and has lots going on.

the funicular from bourg takes you straight up to les arcs for mountain biking. there’s also things like- via- ferating, walks, white water rafting, swimming pools, swimming lake….. all the usual mountains summer fun.

I found because it was a proper year round town, it maybe had more going on and was cheaper than other options up the hill!

[SwissJonese]

We have done Switzerland & Austria, crazy difficult natural trail, hardly and waiting to get on lifts, but price is quite a lot more than France. However last 2 years we have been to Winterberg in Germany. Only 5hrs drive from the Hook of Holland overnight ferry which we enjoy. Winterberg trail centre is excellent, , lots of different levels to build up and serviced by chairlifts. However we also found Willingen even more fun (just around the corner) and far less busy. There is also Greenhill MTB centre too.
Centre Parcs near by for swimming, and one of the biggest outdoor play parks in Europe (Free). Winterberg city centre is lovely and plenty of really nice accommodation for not much money. We tend to go mid Aug when all the German kids are back in school so much quieter.

[NumBMW]

We went to Saalbach a few years ago, nice town with some good riding. Not half as many trails as Morzine but some great natural ridge-type stuff.
You can ride over to Leogang which opens up some bigger man made drops and senders though!
We only did a little walk but there is plenty.